Contributing Writers

Senator Kamala Harris is the first Indian American and first Black woman to be nominated for vice president on a major party ticket, but, as many historians have noted, Harris is not the first Black woman to run for vice president.

As Kamala Harris makes history as the first woman of color to run on a major party presidential ticket, many Black progressive women remain ambivalent, says Derecka Purnell, a human rights lawyer, abolitionist and columnist for The Guardian newspaper.

Senator Kamala Harris has formally accepted the Democratic vice-presidential nomination, becoming the first woman of color to run on a major party presidential ticket. We feature part of her historic speech.

On the third night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, party leaders argued that U.S. democracy is at risk if President Trump is reelected in November, with a lineup of speeches from former Congressmember Gabby Giffords, senator and former presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren and former President Barack Obama, who grew emotional describing the stakes of the election and urged people not to “let them take away your democracy.

After massive public outcry against cuts to mail service ahead of November’s election, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has announced he will suspend changes to the U.S. Postal Service until after the election, when a record number of voters are expected to cast ballots by mail. President Trump has admitted he’s working to undermine the USPS in order to make it harder to vote by mail in November.

The Democratic National Committee has dropped a pledge to eliminate tax breaks and subsidies for the fossil fuel industry from its party platform, after a DNC spokesperson said the amendment was originally included in “error,” despite both Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris supporting it on the campaign trail.

As Democrats coalesce around Joe Biden ahead of the November presidential election, we speak with economist Darrick Hamilton, a former Bernie Sanders supporter who took part in the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force, about where the Democratic Party is headed on economic policy. Hamilton says that while Biden’s policies are not as radical as the moment requires, he can be pushed by social movements. “We will make Biden do it,” Hamilton says, quoting Franklin D.

As the Democratic Party formally selected Joe Biden as its nominee for president at the virtual Democratic National Convention, one of those who joined in the call to elect him was activist Ady Barkan, who is paralyzed and unable to speak due to terminal ALS. Barkan is a leading advocate of Medicare for All and has publicly challenged Biden, who does not support Medicare for All. “We live in the richest country in history. And yet we do not guarantee this most basic human right.

Joe Biden is the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, after he was formally picked by the party to challenge President Trump in November on the second night of the virtual Democratic National Convention.

As this year marks 100 years since the ratification of 19th Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing women’s right to vote, we look at the connection between the movement for women’s suffrage and the movement to abolish slavery. Many states created laws to continue to deny women the vote, and African American women were subjected to the same Jim Crow laws already used to deny the vote to African American men.

The Democratic National Convention faces criticism over the lack of diversity in its primetime programming during this year’s virtual event, even as Latinx voters are slated to make up the largest bloc of nonwhite voters in 2020. Only a handful of Latinx speakers and no Muslim speakers are appearing during the broadcasted convention, while Republicans like former Ohio Governor John Kasich were given slots.

One of the most memorable speeches of the opening night of the virtual Democratic National Convention was delivered by Kristin Urquiza, who said her father, a supporter of Donald Trump, died after believing the president’s assurances that the coronavirus was under control. “My dad, Mark Anthony Urquiza, should be here today, but he isn’t,” she said. “My dad was a healthy 65-year-old.

Calling the 2020 election “the most important in the modern history of this country,” Senator Bernie Sanders, in his speech to the Democratic National Convention, urged people to fight “against greed, oligarchy and bigotry” by voting President Trump out of office in November. “We need Joe Biden as our next president,” Sanders said.

On the first night of the Democratic National Convention, former first lady Michelle Obama delivered a searing critique of President Trump, accusing him of being “in over his head” and incapable of carrying out the duties of the office. “If you think things cannot possibly get worse, trust me, they can,” Obama said. We air excerpts from her keynote speech, delivered virtually after the convention was moved online due to the pandemic.