Democratic National Convention Day Three: Obama argues ‘America is already great, America is already strong’

Join us for the final day of the Democratic National Convention over here. Our team will capture every moment.

If you missed anything from the third night, catch up below, or watch the convention in less than 3 minutes.

×

What you missed on the third day of the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide. See other Democratic roundups here and catch up on the Republian convention here.

The Secret Service issued a statement late Wednesday saying seven people had been arrested for trying to enter a secure zone.

Four people were arrested under similar circumstances Tuesday night.

The full statement:

President Obama praised Hillary Clinton as a fighter with the experience needed to lead the country.

He used his Democratic National Convention address to assail Donald Trump as offering ideas that would set the country back.

Watch the full speech:

×

President Obama speaks at the Democratic National Convention.

Some Republican operatives and commentators sounded off about President Obama’s speech on Twitter, remarking that it was optimistic compared to Donald Trump’s speech last week.

Rich Lowry, editor of the conservative National Review, tweeted, “they’re trying to take all our stuff” after Obama invoked President Reagan’s use of the phrase “shining city on a hill” to describe the United States.

Among them: Tim Miller, who served as Jeb Bush’s communications director before the Republican dropped out of the presidential contest.

Others noted that Hillary Clinton now has some big acts to follow after First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama gave such well-received speeches.

The GOP’s leaders, including Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, focused on attacking Clinton and her nominee, Tim Kaine, as “DC insiders.”

And while Democrats spent the night trying to convince voters things were great in the U.S., Donald Trump was there to assure them they were not.

It’s unusual for a retiring president to go on the offensive so directly against one of the candidates running to succeed him. A traditionalist might consider it unbecoming. In 2008, for example, George W. Bush never talked that way about Barack Obama.

But Obama not only holds Trump in contempt (he has ridiculed him before); he clearly views the Republican nominee as a direct threat to his legacy. Not merely the political legacy of his economic stimulus, his healthcare law and his energy projects, but – more important – the legacy of his battered but still lovely 2012 dream of “One America.”

Read More

President Obama’s Wednesday night speech at the Democratic National Convention is likely to be among his last prime-time addresses to the nation.

The president’s popularity has been on the rise lately.

His supporters voiced their appreciation on social media as the commander in chief spoke.

The videos begin with “Hail to the Chief” and a proclamation: “A Message from Your Possible Next President.”

At various junctures of the Democratic National Convention this week videos castigating Donald Trump are being shown on the jumbotron to attendees, presumably to scare them in hopes they help get out the vote.

The 20-second clips have highlighted his own words on, among other things, women, veterans and religion.

In a video on Monday, a clip resurfaced of Trump’s comments earlier in the year calling the European country of Belgium a “beautiful city.”

On Tuesday, it was Trump’s attacks on Sen. John McCain’s war record and comments on pregnancy that were on display.

In Wednesday’s videos, delegates heard Trump’s words about world peace and the U.S. electorate.

For months now, Clinton and her allies have hammered the Republican businessman on television in several battleground states.

Her campaign released a round of television ads using Trump’s words against him to attack the billionaire businessman’s foreign policy acumen.

These songs were played Wednesday when the major speakers entered or left the stage at the Democratic National Convention:

President Bill Clinton: “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead.

Vice President Joe Biden: “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay, “Gonna Fly Now (Theme from ‘Rocky’)” by Bill Conti and “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me (Higher and Higher)” by Jackie Wilson.

Vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine: “Get Ready” by the Temptations.

President Barack Obama: “City of Blinding Lights” by U2, “Land of Hopes and Dreams” by Bruce Springsteen and “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” by Stevie Wonder.

Read the transcript of President Obama’s Democratic National Convention address, as released ahead of the speech by the White House.

Read More

President Obama’s remark was a reference to a classic convention speech then-Texas Gov. Ann Richards gave in 1988.

The line, according to Roger’s official website, originated with Bob Thaves, a cartoonist best known for the long-running comic strip “Frank and Ernest.”

The comic strip, which Rogers said someone sent to her, had three characters looking at a poster for a Fred Astaire film festival. A woman says to Frank and Ernest: “Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did ... backwards and in high heels.”

