BETHLEHEM, Pa. — An energized crowd of about 170 Democrats rallied around their new party ticket Monday night, holding a local party convention of sorts days after the Democratic National Convention concluded.
For about two hours, elected officials, past candidates, campaign volunteers, community organizers and students cheered on as 13 speakers hammered home the importance of electing Democrats into office at the state and federal levels this November.
U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, D-Lehigh Valley, led off the evening while Erin McClellan, the state treasurer candidate, delivered the closing remarks.
Wild, a three-term incumbent, highlighted achievements of the Biden administration, such as lowering Medicare drug costs and passing climate change legislation. Those successes would be rolled back if former President Donald Trump won election, she warned.
"We have the ability here to elect people — and I'm talking about people from the top of the ballot all the way down — who are pro-middle class, not pro 1%. We have the ability to elect people who will never lay a hand on Medicare and Social Security," Wild said.
State Rep. Josh Siegel, D-Lehigh, told the crowd that the modern Republican Party is no longer pushing for smaller government as it did in the 1980s through the 2000s.
"It's government that's got your back versus government that's on your back."State Rep. Josh Siegel, D-Lehigh
Instead, he said the party wants a government with a large enough reach to dictate choices to Americans such as reproductive rights and medical care. He noted that he and his wife are set to begin in vitro fertilization treatments as they attempt to grow their family, but conservatives have tried to insert government policies into those matters.
"It's government that's got your back versus government that's on your back," Siegel said.
Project 2025
Much of the night was spent focused on Project 2025, a 922-page document created by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The document proposes a wide array of policy changes that would centralize power under a Republican president and reshape the federal government.
Its proposals include empowering the military to engage in domestic law enforcement, making tens of thousands of government positions political appointees so they could be replaced by partisans and pulling FDA approval for the abortion pill mifepristone.
Trump has denied knowledge of the document and called some of its proposals "ridiculous and abysmal," but CNN identified at least 140 former Trump administration advisers who contributed to the plan. Portions of it also align with Agenda 47, the official platform of the Republican Party, such as abolishing the U.S. Department of Education.
Multiple speakers wielded the document as a cudgel, saying it was proof of the disasters a second Trump term would unleash on the country.
Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure urged volunteers to use Project 2025 as a way to connect with swing voters. Many of its proposals are deeply unpopular with the American public such as selling public housing to private corporations and deporting Dreamers, young adults who grew up in the United States but are not legal residents, he said.
"I don't know any swing voter, any decent person, who would support that," McClure said.
A rare gathering
Janine Carambot Santoro, Bethlehem's director of equity and inclusion, warned that Project 2025 isn't a potential danger to Americans but one already in effect. States with conservative legislatures have already worked to ban contraceptives and access to mail-order abortion pills, and efforts are underway to end no-fault divorce and raise the retirement age. Santoro said her intent was not to kill the enthusiasm in the room but to ensure that participants knew full well the stakes of the 2024 election.
"This is not impending doom. This is happening right now," she said.
While it's old hat for political organizations to rally their troops ahead of a big election, it's been rare for so many of the Lehigh Valley's left-leaning groups to get their supporters in one room ahead of an election.
The event drew volunteers from the Bethlehem Democratic Committee, the Lehigh County Democratic Committee, Lehigh Valley 4 All, Nazareth Area Pride, the Northampton County Democratic Committee, the Pennsylvania Democratic State Black Caucus, the Southern Lehigh Democratic Committee and the Upper Lehigh Democratic Club, among other organizations.
Kathy Harrington, a founder of Lehigh Valley 4 All and one of the events MCs, told the crowd it wasn't enough to be energized and to vote. Conservatives have long tried to pit Democrats against one another by pointing out their differences and hoping infighting would sink their causes.
"All of this is for nothing if we don't come together and win," Harrington said.
Top of the ticket
Some in the crowd fanned themselves as they sat in the warm summer night air in the Steelworkers Union Hall on East Lehigh Street. Harrington and fellow MCs Esther Lee and Mike Law welcomed speakers to the stage while sitting behind a banner reading, "Vote blue no matter who."
Doctored yard signs covering up President Joe Biden's name and emphasizing Vice President Kamala Harris' rise to the top of the ticket were taped to the walls over candidate literature and sign-ups for poll watchers.
Dagny Danga-Storm, of Bethlehem, walked out carrying one of the doctored yard signs. After knocking on doors early in the summer to drum up support for Democratic candidates, she's seen a surge in enthusiasm among locals, she said.
Biden's decision to step aside has allowed the party to connect with younger voters looking for new energy, she said.
"I think we've got it with Harris and Walz," she said. "We are not going to go back."
