On the third day of the DNC, vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz delivered a speech after high-profile figures, including former President Bill Clinton and Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi, took the stage at the United Center. Here’s what UChicago students and the Institute of Politics (IOP) were up to.
US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson were among the many high-profile speakers at the Youth Votefestan event organized by the IOP consisting of a series of talks and workshops designed to help participants increase political engagement among young people. The IOP hosted another Votefest this July during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Before taking the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, Buttigieg held a question-and-answer session with the audience at Votefest. According to an email from the IOP about the event, 300 students from 120 schools across the U.S. gathered. In a speech before the question-and-answer session, Buttigieg talked about how Democrats have begun to reclaim the term “freedom” from Republicans in their messaging.
“(Republicans) sometimes overlook the fact that government is not the only thing that can make you unfree. Your cable provider can make you unfree. Your neighbor can make you unfree,” Buttigieg said. “And often good government is about making sure that our freedom is strengthened by good policy interventions.”
Buttigieg responded to the audience’s question about why he decided to appear on conservative television networks such as Fox News, said he wanted the Democrats’ message to reach voters it otherwise wouldn’t reach and he encouraged healthier conversations.
“I never thought I would be a Fox News frequent flyer … but the reason I do is because, as your question suggests, I think it’s important to meet people where they are and to realize that I can’t be mad at somebody who doesn’t embrace our message when they’ve literally never heard it,” Buttigieg said.
During a live episode of Votefest, Astead Herndon, host of The New York Times’ The Run-Up, spoke with Brandon Johnson about progressivism, youth political engagement and the passing of the torch of the Democratic nomination from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“In order for the torch to be passed to someone, it has to be lit already,” Johnson said. “The torch is already burning. We just needed someone who can run – I love you, Joe – but someone who can run just a little bit faster.”
Johnson also said he felt the progressive movement was making progress. As a former organizer of the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson ran on progressive promises, but has confronted Challenges in the past year related to crime, transit and a Influx of migrants.
“It’s an exciting time in America and it’s really a testament to where we are as a progressive movement overall. We’re changing and transforming people’s mindsets to make sure that the progress of working people is at the center,” Johnson said.
Johnson added that he believes Democrats can win over young voters, despite their current and historical lower levels of commitment.
“I am mayor of Chicago because young people understand that I am talking about the issues they care about – public facilities, good schools, good-paying jobs, access to education that doesn’t put you in debt,” he said. “As long as we tell the truth, young people will move toward truth and justice.”
Other speakers at the event included Cathy Cohen, a political science professor at the university. Cohen spoke about the GenForward survey, a project she founded and is principal investigator of to study the political attitudes of young Americans.
Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, former Republican U.S. Representative from Illinois Adam Kinzinger and U.S. Representative Delia Ramirez (D-Il.) also addressed the audience, urging them to remain committed to American democracy and to urge others to do the same.
IOP Director and former US Senator from North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp spoke to the Chestnut brown during the votefest.
“The Institute of Politics takes its mission of encouraging young people’s engagement in our democracy incredibly seriously,” Heitkamp said. “So when we realized that the Republican National Convention was going to be in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention was going to be in Chicago, we rolled up our sleeves and said, ‘Okay, it’s time for the University of Chicago.'”
James Marcucci, a second-year student in the public policy master’s program at the Harris School of Public Policy who attended Votefest, expressed in an interview with Chestnut brown.
“I’m excited to go back to New Jersey and work on organizing the elections there and making sure that voting rights and voter registration are accessible to everyone,” Marucci said. “I think that’s really necessary and really important. And I think it takes someone to kind of preach the good news that it needs to be done.”
The Bengali student association Kheyal of the University of Chicago held a protest rally near the DNC on Wednesday in honor of a 31-year-old medical intern who was murdered by an unknown assailant raped and murdered on August 9 in Calcutta, India.
Kheyal had already held a vigil on Crerar Quad on Saturday and her organization is part of a larger wave of protests in the US and across India.
“We demanded justice for the victim and a speedy trial, and we demanded strict punishment for the perpetrators,” said Soumik Ghosh, a member of Kheyal and a fourth-year computer science PhD student. “More broadly, this was a protest against the deep-rooted patriarchy and misogyny in society that makes women’s daily lives unsafe.”
When asked why Kheyal held a protest rally around the DNC in addition to her vigil, Ghosh said the group wanted to maintain pressure for action and raise the profile of the movement.
“There is a huge movement going on in Kolkata right now. We wanted to show solidarity with them. We wanted to let them know that we have not forgotten the matter and that we are fighting for justice here too,” Ghosh said. “The second reason was that we wanted maximum visibility. We wanted people to know about this incident, we wanted people to know about this movement, hoping that this would help create solidarity with the movements that are happening here and that this would put pressure on the state government and the police to catch the perpetrator and initiate a speedy trial.”