When Hillary Clinton named Tim Kaine as her running mate, the questions came immediately: Was he too mild, too bland, too moderate – in short, too nice to wage a ferocious campaign against the likes of Donald Trump?

The answer, based on Kaine’s acceptance speech Wednesday night, turns out to be: Almost.

Kaine sounded like a folksy, joky Midwestern uncle. The adjective Trump would use – will use – is “low-energy.” He stepped on some of his own biggest lines.

But he was just partisan enough –and just riled enough -- to tear a strip off the Republican nominee.

Read More

Democratic National Convention organizers presented this video about President Obama’s legacy before he took the stage on the third night of the party confab.

“This is kind of a bittersweet moment for me and Jill,” Joe Biden told an admiring audience brandishing signs that bore only his first name.

In perhaps his last highest-profile speech to the nation, the vice president ably performed the role he’d mastered: the loyal lieutenant and validator of the middle class.

Of Donald Trump, Biden offered one of his harshest admonishments: “His cynicism is unbounded.”

And, yes, the word “malarkey” made the speech cut.

Read More

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence campaigned solo Wednesday for the first time since he was named Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate, arguing that the GOP nominee is the only person who can fix the dysfunction in Washington.

“I truly do believe, having spent some time with this good man who will be our next president, is that he is first and foremost a leader who will grab Washington, D.C., by the lapels and he will shake the results out that will unleash the full potential of the American people,” he told supporters gathered at a county expo center.

The scene was quite different from Trump’s rallies. Rather than thousands of people, there were hundreds. Pence read from notes rather than riffing on a range of topics, as Trump tends to do. The crowd cheered and applauded but seemed subdued compared with Trump’s audiences.

“I recognize I’m kind of a B-list Republican celebrity, so thank you for coming out tonight,” Pence said.

He said he was “humbled” and “honored” to serve as Trump’s running mate because he believes that the nation is at a crossroads, that it is imperative to stop Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and that the conservative policies enacted in Indiana and Wisconsin are desperately needed in Washington.

Pence did not shy away from the discussing the ideals that have made him a favorite among social conservatives, repeatedly saying the future of the Supreme Court for a generation is at stake in this election.

He was introduced by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Pence thanked them for their remarks, but said he preferred a shorter introduction.

“I’m a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order,” he said.

President Obama’s popularity was highest at the beginning of his presidency. But after hitting weekly averages in the low 40s during his presidency, most recently in 2014, his approval ratings are presently above the average for his term (47%). Obama’s approval rating is higher than George W. Bush’s at the same point during his presidency, but lower than at the same time during the terms of Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

Campaign promises

The fact-checking website PolitiFact, run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, has been tracking more than 500 promises made during Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns. According to its tracking (“Obameter”), his record has been mixed, with 240 promises kept and 6% still in the works.

Affordable Care Act

The signature legislation of Obama’s presidency is 2010’s Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. The percentage of Americans with health insurance has jumped almost 7 points since 2009, but the largest increase came after Jan. 1, 2014, when major provisions of the Affordable Care Act were officially implemented.

Unemployment

A sticking point in the economy, especially during Obama’s first term, was the persistently high unemployment following the economic collapse in 2008. The seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate peaked at 10% in October of 2009 before returning to pre-crash levels in 2014.

Commander in chief

U.S. troop levels surged in Iraq near the end of Bush’s second term in order to tamp down an insurgency. When Obama entered office, he promised to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bulk of the troops are now out of both countries, but Obama recently announced an increase in the number of troops that will remain in Afghanistan through the end of his term.

×

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, severely injured in a 2011 mass shooting, speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More convention coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who was wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, has become a leading opponent of the National Rifle Assn.

On Tuesday, she lauded Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, as a leader on gun control.

Former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg hit Donald Trump on Wednesday night where it hurts: in his business portfolio.

The political independent, showing up at the Democratic National Convention to lend his support to Hillary Clinton, called Trump a “dangerous demagogue” and said he spoke from experience when he described the Manhattan mogul as a fraud and a lousy businessman.

