The Paw Print

By Elena Whitford, Arts and Culture Editor

On Wednesday, August 21, fellow Paw Print editorial board member Kieran Blake and I went to the third day of the Democratic National Convention right here in Chicago. Most major news channels broadcast it, so if you follow politics you most likely know the speakers, what they said, and so forth. But there’s more to the DNC than the view of the stage. Join me for an insider’s diary of the experience.

About 3:30 pm: My parents drop me off at the gates to the United Center. I have to go through a bag check, two metal detectors, and a lot of walking before I get inside. All in all, though, it’s about the same experience as airport security.

3:49: I get to my seat in the United Center. As someone with an “orange pass,” I’m only able to access the lobbies on each floor and the seating on the third floor. The third floor is pretty far up, but at least I have a clear view of the stage, the delegate seating, and the media boxes. (If you watched the DNC on a channel like MSNBC or CNN, those boxes are where they’re broadcasting from.) Three American flags line each side of the stage, while red, white, and blue balloons are attached to the ceiling, waiting for an eventual drop. 

4:09: I fill up my water bottle. (Only empty bottles were allowed through security.) There were protests outside, and there are subtler ones here too: a sticker on the water fountain reads “climate leaders don’t cancel congestion pricing.”

4:12: I ask a volunteer if he can answer a few questions. Unfortunately, he says volunteers aren’t allowed to talk to reporters. This might be because DNC officials don’t want volunteers to say something that the Democratic Party doesn’t endorse, which could wind up causing trouble for the party.

4:16: When I get back to my seat, I notice the crowd below has grown much bigger, with some of the prominent delegations like California, Illinois, and Minnesota having arrived.

4:40: I go to the bathroom, where I overhear two ushers having a covert conversation and wish I could interview them. 

“They don’t pay us enough. Standing here for hours and hours, nowhere to sit, it’s exhausting.”

The other agrees. “Ten o’clock, I’m out of there. It always runs late and I have to catch the shadow bus. I got home at 4:12 [a.m.] last night.”

5:20: It’s getting closer to the scheduled start time, so I go to one of the concession stands in the lobby and buy a pretzel for later. (At $5.81 it’s a little expensive, but options were limited. There were also burgers and french fries available, but I thought it would be best not to keep those in my backpack.)  

5:30: The main programming begins! New Jersey Senator Cory Booker leads the gavel-in, then Hindu priest Rakesh Bhatt and Bishop Leah D. Daughtry from the House of the Lord Churches give the invocation. As it ends, delegates echo Amen throughout the stadium. I realize that my seat isn’t as good as I thought it was, and that I can barely see the faces of the people onstage. At least there are huge screens everywhere.

5:43: Connolly Nugent, a Payton student who’s volunteering here, and Kieran invite me to join them in the media section on the first floor. The layout of the United Center is confusing so I get a little lost, but after 15 minutes we find each other.

I walk around the media area, where dozens of smaller news networks and radio shows are recording their transmissions all around me. It’s a little overwhelming, and I try to interview some of the reporters, but they’re all too busy. Some of the most important guests (barring the really important ones like VP Kamala Harris) will arrive through the back entrance in this room, so I stand by the doors to try to spot them, but I have no such luck.

6:46: I get back to a stadium far different from the one I left: it’s darkened and nearly completely full, chants of “bring them home” fill the air, and the atmosphere, joyful during the introduction I saw, is sorrowful as John Polin and Rachel Goldberg tell the story of their son, who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7th and has been hostage ever since. Despite that, loud cheers break out when Polin says, “In a competition of pain there are no winners.”

6:55: Maren Morris sings an uplifting country song as lights from the stadium and from reporters’ cameras flash around her. Below, the Kentucky delegation’s cowboy hats glitter almost as brightly.

7:00: No one appears to enjoy Booker’s speech as much as the song preceding it, with some people leaving their seats and walking around. That is, except the delegation for New Jersey, his home state, who all hold up “CORY” signs enthusiastically.

7:08: The transition music between speeches is far louder in person than on TV!

7:25: Cheers ring out when influencer Carlos Eduardo Espina affirms that “yes, immigrants do pay taxes.” Later, Olivia Troye gives an aside – y como latina, it begins – in Spanish, to the confusion of most of the crowd. This back-to-back representation might be an effort to get more Hispanic voters: an audience that hasn’t been a priority for the Democratic Party this year.

7:35: Audio from the stadium plays in each bathroom, and since I happen to be gone during a video about January 6th, it’s an eerie experience. At first, I don’t realize there’s a video playing, and for a bit all I hear is screaming, chanting, and glass breaking.

7:45: The primetime speeches start around this time, with big names like Bill Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, Amanda Gorman, and of course Tim Walz all speaking, along with performances by Stevie Wonder and John Legend.

At this point, there’s not much to say about the primetime events that isn’t shown on the TV transmission (and that can’t, then, be found online later if you missed it and you’re curious.) I’ll skip ahead now to the very end of the transmission.

10:45: After Governor Walz’s speech, the air is celebratory as the delegates and guests slowly filter out of the United Center, many still holding large signs. Rules for departing the venue are strict; barricades make it impossible to reach the neighboring streets, and police cars are ubiquitous. It takes me over 30 minutes to find my way to the nearest street where my parents can pick me up, and by that time most delegates have left on one of the dozens of buses waiting outside to take them to hotels or afterparties.