Jamie Harrison is an Unsung Hero

It's time to give this man his due

Democrats in array? Best Democratic convention in memory? A united, focused Democratic party gaining momentum and capturing the hearts of America?

If these things are true, then it is a reflection of Democratic Party leadership. And I don’t mean the politicians. I mean the actual grassroots leaders. And the one at the top that deserves the most credit is the Democratic National Committee (DNC) head himself, Jamie Harrison.

I know this, because if things were going badly and the party was in disarray, committing forgettable gaffes, and acting like a disunited, unfocused mob, he would be the first one to be criticized and promptly placed on the hot seat. Instead, the opposites of these things are happening, so therefore he deserves to be showered with glowing adulation.

I’m sure that Harrison’s day is filled with minutiae that I don’t know about and don’t understand that all collectively contribute to success. But there are a few key things he recently helped accomplish that stand out.

The ballot deadline dispute

He successfully guided the party through one of the more turbulent times in its recent history. In the weeks after the June 28 presidential debate up until Joe Biden dropped out, as sentiment against Biden was bubbling up, he pushed for a pre-convention virtual roll call to counter potential legal obstacles to ballot access for Biden that Republicans had raised, especially in the state of Ohio. I won’t go into all the details here, but I wrote about it in my article “Worries about a DNC Virtual Roll Call Vote Have Apparently Disappeared.”

This decision to hold a virtual roll call vote before the convention was ridiculed by some prominent anti-Biden people, such as Nate Silver. There was even a public “debate” on Xitter between the two about this. Here’s some links, with the quintessential Silver quotes associated with them (they didn’t do it all in a continuous thread and instead reposted each other): “There’s no 8/7 deadline. You’re making that up.” “….you’re spreading misinformation.” “You’ve put Democrats in an incredibly difficult position.” “Instead of driving your party’s messaging…..” “The Aug. 7 deadline is fake.”

Silver scoffed at the idea of there being actual legal concerns, and said that Harrison was using a legal “technicality” as cover for preserving Biden as the nominee while quelling dissent. Essentially, Harrison was being attacked for not allowing anti-Biden dissent to have a more prominent place in the workings of the nomination process.

But he stuck to his decision, even after Biden dropped out. Not only did he maintain the roll-call schedule, he advised (one could say “forced”) Kamala Harris to make up her mind about a VP by the same deadline that he was adamant about before, in order to preserve the infallible legitimacy of the Democrats’ presence on the ballots.

Of course, once Biden dropped out, it became less attractive to harp on the early roll call, and those critical voices suddenly went quiet. But the roll call schedule stood even with Harris as the nominee. It stood because Harrison believed in it, and took seriously the DNC counsels’ advice to not leave any potential legal questions open. If he was just executing a ploy to coronate Biden as the nominee without dissent, he could have backed off at this point and let the convention process play out with no direction. But this would have risked not only legal exposure with salivating litigious Republicans, but also the cohesion that a contested convention would have upended.

Or was the deadline just a “technicality”? By meeting the original deadline, whether real or not, it left no open legal questions on the table, which may have just turned out to be extremely important after all. With RFK, Jr.’s ballot access issues now blowing up in their faces, Republicans likely would have tried to use this “technicality” as an ultimatum to keep RFK, Jr. off the ballots in the swing states so as to not hurt Trump.

Once RFK, Jr. dropped out, he’s faced the ironic challenge of getting his name off the ballots, especially in the swing states, which is important for Republicans because it’s apparent now that he was probably going to drain voters away from Trump. But there’s a problem with his attempts: it’s actually the law that he remains on the ballot in some of these states, as he has missed the deadlines to have himself removed. Democrats are following through with court battles to force the ballots to conform with the law.

Republicans are upset with this and are accusing Democrats of being “anti-Democratic”. The more extreme elements are suggesting that if RFK, Jr. stays on the ballots in the affected all-important swing states, then so should Joe Biden, even though he’s no longer the Democratic candidate. But the problem with this ploy is that the Democrats made their official nomination early enough to comply with the law.

