Democratic National Convention, the final day: ‘When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit,’ Clinton says

Thanks for sticking with us for the last two weeks. From the first balloons being hoisted to the arena ceiling in Cleveland to the last being dropped on cheering delegates in Philadelphia, we’ve had a blast.

We hope you join us on the rest of the journey, as our politics team covers every twist and turn on the campaign trail over the next 101 days.

You can find our coverage every day on Trail Guide.

Read More

Jan Brown, 67, of Roseville, a retired U.S. Air Force captain whose children are veterans and active duty military officers:

On Hillary Clinton’s qualifications: “I am so proud that Hillary Clinton is going to be commander and chief. I know that she’ll take care of my kids,” Brown said. “She is beyond a doubt the most qualified person I’ve ever seen for this job and I can hardly wait for the next 102 days to work every single day to make sure we get the votes to make sure that she wins.”

On Clinton’s historic nomination: “When she walked out it was like all the dreams of all the little girls who want to do everything and for too often were told what they can’t do, instead of what they can. Just seeing her come out and when she accepted the nomination it was like, finally, finally we made it.”

Former Democratic National Committee secretary Alice Germond, 73, of West Hollywood:

On the speech: “I thought it was warm, I thought it was caring, I thought it was smart and I thought it just hit all the right buttons. It wasn’t negative, it wasn’t angry, it wasn’t bitter. It had humor, it had laughter. I just thought she did a great job.”

On the experience: “There’s just been sort of those poignant moments, where you look up, somebody says something up on the stage or sitting next to you or you see a little glimmer or a kid and you go, ‘Oh God, we just nominated the first woman of a major party,’” Germond said. “It’s sort of breathtaking. It hits you in waves.

“To me, it’s just glorious. Something I’ve fought for all my life,” she said. “It’s particularly magical.”

Words like “our,” “America” and “your” consistently rank among the most-used words in the speeches made by the major party candidates at their conventions. To see how similar, or different, this year’s candidates were from the past, we compared Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speeches to all Republican and Democratic presidential candidates since 1980. Check out how they rank among their peers.

Cathleen Decker, who analyzes politics for The Times, took to Twitter tonight for an instant analysis of the Republican and Democratic conventions. Here’s what she had to say, in 21 tweets:

1. Conventions have a specific purpose: to sell or redefine.
2. To the extent that people watched, there was tons of testimony from people about HRC’s good deeds/warmth, that helps redefinition.
3. Tons of time was spent emphasizing Donald Trump, and what speakers from Obama on down see as the threat he poses to America.
4. That went beyond the usual criticism to ground-floor level impact he would have on democracy, in their view, imperiling it.
5. The question now is whether Trump and Clinton are so well known that no further definition, for good or bad, will stick.
6. Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on ads. Will we still have at the end two highly unpopular candidates, a coin flip?
7. Or will one candidate have dramatically reshaped his/her image over the course of the four days each spent in convention hoo-haw.
8. Some observations: This was Clinton’s best big speech. Well written and delivered well. Akin to challenge/execution by GHW Bush in 1988.
9. Both Bush and Clinton were seeking office after two terms of a popular same-party president who’d overshadowed them. Both delivered.
10. In Bush’s case, his success at the convention speech improved his future speechmaking/communication. Will this do the same for Clinton?
11. Other observations: Staging of Clinton’s convention speech was lush. Flags of different sizes, signs, color scheme all worked together.
12. People can laugh at things like that but they translate in voters’ minds. Staging at GOP convention felt more haphazard; speakers too.
13. The theatrics of it all won’t matter in a blow-out. But they can matter in a close race. After this year, is anyone betting against that?
14. Viewers of all convention hours saw tons of people testifying for Clinton or against Trump. You can bet the ads have already been cut.
15. That brings up another Clinton advantage: A team that has done this before. Crispness, efficiency, knowing where to get voters, helps.
16. Tonight also was something of a Sista Soulja night for Dems: Army general/military endorsing HRC, gun control a big part of her speech.
17. Also worth noting: Chelsea Clinton + other speakers offered reams of personal anecdotes about Hillary. Not even Trump’s kids did much.
18. Personal anecdotes may not matter; the combo of anti-Clinton and economy woes may negate. Just like no minds may change on Trump.
19. But re the conventions, Clinton helped herself on a personal level. On a policy level, too little talk of the economy, seems to me.
20. And Trump had a rocky convention and has worked to obliterate any gains with his talk about Russia and continued belligerence.
21. As to what it all adds up to, voters will decide in November. That’s why they call it “democracy.” A bipartisan suggestion: Vote.

(Sarah D. Wire/Los Angeles Times)

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s former U.S. Senate colleague, California Sen. Barbara Boxer, was effusive about Thursday night’s acceptance speech.