“Throughout his career, Trump has left behind a well-documented record of bankruptcies, and thousands of lawsuits and angry shareholders, and contractors who feel cheated, and disillusioned customers who feel they’ve been ripped off,” said Bloomberg, who became a billionaire building his eponymous financial news service -- without, he pointedly noted, the $1-million stake Trump received from his father.

“Trump says he wants to run the nation like he runs his business. God help us! I’m a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one,” Bloomberg said, drawing a thunderous roar from the crowd.

Bloomberg, who briefly considered his own third-party run for the White House, acknowledged he and Clinton have had their political differences and -- in an explicit reach for political independents and other skeptics -- said others may too.

But, he went on, “Whatever our differences may be, I have come here to say we must put them aside for the good of our country. And we must unite around the candidate who can defeat a dangerous demagogue.”

The bottom line, Bloomberg said: “Trump is a risky, reckless and radical choice, and we can’t afford to make that choice.”

“Together, let’s elect a sane, competent person,” Bloomberg concluded, an ad lib that drew a thunderous did-he-just-say-that roar inside the convention hall. “Let’s elect Hillary Clinton.”

×

Former mayor of New York Michael R. Bloomberg, a former Republican, speaks at the Democratic National Convention, attacking Donald Trump. Full convention coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

WikiLeaks released 29 voicemails hacked from Democratic Party staffers on Wednesday evening, dropping the latest leaks shortly before prime-time programming at the Democratic National Convention.

The release capped a day of discussion about hacks into the Democratic party’s systems, as Democrats piled on Donald Trump for encouraging Russia to find Hillary Clinton’s emails and release them.

Many of the voicemails appeared to be routine in nature. Most were brief messages clearing up logistics and requesting return calls from Democratic National Committee staffers. The first is a brief conversation from a father and young boy at a zoo visit.

One voicemail came from a woman who identified herself as an aide to Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, a major Democratic donor who served as American ambassador to Portugal. The aide asked if there was going to be a St. Patrick’s Day reception at the White House. In a follow-up voicemail she said Bagley got an invitation to the event. Bagley and her late husband, Smith Bagley, were generous donors to the Clintons and to President Obama’s inauguration.

In another voicemail, a man who says he is William Eacho, former ambassador to Austria and another Obama donor, returned a call from former DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz seeking more details “about a small dinner with President Obama this week.”

Three voicemails came from anonymous callers who were contacting the committee to complain about the amount of control Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was given over the party’s platform committee, including his naming of Princeton University Professor Cornel West to the committee.

“I am furious about what you are doing for Bernie Sanders,” said one donor, who mentioned she donated $300 to the committee. “Please don’t give in to him.”

Late last week, Wikileaks released 19,252 emails and attached documents from the DNC.

×

Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More convention coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

Read More

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Tim Kaine has a reputation for being a nice guy and the rare Washington politician who enjoys friendships — genuine friendships, not the transactional Beltway type — with lawmakers on both sides of the political divide.

But introducing himself to the nation Wednesday night at the Democratic National Convention, the Virginia senator showed he can also wield a dagger with the steeliest of political partisans — albeit in a genial, by-gosh manner.

Chosen as Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Kaine took up the customary role of campaign slasher with gusto, gleefully contrasting Clinton’s detail-laden policy agenda with Donald Trump’s vague promises.

Lowering his vote in a mocking rendition of the businessman’s braggadocio, Kaine ticked through a litany of Trump’s business failures.

“He says, ‘Believe me,’’’ Kaine jocularly scoffed. “Well his creditors, his contractors, his laid-off employees, his ripped-off students did just that. Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth.”

At that, the convention hall took up the chant “Not one word! Not one word!”

“To me,” Kaine went on, “it just seems that our nation is too great to put it in the hands of a slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting, one-man wrecking crew.”

Twisting the knife, he quoted the criticisms leveled by several of Trump’s fellow Republicans, among them Ohio Gov. John Kasich who, Kaine said, “had the honor of hosting the Republican National Convention in Cleveland but wouldn’t even attend it because he thinks Trump is such a moral disaster.”

