CHICAGO — Hillary Clinton took the stage in suffragette white Monday to pass the torch to a woman she hopes will do what she couldn’t — become the first female president of the United States.
“The future is here!” Clinton said to sustained applause at the Democratic National Convention. “I wish my mother and Kamala’s mother could see it.”
Eight years removed from her crushing defeat in the 2016 presidential election, the former senator and secretary of state weaved herself and Vice President Kamala Harris into the long story of the women’s rights movement, from the passage of the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women voting rights, to this November’s election.
“The story of my life and the history of our country is that progress is possible. But not guaranteed,” said Clinton, who was the first woman nominated to lead a major party’s presidential ticket. “We have to fight for it. And never, ever give up.”
In the audience in the United Center, some women could be seen wiping their eyes — including Gwen Walz, the wife of Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz — and giving knowing nods when Clinton joked about Donald Trump making fun of her and Harris’ laughs.
When she mentioned Trump and his felony conviction, the crowd responded with chants of “lock him up!” — an ironic repurposing of the chants Trump supporters used against Clinton eight years ago. She smiled and nodded before moving on.
After dominating the Democratic Party for decades along with her husband, Bill Clinton, since he was elected president in 1992, Clinton has largely receded from public view since 2016.
Some Democrats blamed her and her campaign team for being overconfident heading into Election Day that year, when they were certain they would defeat Trump in cakewalk.
She had rented out the Javits Center in New York City for her victory party, chosen in part because of the metaphoric value of its glass ceiling. But the ceiling held that night and the confetti cannons never fired, as shellshocked Democrats stumbled into the Manhattan night and a new day for the country with Trump on his way to the White House.
Now, though, frustration with Clinton has cooled, and she was given a hero’s welcome by her fellow Democrats at the party’s first in-person convention since she accepted the nomination eight years ago.
“Together, we put a lot of cracks in the highest hardest glass ceiling. And tonight, tonight, [we are] so close to breaking through once and for all,” Clinton said.
New Jersey first lady Tammy Murphy, who was a major Clinton fundraiser, said Clinton’s campaigns helped make Harris’ possible.
“She ruptured the glass ceiling, and that’s all we needed,” said Murphy, who has pursued a political career of her own. “I think there’s no question that without Hillary Clinton’s work and her incredible posture and the way she has been so dogged in this fight, we wouldn’t be here tonight.”
Her husband, Gov. Phil Murphy, chimed in to agree: “Without Hillary, we don’t have Kamala.”
Still, her Monday night speaking slot, second-billed to President Joe Biden and just ahead of Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., also showed that this is not Clinton’s moment.
She seemed fine with that, knowing that she helped pave the way for Harris, who would be not only the first woman, but also first Black woman and first Asian American, to become president if elected.
“When a barrier falls for one of us,” Clinton said, “It clears the way for all of us.”
And then “Fight Song,” the earnest ode to personal empowerment that helped define Clinton’s 2016 campaign, played as she exited stage left.