“This is the Hillary I know. She has that sense of humor, that dry sense of humor. She’s so smart, she’s so strong, so resilient,” Boxer said. “She really showed the American people what kind of leader she’ll be.

“She’s been hit so hard, I’m sure she thinks, what else can they do? I’m going to be myself,” Boxer added.

The historic nature of the speech was moving to Boxer.

“What Hillary proved tonight, that a woman can be just what America needs in a leader: strong, but with a big heart. Someone who understands how to nurture a daughter and nurture a nation, and I’m really just very moved and touched with what she said, by the response to it and really the whole convention. It was remarkable.”

Favorite line: Boxer said she liked when Clinton said, “No, you don’t, Donald.”

“It was just like a mom telling a kid, ‘Respect your elders.’ It was so well done,” she said.

Nic McCarthy, a 27-year-old delegate from Virginia, wasn’t planning to vote for Hillary Clinton before she started her acceptance speech. He even shouted at her during the speech, telling her to “walk the walk.”

But by the time she finished speaking, the Bernie Sanders supporter had a change of heart.

“I don’t like her. I don’t trust her,” McCarthy said. “But we have got to push for some of these issues we have to make sure she walks the walk, even if we have to lift her feet every step of the way.”

The only way to do that, he decided, was to vote for her and keep Donald Trump out of office.

Tim Weaver, a 34-year-old delegate from Texas, said he’s leaving the convention feeling more confident about voting for Clinton, and not just because of her speech.

“A lot of people that I trust have spoken for her,” Weaver said, including President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

A fellow Texas delegate, Emily Wells, 34, said she’d also vote for Clinton.

“It will be a frustrating, begrudging vote, but we can’t let Donald Trump be president,” she said.

Wells added, “I have more problems with the system than with Hillary Clinton.”

Not everyone was convinced. Diana Orozco-Garrett, a 58-year-old delegate from New Mexico, said she was just as conflicted after the speech as she was before.

“There are consequences for people I know if Donald Trump wins,” she said, referring to his support for deportations of immigrants in the country illegally. “But there are other dangers and concerns for another set of people if Hillary wins.”

Orozco-Garrett is worried that Clinton will push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a massive trade deal, even though she said she opposes it.

Hillary Clinton’s acceptance speech was a lot like the woman herself: serious, comprehensive, competent – but not quite poetic. And weighted with the heavy burden of convincing skeptics set against her.

Clinton touched all the bases a Democratic nominee needs to touch, from equal rights for women, minorities and LGBT people to immigration reform. From military strength to gun control.

She repeated her campaign’s benign but pallid slogan, “stronger together”; her favorite line about playing the woman’s card, “deal me in”; her favorite Methodist precept, “Do all the good you can, for all the people you can.”

Most important, she tried to solve her party’s central problem: the perception by many voters that establishment Democrats (which is what she is) don’t grasp the economic hardship and social dislocation that ordinary people feel in the eighth year of the Obama presidency.

“Some of you are frustrated, even furious,” she said. “You know what? You’re right…. We haven’t done a good enough job.”

And she tried to convince disgruntled followers of Bernie Sanders that she agrees that economic inequality is the product of a political system swamped in special-interest money: “I believe our economy isn’t working the way it should because our democratic isn’t working the way it should,” she said.

But judging by the response of Sanders delegates, many of whom booed or heckled or waved protest signs, she still has a distance to go.

And so, half a dozen times, she pivoted to the inevitable contrast with her erratic opponent, Donald Trump.

“A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons,” she said in one of many, many barbs.

In the end, that was her main theme, at least by volume, and will probably be the main theme of her campaign: You may or may not love Hillary Clinton – but that’s not the question you face. The question is whether you’d rather be ruled by Donald Trump.

Republicans found a lot to criticize in Hillary Clinton’s speech on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

Donald Trump’s campaign sent out a statement calling the speech an “insulting collection of cliches and recycled rhetoric” that was “delivered from a fantasy universe, not the reality we live in today.”

Some like Florida senator and onetime Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio found problems with Clinton’s policy proposals.

Others focused on the discord happening inside and outside the arena as some delegates heckled Clinton on the convention floor while protesters outside burned an American flag.

Some leveled another criticism: Coming a night after President Obama’s well-received speech, Clinton’s was simply boring.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson pushed back at Clinton’s oft-used line that “it takes a village” to raise a child. Clinton re-purposed the line, also the title of one of her books, to criticize Trump’s assertion that only he could fix the country’s ills.

The GOP’s Twitter account put out a video featuring a polygraph machine in a darkened room with a message displayed across the screen as it fades to black: “We need a president who tells the truth.”

Other Republicans shared reports of protesters booing Clinton and burning flags. Rubio declared the convention a “disaster.”

Other conservative commentators ended the night frustrated with the two candidates in the election, including John McCormack, who in March penned a column for the Weekly Standard titled “How Trump Can Be Stopped.”