Much of Kaine’s speech was autobiographical, tracing his life from his birth in the Midwest, through volunteer work with Jesuit missionaries in Central America and years as a civil rights lawyer before starting his career in politics as a member of the Richmond, Va., City Council.

“My journey has convinced me that God has created a rich tapestry in this country,” said Kaine, a devout Catholic. “An incredible cultural diversity that succeeds when we embrace everyone in love and battle against the dark forces of division. We’re all neighbors and we must love our neighbors as ourselves.”

He also stepped easily into a second role expected of a presidential understudy: extolling the virtues of the candidate at the top of the ticket.

“When you want to know about the character of someone in public life, look to see if they have a passion, one that began before they were in office and that they have consistently held on to throughout their career,” Kaine said.

“Hillary’s passion is kids and family. Donald Trump has passion, too. It’s himself.”

“And it’s not just words with Hillary; it’s accomplishments,” Kaine said. “She delivers.”

President Obama will take a brief walk down memory lane on Wednesday night as he recalls the famous words that launched his national career.

Twelve years to the day after his speech to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama is back to renew his call for hope, optimism and unity in America — this time on behalf of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

He spoke back then of a “single American family,” despite what the “spin masters and negative ad peddlers” were saying.

“I say to them tonight, there’s not a liberal America and a conservative America; there’s the United States of America,” Obama said then.

In the years since, as the country has become even more politically polarized, Obama has been called on repeatedly to defend those ideas.

On Wednesday, he plans to do so with vigor, aides said.

Especially at a time of such “vitriol on the campaign trail,” said one veteran aide, Obama wants to make the case for unity and optimism.

“A lot of people saw universal truths in [the 2004 speech] that we’re still looking for,” said another senior aide. “That all still holds true.”

Twelve years ago tonight, Obama said that there wasn’t “a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America.”

“We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America,” he said.

Obama still stands by those words, his advisors say.

Donald Trump’s famously untamed manner on Twitter raised high expectations for his performance Wednesday on the freewheeling Reddit social media site for an “Ask Me Anything” session with thousands of unseen strangers.

But instead of a rollicking free-for-all, the candidate who has mastered the Web’s anything-goes culture better than any other took nothing but friendly questions from supporters, yielding a slow scroll of talking points from the Republican presidential nominee.

A Reddit user who goes by the name “GodEmperorDonald” wanted to know: “Which US president do you admire the most?”

“There have been many amazing Presidents in American history, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan, all of whom I greatly admire,” Trump replied.

And on it went, with another supporter asking whether Trump was “getting tired of winning.”

Organizers of the “Ask Me Anything” told visitors in an introduction that they’d taken “extra security measures to keep our community free from troublemakers,” such as Trump critics.

“We built the wall 10 ft taller, you might say,” their notice said.

After a brief ode to California being a socially inclusive, “jet-propelled engine of job creation,” Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom used the bulk of his five minutes on stage at the Democratic National Convention to rip into Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

“His hostile takeover of the American dream is built on two fundamental lies: That America is a dark and desperate place and that he has any kind of a plan to make it better,” Newsom told the noisy crowd inside Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center. “Trump strangled the sunny optimism of Ronald Reagan and replaced ‘tear down that wall’ with the cynical bigotry of ‘build that wall.’”

Newsom, who already has launched a 2018 gubernatorial run, also went after Trump’s pick for a running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. He criticized Pence for advocating for the use of taxpayer money for “conversion therapy” — a widely discredited practice aimed at converting the sexual orientation of minors from gay to straight. Newsom likened the therapy to torture.

“While it was refreshing to finally see an openly gay man speak at a Republican convention, it doesn’t remove the stain of selecting Mike Pence, America’s most anti-LGBT governor,” said Newsom, who served for two terms as mayor of San Francisco. “Pence has supported overt discrimination.”

During his time as mayor, Newsom created a national controversy in 2004 when he ordered the city to issue same-sex marriage licenses. In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court held that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

Newsom told the crowded arena of Democrats that the choice between Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton could not be more stark.

“We can live our fears or we can live our dreams,” he said. “Hillary Clinton has dedicated her entire life to putting the American dream within reach.”

