What Went Down On Night 3 Of The DNC

Host Kerry Washington starts with a short prompt about building a more perfect union, highlighting that people like her were once only counted as three-fifths of a person.

You can use our guide to voting laws in each state to help make your voting plan.

Harris is taking the opportunity to kick off the evening talking about the mechanics and importance of voting. That has been a big theme of the convention so far.

Little preview with Harris encouraging voters to, well, vote. A good warmup for her.

Harris starts things off after the Pledge of Allegiance, encouraging people to vote.

It’s really too bad that the DNC didn’t have any young, exciting rising stars to give more speaking time to, rather than reuse that video from Monday night.

It can’t be fun to speak at a DNC when you were accepting the nomination at the last on … and now, you’re speaking before the prime-time hour on the third night. I definitely don’t envy Hillary Clinton tonight.

Republicans and former Trump voters who have now switched teams are becoming a familiar trope in this convention.

Seems the DNC is using the exact same “I’m a Republican voting for Biden” video they used earlier this week.

“Holy mackerel, folks. Let’s get to work.” With those immortal words, Evers kicks off the third night of the DNC.

I’m excited for Mariska Hargitay.

How does Clinton manage all the bad memories that Democrats have of 2016? She wants to use herself as an example of how things can go wrong. I’m interested in hearing how she tries to do that.

I’m excited to hear Billie Eillish🎶. Also, I am interested to hear what Warren will say and see if she’ll focus on issues or the just talk up the Biden-Harris ticket.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson has gaveled things to order, so the third night is under way. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers starts things off.

Harris will be the most important speaker. She has a moment to redefine herself after a lackluster primary campaign. My hunch is she will come hard after Trump and do a prosecutor-style indictment. After all, VPs are normally called on to go on the attack. And it’s a role she is perfect for.

Chris, Michelle Obama’s 2016 speech was a real standout, but I felt like this year’s kind of replayed some of the same material. Granted, those snappy one-liners are hard to write, so I don’t envy the speechwriters.

I’m not, Clare. 😦

I’m interested to see the world react to Hillary Clinton.

Chris, I don’t remember anything from 2016!

Micah, who do you remember from 2016? Barack or Michelle?

Amelia, it sounds like Obama was still editing it only an hour or two ago, so it could include some very fresh material.

I’m gonna pick the other obvious choice, which is Harris. I think part of the dynamic of the party not selecting a single keynote speaker to represent the future of the party Tuesday night is that many in the party hope that future is Harris, particularly because of Biden’s age. Does she meet the massive expectations of the moment?

Will anyone, including Barack, top Michelle Obama from Night 1?

I think this is probably the most important night of the convention, with Obama and Harris. The fourth night is often a bit of an anticlimax, because the nominee’s speech can be a bit perfunctory.

I keep reminding myself that there are people who aren’t as masochistically tuned in as us, and this is a chance for Harris to introduce herself to the portions of the electorate that haven’t been paying attention up until now.

Earlier today, Galen Druke chatted with Clare Malone and Sarah Frostenson about what they are looking for from the speeches tonight.

Not to give Harris short shrift, but I’m really interested to hear Obama’s speech. Trump has spent the past 3+ years actively trying to dismantle every part of his legacy. Are we going to see Obama come out swinging?

Yes! We are finally at the heavy hitter part of the week. Obviously Obama is always a crowd-pleaser, but I’m also keen to hear Warren (we haven’t heard from her in a minute!) and see how Harris performs.

Yeah, I almost feel sorry for Harris that she has to follow Obama. Almost because, you know, she’s her party’s vice presidential nominee and that’s a helluva gig.

C’mon, Micah, anyone who doesn’t say Barack Obama is lying. He’s a once-in-a-generation orator.

Seriously, though, who are people looking forward to the most tonight?

Night 3!! While it’s still a virtual convention, you’ll notice our pal Fivey here continues to get into the convention spirit and bring that Wisconsin energy 🧀 to our live blog.

Now I’m going to go find some cheese to snack on.

Big night tonight! Lots of heavy hitters slated to speak. Is everyone excited?!?!?!?

On Monday night, I wondered whether the DNC’s TV ratings would be up (because people are stuck at home with nothing to do) or down (because the convention is so scaled down this year) compared with 2016. Well, after two nights, we have a pretty clear answer: Television viewership of the convention is way down.

After Monday night drew just 19.7 million TV viewers, viewership was even lower on Tuesday: 19.2 million people tuned in. That’s down from a norm of about 25 million for the nights of the 2012 and 2016 DNCs that didn’t feature the nominee’s acceptance speech.

Part of this decrease could be due to people switching from TV viewing to streaming, which isn’t captured by the Nielsen ratings. Indeed, according to the Biden campaign, 10.2 million people streamed Monday’s proceedings. However, we don’t know how many people streamed the conventions in 2012 or 2016, so it’s impossible to compare 2020’s combined TV-plus-online numbers to past years.

Why should we care about ratings? If fewer people are watching than in past years, Biden could get a smaller-than-usual post-convention polling bounce.

Tuesday night at the DNC may have lacked a breakout star (excluding, of course, the Rhode Island chef who showed off the state’s weird obsession with calamari in the virtual roll-call vote). But Wednesday night is unlikely to have the same problem. Expectations are high for both Kamala Harris, who officially accepts the vice presidential nomination this evening, and former President Barack Obama, who will deliver the keynote address.

Tonight’s theme is “a more perfect union,” and Democrats are expected to continue to build their case for why voters should prefer Biden over Trump, hitting on issues including gun control, climate change and the economy. The historic nomination of Harris, as the first Asian American and the first Black woman to be on the ticket for either of the two major political parties, means there will also be a special emphasis tonight on the increasingly important role women have played in the Democratic Party. (On that point, Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential nominee, will also speak this evening.)

So join us as we react to tonight’s events, engage in lively debates and more — right here on the live blog. And if you have any questions, be sure to ping us at @538politics!