When sticking with the pre-convention roll call schedule, Harrison cited the legal exposure Democrats could face if they just took at face value the new Ohio stopgap legislation that was meant to resolve deadline issues.

Harrison understood that in normal times, it might be a safe option to assume good faith and take the new stopgap law at face value. But these are not normal times, and he did not want to allow for the possibility of any Republican legal shenanigans damaging the Democrats’ prospects in this election. Given how litigious and vengeful modern Republicans are, this was a very smart move, for which Harrison has gotten very little notice or acclaim.

Encouraging unity

In doing this, Harrison also forced solidarity upon the party and provided it with the tools needed to move forward quickly under a united front. He was stalwart in the face of those that were pushing for a contested convention, even before Biden dropped out. Once Biden did drop out, it wasn’t 100% certain that Harris would take the reins. There were still calls to have an open convention at that point, or even some sort of condensed American Gladiator-style primary do-over, so that several nominees could still vie for the position.

But Harrison did not legitimize these alternate options. Once Biden instructed his delegates to latch onto Harris, the transition to Harris as the nominee went along seamlessly. Harrison stuck to his decision to do the early roll call vote for the reasons I mentioned above, except that Harris was the beneficiary instead of Biden.

This quick complete turnaround from one candidate to another so late in the election season was remarkable, and its success helped create an atmosphere for the success of what was to come next: the Democratic Convention.

The Democratic Convention

Harrison helped set the tone that made it possible for Democrats to have the best convention in memory largely by ensuring party unity during the roll call process. Without a contested convention, or even a contested primary for that matter, the convention was a jubilant affair will little to no signs of disunity.

Even 2008, during the height of Obama’s popularity, his primary season battle with Hillary Clinton meant that there were some despondent convention participants. Similarly, in 2016 the protracted battle between Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters created bad blood that lingered in that year’s convention and beyond to the election. None of this was present in the 2024 convention, and it showed.

I don’t know the mechanics of exactly how a political party convention gets assembled, or how much of the day-to-day logistics the DNC head deals with. But since it’s run by the DNC, of which Harrison is the head, he’s ultimately responsible for it. I can say with much confidence that if it didn’t go well, he’d be getting much of the blame.

The convention, with its overall mood, well-planned speaking schedule, festive atmosphere, and inclusion of Harris-supporting Republican voices, was an unmitigated success. For the first time in many years, Democratic messaging was fiercely focused and effectively relayed to a large national audience.

Fundraising, registration, and down ballot candidates

The Harris campaign is claiming over $500 million in fundraising since Harris officially began her campaign. This is an eye-popping number. It’s so high that her campaign and the DNC have just pledged $20 million to down ballot House and Senate Democratic candidates, the most in recent history.

This down ballot support will go a long way to ensuring that a Harris victory will also include Congressional victories that can help pass her legislative agenda and meet her governing goals. This is a great long-term strategy for Democrats, and Harrison must have had a hand in it as head of the DNC, which participated in these contributions.

In addition, Democratic registration has been on the rise. Tom Bonier, of the high-quality polling and data company TargetSmart, has noted on Xitter that Democratic voter registrations in the weeks following July 21—considered to be the date of the launch of Harris’ campaign—has rocketed up by huge amounts, especially among the youth and minority groups. These numbers have approached double and triple the numbers seen at the same time in 2020. These are very encouraging signs for Democrats this fall.

Harrison deserves our acclaim and appreciation

One can certainly argue (and some will) that Jamie Harrison had very little to do with recent positive Democratic turn of events, that it was all due to Kamala Harris becoming the nominee. That’s very short-sighted. While the nominee change resulting in the candidacy of Kamala Harris was obviously important, Jamie Harrison was there every step of the way, helping to build and maintain the momentum, as the DNC chair should do.

From being on top of the ballot access dispute and taking it more seriously than anyone else, to seeing us through the transition of candidates and ensuring it occurred seamlessly, to overseeing the most exciting, unifying, and rejuvenating Democratic convention in our lifetimes, to overseeing an historic influx of cash and managing it wisely, Harrison has proven to be a very effective DNC chair.

Admit it—if these things were not going well, who would you blame?