President Obama called Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday night to thank him for wrapping up the Democratic convention roll call by moving to nominate Hillary Clinton by acclamation.

Sanders’ action was an important moment for Obama, who remembers well the bitter feelings that followed his own hard-fought and sometimes bitter primary campaign against Clinton in 2008.

At the convention that year, it was Clinton who stood up on the floor and called on her supporters to rally behind Obama. Many of them joined her in shouts of acclamation to nominate Obama to be the 44th president of the United States.

After watching Sanders do the same for Clinton, Obama told aides he wanted to thank him for providing Clinton the moment that she had given so memorably to him.

The gulf between her supporters and Obama’s was “bridged by what Secretary Clinton did on the floor of the chamber” that year, said a senior advisor who talked to Obama about the call.

“He wanted to thank him for that act of unity,” the aide said.

Kristen Kavanaugh had dreamed of being in the military since high school, when she toured the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

The Ohio-raised daughter of a National Guardsman, Kavanaugh graduated from the school and went on to spend five years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

During the military’s era of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Kavanaugh remained a closeted lesbian until she left the Marines in 2007, unable to keep her secret.

“The turning point was Iraq,” Kavanaugh told the Los Angeles Times in 2011, after the the ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military ended. “Everyone else could call their loved one and talk openly. I had to guard my words and only talk in general terms. It was awful having to live like that.”

At the time, the former Marine captain said she hoped to join the Navy next. Instead, after graduating from USC with a master’s in social work, Kavanaugh co-founded the Military Acceptance Project, a San Diego-based nonprofit that helps improve inclusiveness in the military.

“This isn’t just a gay issue,” Kavanaugh told the San Diego Union-Tribune in 2014. “There are lots of people who go to work every day and don’t feel accepted by their peers.”

She is also president of Trident Analytical Solutions, a military contractor. Kavanaugh has said in the past that she is considering a future in politics.

“I think the political world needs a different voice with a different perspective,” she told the Union-Tribune.

×

Gov. Jerry Brown of California speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide.

Criticizing Republicans for their record on climate change, California Gov. Jerry Brown took aim at GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s onetime suggestion that the warming of the planet was fiction.

“Trump says global warming is a hoax,” said Brown to rousing applause from the convention crowd. “I say Trump is a fraud.”

The governor’s brief speech, part of the warm-up to Wednesday night’s main event, included some cheerleading for California’s efforts. The centerpiece of that plan, a law rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020, was enacted a decade ago this September.

Brown was briefly delayed by anti-fracking chants on the convention floor. The governor has refused to endorse a statewide ban on the hydraulic fracturing process used for oil drilling.

Still, the governor touted the Golden State’s environmental record.

“We’re proving that even with the toughest climate laws in the country, our economy in California is growing faster than almost any nation in the whole world,” Brown said.

But the veteran politician, in his first national convention speech in almost a quarter of a century, seemed to take the most delight in jabbing the GOP’s environmental record.

“Even the Know-Nothing, anti-immigrant party of the 1850s did not stray this far into sheer ignorance and dark fantasy as have the Republicans and their leader Donald Trump,” Brown said.

“Our candidate, Hillary Clinton, couldn’t be more different.”

Christine Leinonen’s son Christopher was one of the last victims identified when a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando last month left 49 people dead.

She told the hushed crowd that her son Christopher Leinonen, 32, had been a big supporter of Hillary Clinton, which is why she had come to speak. When he was born, Leinonen said, she was working as a state trooper in Michigan. At the hospital, she said, they locked up her gun.

Actress Angela Bassett, shown in February, addressed the Democratic convention on Wednesday.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

Democrats are again relying on star power to introduce heavy policy subject matters Wednesday at the Democratic National Convention.

While “Pitch Perfect” director Elizabeth Banks served as a host for part of Tuesday night’s proceedings, Angela Bassett, Lee Daniels and Sigourney Weaver are slotted for Wednesday.

Sigourney Weaver, the star of the “Alien” franchise, “Avatar” and “Ghostbusters,” was tasked with introducing a video on the dangers of climate change that led into California Gov. Jerry Brown’s speech on the topic.

