CHICAGO (AP) – Convention roll call votes can be staid and cheesy, but Democrats turned theirs into the ultimate dance party on Tuesday.
DJ Cassidy stood onstage in what appeared to be a double-breasted satin suit of royal blue, spinning a special song for each state and territory awarding their delegates to Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention. What America got was a mashup of an elite karaoke night: Detroit native Eminem’s Lose Yourself for Michigan, Dropkick Murphys’ I’m Shipping Up to Boston for Massachusetts and Tupac Shakur’s California Love for California.
Georgia brought out one of its natives in person: Atlanta’s Lil Jon striding through Chicago’s United Center to the beats of Turn Down for What, his song with DJ Snake.
In short, Democrats were determined to put the party in political party, part of their broader effort to project joy and positive energy even as they issue dire warnings about the need to beat Republican nominee Donald Trump. The party last used a video roll call during the pandemic-restricted 2020 convention that famously had Rhode Island featuring its state dish, calamari, creating the pressure to do something bigger this year. (The chef holding that iconic tray of calamari later turned out to be a Trump supporter).
This year’s roll call vote featured the party’s emerging political stars like Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Maryland Governor Wes Moore and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear. Movie director Spike Lee was there for New York, while the actor Sean Astin, who starred in the Notre Dame-set football movie Rudy, was with the Indiana delegation.
The musical choices were something of a risk. The 1996 Democratic convention in Chicago infamously featured delegates gyrating awkwardly to Macarena (Bayside Boys Remix) by the Spanish pop duo Los del Río. Video of the Macarena still circulates among political diehards nearly three decades later.
Florida’s delegation played Tom Petty’s anthem to hard-headedness, I Won’t Back Down, in casting its delegates for Harris – a not-too-subtle jab at the state’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. Petty was born in the Florida city of Gainesville.