Conservative writer Erick Erickson vowed in a February article “I Will Not Vote For Donald Trump. Ever.”

On Thursday night he found one point of admiration for Democrats: They seemed to have found a viable way to attack Trump.

California Republican political consultant Matt Rexroad was sure of one thing: September’s debate would be “crazy.”

As she accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday, Hillary Clinton castigated GOP rival Donald Trump for short-changing small businesses in his pursuit of wealth.

“In Atlantic City, 60 miles from here, you’ll find contractors and small businesses who lost everything because Donald Trump refused to pay his bills,” Clinton said at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

“People who did the work and needed the money, and didn’t get it — not because he couldn’t pay them, but because he wouldn’t pay them,” Clinton said. “That sales pitch he’s making to be your president? Put your faith in him — and you’ll win big. That’s the same sales pitch he made to all those small businesses. Then Trump walked away, and left working people holding the bag.”

It’s a statement backed in fact, according to investigations by USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.

“Donald Trump often portrays himself as a savior of the working class who will ‘protect your job.’ But a USA Today Network analysis found he has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans … who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them,” read the June USA Today story.

Earlier this week, Trump said he quickly paid contractors who did their job well, but threatened to not pay the bill for renting event space at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center in Virginia because he said the room was hot.

“We’re in a ballroom and I feel like I’m in a sauna,” he said. “… I think the people who own this hotel should be ashamed of themselves.”

The Times’ Colleen Shalby reports that people on the floor at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia are “popping balloons like they never had permission to in their life.”

Here’s what the fireworks + balloon drop looked like in the room.

Read More

Hillary Clinton took the stage Thursday night for the final and most anticipated act of the Democratic National Convention, building on a week of potent testimonials from the party’s biggest stars to reintroduce herself to voters as the first female presidential nominee from a major party and crystallize her vision for the nation.

In the address, she said, “With humility, determination and boundless confidence in America’s promise … I accept your nomination for president.”

Read More

Pop music superstar Katy Perry crossed platforms into presidential politics on Thursday night, performing her aspirational new anthem, “Rise,” and in doing so sent a jolt of millennial energy into a convention eager to connect with a new generation of voters.

Perry — wearing a shiny, striped form-fitting dress — opened with comments about her background as the daughter of parents who were pastors and staunch Republicans.

“I don’t have a formal education,” she said, “but I do have an open mind and a voice.” She urged the crowd, and her fans, to vote because “you’ll be just as powerful as any NRA lobbyist. You’ll have as much say as any billionaire.” Or, she added, “you can just cancel out your weird cousin’s vote if you like.”

Perry also acknowledged her “closet full of Hillary-themed dresses” that she’s worn while campaigning for Clinton.

Standing before a microphone decorated in red, white and blue spangles, Perry opened with “Rise,” followed by another of her anthems, “Roar.”

Relatively speaking, her performance was a conservative affair. Over the years, after all, Perry has performed while sitting in a gigantic clam and in an oversize banana suit, and first gained fame with her coy nod to youthful experimentation, “I Kissed a Girl.” Why, then, would the Clinton campaign enlist her to perform during the convention’s apex? One reason is the mathematics of social media. In 2012, about 126 million people cast votes in the presidential election. Across three social media platforms — Instagram, Twitter and Facebook — Perry has a combined 215 million followers.

Hillary Clinton supporters in the California delegation are taking steps to quell backers of Bernie Sanders who have disrupted proceedings at the Democratic National Convention.

“The [California] Clinton delegates have responded by integrating the delegation, sitting next to other delegates and are determined to not let the few Sanders dead-enders speak for the whole delegation,” said a state party official who declined to be identified speaking on the record.

The delegation has high visibility because of its prime seating, and about 200 delegates back Sanders, a number of whom have been vocal about their displeasure with the Democratic Party. Party officials argued that it was a loud minority and not representative of the party.

“It’s a small group of people who have been generating the most attention. Most of the Sanders delegates now support her,” said the state party official, who said nearly two dozen Sanders’ supporters wore T-shirts that read: “Intersectionality matters.” “This protest has jumped the shark.”

×

Rep. Xavier Becerra of California speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More convention coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

Los Angeles Rep. Xavier Becerra told a packed arena at the Democratic National Convention of his parents’ humble beginnings as immigrants from Mexico — and the threat he believes all immigrants will face if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is elected this November.

“We’ve come a long way from the days when my dad couldn’t walk into a restaurant because of the signs that read, ‘No dogs or Mexicans allowed,’” Becerra told Democrats inside the Wells Fargo Center on Thursday evening. “Now is not the time to turn back.”

Becerra, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, has been a major political ally of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. He has traveled state to state to help with her campaign’s outreach to Latino voters.

In his speech, the congressman characterized Trump as an out-of-touch man driven by greed who knows nothing about Americans who work hard every day to make ends meet.