Lee Daniels, the director of “Precious” and “The Butler,” introduced speakers addressing gun violence including Christine Leinonen, whose son was killed in the Orlando, Fla., terrorist attack last month, and the daughter of the principal killed in the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Bassett will introduce Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, who survived the gun attack that killed nine black worshipers during a Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., last year.

Bassett starred as Tina Turner in the biopic “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” and more recently in the FX horror series “American Horror Story: Coven.”

×

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada speaks at the Democratic National Convention. More coverage at latimes.com/trailguide

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who will exit office in January, delivered a blistering speech at the Democratic National Convention.

He jabbed Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as divisive figures.

“[McConnell’s] Republican Party decided that the answer to hard-working Americans’ dreams is to slander our African American president, stoke fear of Muslims, sow hatred of Latinos, insult Asians, and, of course, wage war against women,” Reid said.

Democrats opened up a segment praising Hillary Clinton’s record on veterans issues with a barrage of artillery fire aimed at Donald Trump, attacking him as a “scam artist” who tries to use veterans rather than help them.

Clinton may have some work to do to woo vets. Trump has frequently castigated the performance of Veterans Administration hospitals and promised fixes. This week, Trump got a warm embrace from the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Charlotte, N.C., as members shouted “lock her up” about Clinton. She got a much cooler welcome in her earlier VFW appearance.

The segment opened with a video focusing on Trump’s delays in making good on his promise to grant millions to veterans groups, and on the controversy following his remarks sneering at Sen. John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said last year.

“As a Marine, as an Arizonan, as an American, I am offended,” Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said about the McCain remarks. “Donald Trump is a scam artist; he is trying to keep up the scam by pretending he cares about veterans.”

Jamie Dorff, widow of an Army helicopter pilot who died in Iraq, made a case for Clinton’s veterans credentials, noting that she pushed for a bill to increase survivors’ death benefits from $12,000 to $100,000.

She said her daughter is now graduating from high school and she is finishing a degree.

“Our family is making it step by step, day by day,” Dorff said.

( (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times))

At the Democratic National Convention, Californian politicians are touting California’s leadership in the arena of climate change.

On day one, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León declared that “Democrats in California have led the way” in several areas, including creating clean energy jobs.

As Gov. Jerry Brown announced the Golden State’s roll call votes Tuesday, he called it “the state that defies Donald Trump on climate change.”

Brown will appear at the DNC again Wednesday, this time on stage and in prime time, and is expected to focus entirely on climate change, a topic that has become a top priority and an almost singular focus in his final term.

California has long been considered a pioneer when it comes to addressing the effects of climate change:

• The state’s climate change fight involves an alphabet soup of agencies overseeing various programs.

• Late last year, Brown signed the state’s landmark climate change bill to expand renewable energy and boost energy efficiency.

• Californians have expressed concern for climate change and support policies aimed at curbing its effects, polls have shown.

For Brown, climate change has often been personal:

• Climate change is an issue that melds the spiritual and the political for the former seminarian.

• He has made climate change a central part of his agenda, and as a result, a key source of funding for certain state programs.

• His dogged persistence led him earlier this year to put forth a budget proposal that picked at a scab formed after internal divisions knocked out a key provision on petroleum use in California’s 2015 climate change bill.

• Most recently, Brown has tried to extend the life of one of the state’s most ambitious programs, its cap-and-trade emissions program, past its 2020 sunset.

The work of Brown and other state leaders catapulted California to a position of leadership on the world stage when global leaders met to discuss climate change at a summit in Paris last year.

• More than a dozen California officials attended the conference, which included the heads of state of many countries.
• There, Brown continued his focus on the potential for catastrophe if California and other governments didn’t do more to fight global warming.
• China’s top negotiator at the talks praised the Brown administration for leading by example.

Led by Gov. Jerry Brown and other party leaders, Democrats are using part of the third day of their national convention to talk about the dangers of climate change.

While states like California have taken action to curb greenhouse gases emissions, President Obama’s administration has sought pacts with other countries and also attempted to impose limits on carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, scientific data shows an increasingly warming planet for most years since the early 20th century.