CHICAGO — Energy is exploding around the Democratic National Convention, with demand for tickets, venues and hotel rooms surging as Vice President Kamala Harris prepares to become the first Black and Asian American woman to formally accept a nomination by an important party.
Credentials are valuable. Events are growing in size and number. Some corporate clients are sending more people, while others are extending their stays.
Since Harris rose to the top of the Democratic poll, there has been a flood of new applications for entry into the main event space at the United Center and neighboring parties, say people close to the convention and event planning.
Chris Korge, chairman of national finance for the Democratic National Committee, who has worked on Democratic presidential politics for decades, said he is receiving numerous calls and texts with last-minute requests for input around the four-day convention, which begins on the 19th. of August.
“A pass to get into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago is a more attractive ticket than a Taylor Swift concert,” Korge said. “We have to tell people there is a limit to the number of people we can include at the convention.”
The demand surrounding the convention reflects the ferment the party has been experiencing since President Joe Biden stopped seeking the party’s nomination on July 21. Harris, who announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, is riding a wave of momentum. She has filled arenas in recent weeks — a new phenomenon for the campaign. Harris campaign reported raising an impressive $310 million last month, more than double what former President Donald Trump’s campaign had raised. In one week, 360,000 people signed up to volunteer at Harris.
It’s all a marked change from the days and weeks after Biden’s devastating debate with Trump in late June. As fundraising for Biden began to falter, there was talk of canceling events during the convention, said Jaimey Sexton, a consultant with the Sexton Group in Chicago who booked or helped organize several events during the convention.
Now, he said, he has difficulty helping to find a suitable place to dine for a group of 20 people.
“Before it was a wake; now it will be Mardi Gras,” Sexton said. “Normally, these things would have come up six weeks ago. But everyone was paralyzed; Nobody had money to do anything.”
After Harris took over Biden’s role at the top of the Democratic ticket, demand accelerated, he said.
“Now it’s just a rush,” he said, to accommodate all the new orders.
One person close to convention planning said that, to some extent, it’s common for people to come out of the woodwork two weeks before a convention trying to get tickets. And after Covid sidetracked live events in 2020, there was sustained enthusiasm to hold the first real Democratic convention since 2016. The Chicago Host Committee closed its call for convention volunteers in late July, after having received applications or interest forms from 30,000 people. It surpassed its goal of 12,000 in mid-July, before the nominee changed, a spokesperson said.
Still, consultants, event organizers, activists and delegates say they are seeing a surge in interest since Harris took the reins. The host of one event specifically asked that it not be publicized for fear it would exceed capacity.
Conversations about exchanging tickets for entry to the event are already underway, said Greg Goldner, founder and managing partner of Resolute Public Affairs.
Goldner said some of his corporate clients are sending more people for longer stays than anticipated, candidates competing in November who only planned to attend for a few days are extending their trips and new entertainment and events are popping up.
Finding a hotel room is still possible — Chicago can accommodate conventions of 100,000 people, and the convention is estimated to draw 50,000 — but prices aren’t cheap, he said.
“The informal economy is around access and who can negotiate what will be the best,” Goldner said. “The centralized calendar is now a huge spreadsheet that grows larger every day. … You’re starting to see a lot of new events that will be fun.”
Illinois State Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is also a delegate, is among those who have been bombarded with requests for help obtaining credentials for the convention.
“Enthusiasm is out of the question now. We really felt a lot of momentum at this convention,” Mendoza said. “My phone has literally been ringing like crazy with people asking me if I have extra tickets to the convention. They are so hard to find, which is clearly a sign of enthusiasm.”
Kim Walz, a longtime Democratic activist in Chicago and former city council candidate, said the past few weeks have been transformative for her and other party members.
“There’s been so much division that I wanted to just ignore it all – and I’m a pretty engaged person. And I think a lot of people felt that way. Ignore the noise and maybe it would go away – but it didn’t, and it got louder and angrier,” said Walz (who is no known relation to Tim Walz). “That changed for me. I have new hope for the direction of our country and the world in which my daughter will grow up.”
“I’m excited,” she said. “The energy around this note is palpable.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