“Does he know the price of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread?” Becerra asked.

In contrast, he told the audience that Clinton has devoted her life to helping children, and listening to those who have little money or power.

“No matter who we are, or where we come from, or what we look like, or how much money we have, or who we love — Hillary Clinton walks with us,” Becerra told the crowd “So, now, the question is: Are we ready to walk with her?”

(Joshua Lott / Getty Images)

Donald Trump responded Thursday to scorching attacks by President Obama and others at the Democratic convention by saying they were “not talking about the real world” of Islamic terrorism, unchecked illegal immigration, rampant crime, a depleted military and U.S. jobs “pouring into Mexico.”

“Boy, am I getting hit,” the Republican presidential nominee complained to supporters at a rally in Davenport, Iowa.

Trump denied accusations that he’d outlined a dark vision of America last week at the GOP convention in Cleveland, saying he had offered a “very optimistic” prescription for overcoming the nation’s troubles.

The normally unbridled New York businessman was relatively subdued at the first of two Iowa campaign stops. He said he’d resisted the temptation to respond “viciously” to those attacking him at the Democratic gathering this week in Philadelphia.

“I was going to hit one guy in particular — a very little guy,” he said in an apparent reference to Michael R. Bloomberg, the former New York City mayor and political independent who branded Trump a “con” in a speech to Democratic delegates on Wednesday. “I was going to hit this guy so hard, his head would spin. He wouldn’t know what the hell happened.”

Read More

×

Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, speaks at the Democratic National Convention.

Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq, delivered an emotional speech to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, saying to Donald Trump: “You have sacrificed nothing.”

Khan’s son Capt. Humayun S.M. Khan was killed in Iraq in 2004 when a vehicle filled with explosives tried to drive into the compound he was guarding. His actions that day were credited with saving lives. Khan is one of 14 American Muslims killed serving the U.S. military since the Sept. 11 attacks.

(Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images )

Khizr Khan spoke directly to Trump, who has proposed banning Muslim immigrants from entering the country.

“Let me ask you. Have you even read the United States Constitution?” he said, holding a copy in his hand. “I will gladly lend you my copy.”

The crowd in Philadelphia roared with approval as Khan continued, telling Trump to visit the graves of soldiers of “all faiths, genders and ethnicities” in Arlington National Cemetery.

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has spoken of Khan’s son on the campaign trail, telling the family’s story. The Khans moved from the United Arab Emirates to Boston in the 1980s.

Humayun Khan graduated from the University of Virginia and eventually joined the Army. He’d planned to be a military attorney. As a car packed with explosives sped toward his unit, Khan stepped in front of it. He was killed when the vehicle detonated. Khan was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Khizr Khan said Clinton “was right when she called my son ‘the best of America.’”

“If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America,” he said.

According to campaign officials, Hillary Clinton plans to cite her 1996 book, “It Takes a Village,” to bolster the point made by her and her surrogates that the idea has been a guiding principle throughout her life, not a politically expedient talking point.

Campaign officials said Clinton began thinking about the speech weeks ago, and she revised it even into Thursday.

Read More

×

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti addressed the Democratic National Convention Thursday evening, delivering a short speech that was mostly given over to detailing his own biography, varied ethnic background and mayoral record for a national audience.

Garcetti’s first speech at his party’s national convention lasted roughly five minutes. Sandwiched between appearances by civil-rights activist Dolores Huerta and singer-songwriter Carole King in a pre-primetime speaking slot, Garcetti managed to deliver a few memorable jabs at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“America doesn’t need a political pyromaniac for president,” Garcetti said. “His voice is loud, his language is coarse, and his politics has a darkness that would not only stop but reverse the march of progress.”

Read More

Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez was a featured speaker at the Democratic National Convention on Thursday night when she introduced a segment of speakers honoring police officers across the nation.

Valdez, who endorsed Hillary Clinton in February, introduced the families of fallen police officers. She is the first openly gay, Latina Democrat to be elected Dallas County sheriff.

The prime-time segment served as a key point of rebuttal for Democrats: Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has focused attention on police officers killed in the line of duty, including the four Dallas Police Department officers and one Dallas Area Rapid Transit officer who died in a shooting this month.

Earlier in the day, Trump’s campaign released a statement criticizing Democrats for ignoring law enforcement: “In the Democrats’ fantasy world...convention stages don’t need American flags, and our great men and women of law enforcement, our police, do not need to be honored.”

Valdez hit back.

“When my officers report for duty, they have no idea what might come up that day,” she said. “They don’t know whether the next 911 call will be their last. But they keep answering the call. They keep putting their lives on the line. They are doing the best they can to protect our communities. We put on our badges every day to serve and protect, not to hate and discriminate.

“Violence is not the answer,” she said. “Yelling, screaming and calling each other names is not going to do it. Talking within your own group in your language only your group understands leads nowhere. We have to start listening to each other.”

