Republicans and Democrats presented starkly different visions for America at their conventions. Now it’s up to voters

CHICAGO – The Republican and Democratic conventions took place just one month and 90 miles apart. The fact that both were defined by joy and optimism among the delegates who officially nominated their parties’ candidates speaks to just how dramatically the presidential race has changed in that span.

When Republicans gathered in Milwaukee in mid-July, it was clear they were a party defined and led by one man. Former President Donald Trump, who has been the GOP standard bearer for most of a decade, ended the Republican National Convention with a 92-minute speech that began with a scripted call for unity before veering off into the grievances and ad-libbed thoughts that his supporters either love or tolerate.

Republican delegates from Washington and Idaho were elated as they left their convention, with Trump leading President Joe Biden in the polls in each of the swing states that could decide the election. Trump, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt days before the RNC, had presented himself as an avatar of toughness and strength in contrast to a visibly weakened Biden.

But three days after the balloons dropped in Wisconsin, Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. That kicked off a whirlwind campaign and her selection of Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate, set to face off against Trump’s pick, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

When the Democratic National Convention kicked off in Chicago on Monday, Democrats who had been despondent a month earlier expressed a combination of joy over Harris’ candidacy and relief that their party, in sharp contrast to the GOP, had deposed its unpopular standard bearer in favor of a generation of leaders who had been waiting in the wings longer than many Democrats would have liked.

As Harris wrapped up the DNC on Thursday night with a speech that clocked in at a relatively tight 38 minutes, Northwest delegates said their party had stuck the landing, moving on from a sudden and somewhat awkward divorce from Biden and delivering a positive message focused on the future.

Both parties presented platforms that are light on details while papering over internal differences – such as abortion for Republicans and U.S. policy toward Israel for Democrats – that threatened to divide their voters. Each also made pitches to expand their bases, with Trump inviting traditionally Democratic-aligned unions into the GOP and Democrats openly appealing to anti-Trump Republicans while embracing border-security proposals that many progressives oppose.

Polls have tightened since Harris became the Democratic candidate, but unlike Republicans at the RNC, Democrats left their convention with the sense that they are still underdogs who will need to work for every last vote until Election Day in November. In contrast to the 2016 race, when Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost to Trump after a campaign that suggested she had the edge to win a turn in the Oval Office, former first lady Michelle Obama took the stage Tuesday and urged every Democrat to “do something” to help Harris win.

Democrats, who in recent years have lost support among rural and working-class voters, made a clear play to win back at least some of those Americans. Walz, a former high school football coach and retired Army National Guard sergeant who grew up in small-town Nebraska, likely will spend the weeks until November facing off – in debates and on the campaign trail – against Vance, who famously wrote about his upbringing in a struggling Rust Belt town before he rose to earn a law degree from Yale and work in Silicon Valley.

Both conventions were filled with images, speeches and celebrity cameos aimed at winning over and firing up voters, but their messages were ultimately summed up in the remarks Trump and Harris delivered at the close of each week, which presented starkly different visions for America.

Trump called the United States “a nation in decline,” promising to return the country to a glorious past. Harris called it “the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” urging Americans “to fight for this country we love” on behalf of their forebears.

Ultimately, the election won’t be decided by the party faithful who filled arenas in Milwaukee and Chicago. Who occupies the White House at the end of January will depend on voters across the country, especially in the roughly half-dozen states that are evenly divided between the parties.