Malcolm Kenyatta at DNC: Project 2025 will ‘drag us backwards’

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A couple weeks ago, delegates from around the country — including from Pennsylvania — voted virtually for Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee. The vote is an official party act normally performed during the convention. However, Democrats wanted to avoid going into the convention without a chosen candidate.

The last time the Democrats had an open, or “brokered,” convention was in 1968 — a condition that may have contributed to nominee Hubert Humphrey’s loss to Richard Nixon in the general election that year.

However, the Democratic National Committee wanted to give their 4,700 delegates an opportunity to “vote” for Kamala Harris at the convention and held a “celebratory” roll call on the floor.

The unofficial and ceremonial nature of the vote didn’t make it any less meaningful to Anne Wakabayashi, a political consultant and delegate from Philly.

“It was thrilling to have my vote counted for Kamala Harris as president of the United States,” she said. “As an AAPI [Asian American and Pacific Islander] woman, I’m particularly excited about making history in that way.”

Wakabayashi, who is married to her wife, with whom she is raising a stepson, said the election is personal.

“Another Trump presidency threatens my marriage,” she said. “It threatens my family. It threatens women’s rights, LGBT rights — it threatens every aspect of my life and threatens my kids’ schools. Everything is on the line here.”