Valdez also led the convention hall in a moment of silence for the fallen officers.

Before the Mothers of the Movement gave their speeches at the Democratic National Convention, their appearance had caused controversy. The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police said its members were “shocked and saddened” that widows of fallen police officers were not included in the lineup.

“It is sad that to win an election, Mrs. Clinton must pander to the interests of people who do not know all the facts, while the men and women they seek to destroy are outside protecting the political institutions of this country,” the police group said in a statement.

Read More

(Cheryl A. Guerrero / Los Angeles Times)

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) says he never imagined he’d be speaking on stage at a national political convention.

Lieu, who emigrated from Taiwan at the age of 3, and whose parents sold trinkets and jewelry at flea markets to make ends meet, appeared on stage Wednesday along with fellow members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

From the podium, he says, he was awe-struck by the magnitude of the crowd — and the diversity of the faces in the audience.

“It was incredible to be able to look out and see all the people,” Lieu told The Times by phone. “I wanted to sort of take out my cellphone and take a picture.”

He said he would resist that urge Thursday night, he added. Lieu took the stage in prime time to praise Hillary Clinton’s national security credentials.

Lieu, a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, says it’s imperative that voters elect a commander in chief with the temperament to lead.

“Who our commander in chief is is deeply important to me. We entrust the commander in chief with the lives of our service members, with the launch code to our nuclear weapons,” he said. “We need someone with a steady hand, who’s not brash, who doesn’t make stuff up.”

Lieu was first elected to Congress in 2014 and was president of his freshman class. Before joining Congress, he served in the state Legislature from 2005-14.

As she formally accepts her party’s nomination Thursday, Hillary Clinton will acknowledge the challenges facing the nation at a “moment of reckoning,” but declare that they can be overcome if Americans unite with common purpose.

“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against. But we are not afraid,” she will say, according to advance excerpts provided by her campaign. “We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have.”

Clinton faces a high rhetorical bar as she closes out a four-day convention loaded with the party’s brightest stars. Aides say she has been working on her acceptance speech for weeks, making more changes Wednesday night after joining President Obama on stage after his remarks, and again today.

She will refer to Philadelphia’s role as the birthplace of the nation, and say that today, just as in 1776, “there are no guarantees” that forces threatening to pull the nation apart can’t succeed.

“It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we’re going to work together so we can all rise together,” she will say.

Clinton will use the speech to outline her vision for the future, with her primary mission to “create more opportunity and more good jobs with rising wages right here in the United States.”

She’ll also discuss national security challenges and trouble spots abroad.

“From Baghdad and Kabul, to Nice and Paris and Brussels, to San Bernardino and Orlando, we’re dealing with determined enemies that must be defeated. No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance — looking for steady leadership,” she will say.

Addressing these challenges requires collaboration, she will say, drawing an implicit contrast with her rival who said in his acceptance speech a week before that “I alone” can tackle challenges.

“Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger,” she said. “None of us can do it alone. That’s why we are stronger together.”

×

Republican Doug Elmets speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

The convention has been an opportunity for party leaders to trot out some big names in Democratic politics, but on Thursday night, two members of the opposing party will take the stage to make the case for Hillary Clinton.

First up is Doug Elmets, a longtime political consultant from Sacramento who served as a White House spokesman during the Ronald Reagan administration.

On stage, Elmets plans to call Trump a “petulant, dangerously unbalanced TV star,” he told The Sacramento Bee this week.

“I believe that four years of Hillary Clinton is better than one day of Donald Trump as president,” he told the newspaper. Elmets said he’ll be trying to persuade independents and fellow Republicans to cross party lines and vote for Clinton, a pitch Democrats made loud and clear Wednesday night.

Jennifer Pierotti Lim, who helped found the group Republicans for Hillary last May, will follow.

“It’s really important that Republican leaders, especially Republican women leaders, stand up right now and say we’re not OK with Trump representing our party,” Lim told CNN last month. “This was a long road for me to get here.”

Lim, who is director of health policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said she never imagined she’d be in this position. She told CNN that she planned to knock on doors, make phone calls and even donate to Clinton’s campaign, something she’s never done before.

Republican women who have become increasingly disenchanted with Trump are considered a major target bloc for the Clinton campaign.

On Wednesday night, a high-profile former Republican, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, endorsed Clinton. Bloomberg, who was a Democrat before running for office as a Republican in 2001, now identifies as an independent.

We asked women of varying ages, backgrounds and political leanings what they make of Hillary Clinton, and this moment in history.

Some embrace her wholeheartedly, saying it is long past time for a woman in the Oval Office.

Some think the more meaningful barrier came down in 2008, when Americans elected the first black president.

Some are ambivalent; the symbolism is important, they say, but the candidate is lacking.

But there’s one thing on which they all can agree: No matter who becomes the 45th president, this is a watershed moment for women in America.

