The Democratic National Convention kicks off Monday night, and the party’s big-tent strategy of bringing together moderates, progressives, and even Republicans behind Joe Biden is already being put to the test. The DNC line-up features Democratic standouts like Michelle and Barack Obama, who will speak on Monday and Wednesday respectively, along with Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Viewers on Monday night, however, will find an unlikely ally in John Kasich, a former Republican governor of Ohio who ran for president in 2016—and isn’t planning to cut ties with his party just yet.
“I’m a Republican. But I just think at the point in time, my Republican affiliation is outweighed by my concern about the direction of the country,” he told BuzzFeed News. Kasich, who hosted a Fox News show before running for governor, has bucked his party in criticizing Trump, and his presence at the convention may help the Biden team show the candidate’s potential reach with disaffected Republicans. It’a a choice, however, that runs the risk of alienating marginalized communities, and comes as progressive star Ocasio-Cortez is slotted to speak for only about sixty seconds on Tuesday.
Aside from a mutual desire to defeat Trump, progressives within the Democratic Party have little in common with Kasich. During his two terms as governor, Kasich enacted abortion restrictions and the controversial Senate Bill 5, which limited the ability for unions representing public workers, such as nurses, teaches and fire fighters, to negotiate salaries and prohibited strikes. In the BuzzFeed interview, Kasich distanced himself from the Congresswoman. “People on the extreme, whether they’re on the left or on the right, they get outsized publicity that tends to define their party,” he said. “Because AOC gets outsized publicity doesn’t mean she represents the Democratic Party. She’s just a part, just some member of it. And it’s on both sides, whether it’s the Republicans or whether it’s the Democrats.”
The upcoming election will also be the first time in history that Latinos will be the largest minority group in the electorate, with an estimated 32 million eligible votes. In an interview on MSNBC, former presidential candidate and former Housing and Urban Development secretary, Julián Castro said, “I’d be lying to you if I said I’m not disappointed that there aren’t more Latinos and Latinas generally speaking on that program.” He also noted the absence of Native American and Muslim-American speakers, while still affirming Biden and **Kamala Harris’**s commitment to uplifting voters regardless of their identities and backgrounds. “The fact is we have a ticket in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, that have a strong record of embracing and of including everybody in this country,” he said.
With a week that will see former presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Governor Gavin Newsom and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms appearing on screen—along with Republicans like businesswoman Meg Whitman, former New Jersey Governor Christine Whitman, and former New York Congresswoman Susan Molinari—the Democrats are hoping for a “stronger together” approach that will both appeal to and galvanize voters across party lines. Sanders, for one, is planning to make a pitch Monday night for unity. “My friends, I say to you, and to everyone who supported other candidates in this primary and to those who may have voted for Donald Trump in the last election,” Sanders will say, according to prepared remarks. “The future of our democracy is at stake.”
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