[Speakers, start time, schedule and more: Here’s how to watch the Democratic National Convention.]
Democrats will try to straddle issues of national security, American unity and generational change on Tuesday night, with an array of Democrats’ past speakers – such as Bill Clinton and John F. Kerry – and a few who seem to represent of their future, as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Much like they did on Monday night, Democrats are set to throw the 2020 election as an existential test for the country, with a key early speech coming from Sally Q. Yates, the former acting attorney general who resigned was ousted by President Trump for refusing to impose a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries.
The central event of the evening figure is to close remarks by Jill Biden, the former second lady and wife of Joseph R. Biden Jr., who occupies the same slot in the program that Michelle Obama took on the first night of the convention, and a virtual roll call vote of delegates from all U.S. states and territories that will result in Mr. Biden’s formal appointment as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.
In a typical convention, the mood of the roll call is perhaps one of the most entertaining parts of the week, with colorful speeches often filled with parochial pride in the delegation of each state. This one promises to take a distinctive and perhaps more sober takeover of that tradition, with a combination of pre-arranged testimonies about Mr. Biden, descriptions of his promises for campaign and personal accounts of conflict in the coronavirus pandemic and other crisis of the Trump administration.
The lineup of Tuesday
Tracee Ellis Ross, the Emmy-nominated actress, will be the MC on the second night of the convention.
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Jill Biden. An English professor at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Dr. Biden broke ground by continuing to work during her tenure as second lady.
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Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware. She is a co-chair of Mr Biden’s campaign and was also a member of its Vice-President for Vice-President.
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Former President Bill Clinton. A perennial star of Democratic conventions, this time he has only a brief speaking conclusion. It is a sign both of how much the party has ideologically shifted and of the re-evaluation of allegations of sexual abuse against him.
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John Kerry, the former Secretary of State and nominated Democratic president of 2004. He was one of the highest profiles of Mr. Pray during the primary.
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Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. She is one of the most prominent members of the party’s progressive wing, and her small role in the convention – she will have just 60 seconds to speak – frustrated some on the left.
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Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader. Together with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he is currently wrestling with the Trump administration over coronavirus relief and funding for the Postal Service.
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Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general. A holdover of the Obama administration, she was fired by President Trump in 2017 after she refused to defend his executive order banning travel from predominantly Muslim countries.