Here’s what we learned.

Read More

As released by the campaign, here are portions of what Hillary Clinton plans to say tonight as the first woman to accept a major party’s nomination for president:

“America is once again at a moment of reckoning. Powerful forces are threatening to pull us apart. Bonds of trust and respect are fraying. And just as with our founders there are no guarantees. It truly is up to us. We have to decide whether we’re going to work together so we can all rise together.

“We are clear-eyed about what our country is up against. But we are not afraid. We will rise to the challenge, just as we always have.

“So I want to tell you tonight how we’re going to empower all Americans to live better lives. My primary mission as president will be to create more opportunity and more good jobs with rising wages right here in the United States. From my first day in office to my last. Especially in places that for too long have been left out and left behind. From our inner cities to our small towns, Indian Country to Coal Country. From the industrial Midwest to the Mississippi Delta to the Rio Grande Valley.

“The choice we face is just as stark when it comes to our national security. Anyone reading the news can see the threats and turbulence we face. From Baghdad and Kabul, to Nice and Paris and Brussels, to San Bernardino and Orlando, we’re dealing with determined enemies that must be defeated. No wonder people are anxious and looking for reassurance — looking for steady leadership.

“Every generation of Americans has come together to make our country freer, fairer, and stronger. None of us can do it alone. That’s why we are stronger together.”

The Revolution Club, the group behind the flag burning at last week’s Republican National Convention, was back again Thursday afternoon outside of the Democratic National Convention. The flag burning lasted just minutes in the rain.

Bernie Sanders supporters who have been protesting in Philadelphia since the start of the week distanced themselves from the event.

“Democratic socialist, peaceful protest!” a group chanted after the flag was burned.

Several people were upset that the media were giving the event any attention at all.

“This is pretty much the only time that we’ve had mainstream media sources coming up to cover anything out here, which is kind of what we’re offended about,” said one 19-year-old man, who identified himself only as “Emerson.”

Protesters have been outside of the gates of the convention center at a designated free-speech zone in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park. Some Sanders delegates are expected to gather there during Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight. It’s unclear how many, if any at all, will participate in the so-called “Dem exit.”

Hours before Hillary Clinton was scheduled to take the stage to accept the Democratic nomination for president, Donald Trump lost a potentially decisive round in his prolonged fight against workers trying to unionize at his hotel in Las Vegas.

Trump has been stalling efforts to begin contract negotiations with workers at the Trump Hotel International Las Vegas after the 500 housekeepers and other service workers voted late last year to join the local Culinary Union 226 and Bartenders Local 165. The National Labor Relations Board certified the election in March.

In Thursday’s ruling, a three-member panel of the labor board denied Trump’s request for a review of the certification. That request marked Trump’s final recourse.

The workers are hoping to raise their pay by about $3 an hour. Last week his operation agreed to pay a more than $11,000 in a settlement in a case brought by workers who said they were punished for their union organizing efforts.

Trump’s battle with organized labor is a dicey move in Las Vegas, where many of the front-line service industry staff have long been represented by unions. The Culinary, as the union is known in the state, is a powerful player in turning out the vote for elections.

Trump workers led a protest on the Las Vegas Strip last week to highlight the dispute.

“We are pleased with the NLRB ruling, once again reaffirming that the union election at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas was fair and is certified,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union.

“We look forward to starting contract negotiations so that workers can have fair wages, job security, and good health benefits.”

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is staying out of California’s U.S. Senate race to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer, so neither state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris nor Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Orange are expected on the stage tonight when the committee recognizes those running for office.

Harris will be in the convention hall during Thursday’s proceedings, her staff said. Sanchez flew back to California Wednesday, according to her staff.

California’s top-two primary pitted two Democrats against one another in a Senate race for the first time in state history, creating a unique dance as party faithful weigh whether to pick sides in the race.

Sanchez’s campaign spokesman, Luis Vizcaino, said the congresswoman had always planned to attend the convention for just a few days so she could return to California and continue her Senate campaign.

“She’s been going to these things since the ‘90s,” Vizcaino said.

Sanchez appeared briefly on the convention stage earlier in the week, clasping hands with her sister and with their arms in the air as Linda Sanchez talked about being the only pair of sisters in Congress. Loretta Sanchez mingled with delegates in the California seating section, attended a Planned Parenthood luncheon and a did a few television interviews.

Harris, a comparative newcomer to national politics, has bounced from interviews with media outlets, speaking at breakfasts hosted by several states and attending panels about criminal justice and other topics.

Harris told reporters this week she’s trying to avoid the impression that she has the race locked up. In the June 6 primary, Harris received 40% of the vote and Sanchez nabbed 19% among the 34 candidates on the Senate ballot.

