CHICAGO — Not long before President Joe Biden gave his valedictory speech, Mableton Mayor Michael Owens stood on the floor of the United Center and offered a confession.
Owens scanned the faces behind him, more than 100 Georgia delegates who had each declared themselves for Biden and stayed loyal to him even as party leaders in other states pressured him to withdraw.
Now that Biden is out of the race, he and the rest of the Georgia contingent wholeheartedly embraced Vice President Kamala Harris. But his thrill over her emergence was mixed with a pang of … something he couldn’t quite put his finger on.
“Bittersweet” couldn’t quite describe it.
“The people here in this delegation were committed to Biden. We were loyal. That’s why it was so hard when he ended his campaign,” he said. “We’re excited about Harris, but we really need to thank Joe Biden properly for what he’s done.”
His struggle with conflicting emotions on the Democratic National Convention’s opening night was far from unique. Many stalwart Georgia Democrats tried to reconcile their joyful embrace of Harris with a respectful goodbye to Biden as he passed the torch.
Biden, after all, was the first Democratic nominee to capture Georgia in nearly three decades. While other presidential contenders bypassed the state for all but fundraisers, Biden showered the state with resources and attention in the last days of the 2020 race.
And after he narrowly defeated former President Donald Trump, he put his campaign machinery behind Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, whose 2021 runoff victories flipped control of the U.S. Senate — and allowed him to pursue his top legislative priorities.
Bishop Reginald Jackson, one of the most influential clergy members in Georgia, couldn’t help but chuckle when asked to assess the attacks — both internal and external — on Biden’s advanced age.
“He was old when he got elected,” Jackson said of the 81-year-old. “And in his term, that old man created more jobs, the lowest unemployment rate among Black workers, reduced child poverty and got major bipartisan legislation through Congress.”
Jackson added: “That old man has done plenty in the last three and a half years. And Democrats are the worst at messaging out of anyone in the country. It’s almost like what gets accomplished is a national secret.”
During his speech, Biden leaned into familiar themes as the crowd erupted in “Thank you, Joe” cheers.
The nation, he said, is at an “inflection point” with an existential fight for democracy at hand. Trump, he said, “couldn’t build a damn thing” while the Biden administration championed an infrastructure package. His term, he said, began in a season of “peril and promise.”
“Now it’s summer,” he said. “The winter is passed.”
The speech seemed, at times, a version of the remarks the president would have given had he been his party’s nominee, with self-deprecating jokes about his age, recitations of his achievements and bracing attacks against Trump. The crowd ate it up.
Ahead of his address, Democratic National Committee chair Jaime Harrison rightly predicted the explosion of applause that greeted Biden. He also drew a distinction between Biden’s decision to quit the race and Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat.
Trump, Harrison said in an interview, “so desperately wanted to hold onto power” that he put his fiercest allies at risk. Biden, meanwhile, “selflessly gave that power to his vice president. That’s a contrast between selfishness and selflessness.”
As Biden prepared to take the stage, some senior Georgia delegates showed an eagerness to turn a fresh page.
“Biden will always hold a special place in the hearts of Georgia Democrats,” said state Sen. Nan Orrock. “But the 12,000 votes that Biden beat Trump by in 2020 is just a start. We’re going to move resoundingly beyond that margin in November.”
For Calvin Smyre, once the longest-serving legislator in the General Assembly, this convention hit harder than many of the other 11 he’s attended. He’s known Biden for decades and served in his administration. And when Biden dropped out, he suddenly became a Harris enthusiast.
As November nears, the nation’s attention will continue to flicker beyond Biden. But in the end, Smyre said, he should be remembered for more than his single term in office.
“He can stand tall on his record. And history will treat him well.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
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