“I am very worried about that. This election cycle, the environment we’re in right now as a country, I think has made it clear that there is a lot of unpredictable [things] that have happened and probably will happen and we can’t take anything for granted,” she said. “That means that we have to work hard each and every day to guarantee that on Nov. 8, what we believe in should actually occur, but I take nothing for granted in this election cycle.”

Harris formally launched her campaign just days after Boxer announced she would not seek reelection in 2016, and quickly starting raising money. President Obama, Vice President Biden and California Gov. Brown have endorsed her.

Sanchez jumped into the contest five months later and has lagged in fundraising since.

In February, Harris won the coveted endorsement of the California Democratic Party, capturing 78.1% of the votes of party delegates after campaign volunteers lobbied throughout the state party’s convention in San Jose.

Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio earned a strong speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention, and will use his address to accuse Donald Trump of “stabbing workers in the back for years.”

He represents a critical region in an important swing state, and has been a vocal campaigner for Hillary Clinton since her first presidential campaign in 2008.

According to excerpts released by Clinton’s campaign, Ryan will mock Trump’s promise to bring jobs back to the Midwest.

“Hey, Ohio – don’t buy it! This guy cut deals to make the Trump line of products in China, Mexico, Bangladesh! Not Youngstown, not Akron, not Niles,” Ryan will say, naming areas in his congressional district.

“If he really cared about our jobs, he would have hired some of our people.”

Earlier this year, there were some rumors that Ryan was under consideration to be Clinton’s running mate.

Ryan was first elected in 2002. He serves on the Appropriations Committee and is looked at as ambitious and potentially a statewide candidate in a future election. His strongly Democratic district is rarely competitive, so he often spends campaign years helping fellow Democrats up and down Ohio.

In 2012, not long after publishing a book on mindfulness, Ryan was busy campaigning for President Obama’s re-election in the Buckeye State.

I profiled him for Mindful magazine that year. I also wrote this piece when he published a second book about healthy eating and how food policy at the national level is a critical issue.

The congressman started the Quiet Caucus and regularly does yoga and meditation with colleagues on Capitol Hill.

Reducing the cost of a college education was a key focal point of Bernie Sanders’ campaign and many speakers at the DNC called for making college more affordable for all.

Tuition costs have become a prominent component of Clinton’s platform as well. Her plan calls for free tuition at in-state four-year public colleges and universities for students from families making no more than $85,000 a year. The program would expand to families earning $125,000 by 2021.

Here’s how student debt has grown over time:

As the cost of higher education rises ...

... families take on increasing amounts of student loan debt ...

... and student loan delinquencies outpace other types of debt

Source: College Board and Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Last October, Lorella Praeli told Times reporter Kate Linthicum she hoped to be able to vote for the first time in this election.

On stage tonight at the DNC, Praeli told the crowd: “I’m an American.”

Praeli, Latino outreach director for the Clinton campaign, came to the U.S. from Peru as a child to seek medical treatment after she was hit by a car and lost a leg. She lived here without without legal status until a few years ago when she obtained a green card through marriage.

“It was my undocumented mother who taught me what it means to be an American,” she said in Philadelphia.

Read more about her story >>

You would be forgiven if you thought the Democratic National Convention was really an awards show. The last few days included stars such as Alicia Keys, Meryl Streep and Angela Bassett introducing speakers or segments on policy proposals.

The final day of the convention will feature singer Katy Perry, “Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising” star Chloe Grace Moretz, as well as actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.

Moretz will speak before Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles) and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. The 19-year-old starlet has 9.5 million followers on Instagram has been an important millennial surrogate for Hillary Clinton, speaking to People Magazine and other publications about Clinton’s historic candidacy.

Danson and Steenburgen have attended California fundraisers for Clinton and traveled to New Hampshire this year to campaign for her. They will introduce a segment on the economy.

Pop star Katy Perry is well known for her outspoken support of President Obama and Clinton. She regularly wore Obama-themed dresses when she performed at rallies during the 2012 campaign.

She will perform in prime time Thursday before Clinton’s speech.

×

Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas speaks at the Democratic National Convention

Rep. Joaquín Castro of Texas took the stage at the Democratic National Convention Thursday, four years after his twin brother Julian Castro’s keynote address at the convention.

Joaquín Castro also shared the story of his grandmother, an orphan who fled Mexico for San Antonio.

The Castro brothers are among the nation’s most well-known Latino politicians and cast themselves as optimistic examples of what the children and grandchildren of immigrants can achieve in the the U.S.

Joaquín Castro tapped into that sentiment, attacking Donald Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants.

“My grandmother believed that America was the greatest nation in the world, and I am with Hillary so our grandkids will believe the same thing too,” he said.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump can be given classified intelligence briefings now that they are the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, the top U.S. intelligence official said Thursday, despite calls from party leaders to limit the other candidate’s access to national security secrets.

“We will brief both candidates if they want it,” James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said at the Aspen Security Forum in Aspen, Colo.

The candidates don’t need a security clearance to receive the briefing, Clapper said. He said they both are entitled to get classified information because they now are the major party nominees.

Sharing intelligence assessments with presidential nominees is a tradition that goes back to Harry Truman, who signed the law that created the CIA in 1947.

Senior officials in both parties have sought to turn this year’s closed-door briefings into a campaign issue.

After the FBI director said this month that Clinton had been extremely careless but had broken no laws by using a private email server while secretary of State, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) urged Clapper to deny classified material to her.

Giving the Democratic nominee access, he wrote in a letter, would “send the wrong signal to all those charged with safeguarding our nations’ secrets.”

Clinton is scheduled to accept her party’s nomination tonight at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), in turn, said that U.S. intelligence analysts should “fake it” if they are ordered to brief Trump, a businessman who has never held elected office.

“If you’re forced to brief this guy, don’t tell him anything,” he told the Huffington Post. “Just fake it because this man is dangerous.”

Intelligence officials say election briefings to presidential nominees tend to be chiefly analysis of current events and leaders, and do not include highly classified details of spying sources and methods.

Clapper said this year’s heated campaign rhetoric has been “very bothersome” to U.S. allies.

“I hear that from my counterparts who take very, very seriously and study very, very closely what political figures in this country say and it is worrying to them,” he said.

“I tell them that it is part of our process in the United States and, hopefully, it will all come out right.”

A little over a month ago, Jensen Walcott and Jake A. Reed, two friends from Kansas City, Kan., were excited to find out they’d both gotten summer jobs at the same pizza restaurant.

The friends, both 17, congratulated each other, naturally, on Snapchat. But when Reed told her how much he was making, $8.25 an hour, she thought there must be some mistake — the wage she’d been offered was 25 cents less.

So she called her manager to ask. She was put on hold, and then promptly fired, she was told, because it was against company policy to discuss pay. Reed was told the same.

The hiring manager has been fired and the pizza chain has since apologized, calling it a “misunderstanding” that had nothing to do with gender discrimination. But the controversy that followed launched the two teens into the national spotlight and prompted Hillary Clinton to tweet words of encouragement.

On Thursday the pair will land on stage at the DNC.

“I don’t think anyone should be discriminated against,” Walcott told the Kansas City Star Wednesday. “Whether it’s race, or gender, or sexual orientation, or disability or anything like that.”

DNC speech writers helped them craft their address.

The teens told the newspaper they’re having the time of their lives at the convention.

“Last month I was just applying for a job,” Reed said. “We’re so baffled.”

While Walcott won’t be able to vote this November (she doesn’t turn 18 until after the election), Reed, a registered Democrat, says he plans to cast a ballot.

×

Former mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa speaks at the Democratic National Convention about immigration. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told the thousands gathered at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Thursday that it was up to them to “stand up and fight” for the estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.

Villaraigosa, who chaired the party’s 2012 national convention in North Carolina, focused his five-minute speech on the plight of those immigrants and the threat they face, he said, if Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wins in November.

Trump has vowed to swiftly deport the millions of immigrants living in the U.S. without illegally.

“Donald Trump proposes the greatest mass deportation in our nation’s or any nation’s history,” Villaraigosa said on the final day of the party’s convention.

The former mayor said Trump’s immigration plan was patterned after an effort known by the outdated, racially offensive name “Operation Wetback,” an effort under President Dwight Eisenhower that led to the deportation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Villaraigosa, who is expected to make a run for California governor in 2018, said Trump’s plans would destroy families and communities. They deserve better, he said.

“They work in the hot sun. They put food on our tables even though they often have little for theirs. They build, repair and clean our homes,” Villaraigosa said. “They take care of our children when they have no one to care for their own.’’

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, Villaraigosa said, will work to protect immigrants and fix the nation’s broken immigration system.

“We will be stronger when we elect a woman who has fought for the forgotten children; given voice to the unrepresented,” Villaraigosa said. “A woman who’s like the good shepherd and wants to bring all the flock in. Not just the white flock, but the black flock, the yellow flock, the brown flock, the Muslim flock, the Jewish flock. Every single one of us. ‘’

Montserrat Garibay, 36, vice president of the local teachers union in Austin, Texas

“It’s going to change the way girls see themselves. We always ask our students to be inspired and be anything that they want to be,” said Garibay, a native of Mexico City who became an American citizen after living 23 years in the U.S.

She began crying as she added, “I don’t have any children, but these past couple of months, I’ve really considered having a child so they can see the beautiful statement that we’re doing as a country. That we respect women and that they can change the world.”

The Democratic Party has included raising the minimum wage to $15 in its official party platform, following in the footsteps of Los Angeles and California, which first adopted plans to gradually raise the state minimum wage from $10 to $15. If the new minimum wage were in place today, would it be a living wage for your family? Use our calculator to find out.