Lessons From the Democratic Convention Mess

Final reflections on a debacle

(Editor’s Note: A version of this column appeared in the Toledo Blade newspaper last week. JL)

DETROIT – Normally, state political conventions are fun events for the delegates, sort of like class reunions; a chance to get to see Joe from Marquette or Martha from Alpena once every two years. There may be spirited contests for nomination to this or that office, but usually after the voting people smile, come together to denounce the other party, and go home to campaign.

But last weekend was different.

Democrats held their biennial “endorsement convention” in Detroit to pick candidates who won’t be chosen in the August primary. Michigan is one of only three states where the nominees for attorney general and secretary of state are determined by the political parties themselves.

Voting for those nominees, as well as for those running for seats on various education boards, occurred Sunday, and more than 7,000 delegates packed themselves into downtown Detroit’s Huntington Place (formerly known as Cobo Hall). It was clear that the majority was more “progressive,” or left-wing, than the party as a whole. But the main fault line did not lie along policy lines, but along attitudes toward the war in the Gaza strip, and there were ugly moments of clear antisemitism, and perhaps anti-Muslim sentiments as well.

Least surprising was that Garlin Gilchrist, now the lieutenant governor, was nominated for secretary of state. Last fall, before he dropped out of the race for governor, Gilchrist angered Jewish leaders by calling the atrocities in Gaza a “genocide,” but then walked that back. It’s an open secret that Michigan Democrats feel that at least one of their major statewide nominees has to be African-American.

But the nominee for attorney general was a surprise. Most party leaders were supporting Karen McDonald, the Oakland County prosecutor, but delegates instead chose Eli Savit, the far more liberal prosecutor in Washtenaw County, who has decriminalized prostitution (though not sex trafficking) and ended cash bail.

Perhaps the most divisive race was one involving University of Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who is Jewish and who has been heavily criticized for his unsympathetic attitude toward anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian student protesters. Instead, they nominated Amir Makled, a Muslim attorney who defended the protesters but who also posted then later deleted antisemitic and pro-Hezbollah statements on social media. There was, many Jewish delegates said, a clear, and even frightening, antisemitic feeling at the convention.

A prominent leader of a major nonprofit organization who is not Jewish told me that she attended the convention with a number of longtime Democratic activists who are Jewish and who felt shaken by the atmosphere. What may have been most telling was what happened when all three candidates for the party’s nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat addressed the convention.

Haley Stevens, a four-term member of Congress from the Detroit suburbs who has taken contributions from AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, was savagely heckled, booed and insulted when she spoke, but refused to be driven off the stage.

Mallory McMorrow, a state senator who has sought to steer a middle course between Ms. Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, the darling of the progressives, was treated more respectfully, but members of the audience began chanting “Abdul, Abdul,” before she finished.

Polls have mostly shown a tight three-way race, which will be decided in the August 4 primary. Afterwards, Stevens, surprisingly upbeat, told me “what happened in the hall was not the impression I got at all meeting with various caucuses throughout the day.”

The mood in the hall wasn’t helped by the fact that there were problems with systems that delayed voting for hours on what was a Sunday night. Some suggested that many moderate delegates may have gone home before the balloting.

What isn’t clear is how much damage the convention may do Democrats in the long run. A century ago, Will Rogers famously said “I am a member of no organized political party; I’m a Democrat.”

The one thing on which everyone at the convention agreed, was utter loathing for and fear of Donald Trump’s administration. That may work to restore unity before November.

But the party does have a serious problem with Jewish voters, despite the fact that Eli Savit, their surprise choice for attorney general is Jewish. Voters -- and perhaps as importantly, donors. Steve Steinhardt, a Wayne County lawyer who sat through the entire convention, wrote to Curtis Hertel, state Democratic chair, and resigned from the party.

“This is not the Democratic Party. This is the Dem Socialist Party,” he said. He now considers himself an independent.

And then there was Mark Bernstein, a partner in his family’s law firm and another University of Michigan regent.

He told a columnist the convention chaos might help his candidate for governor: Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, running as an independent. If a lot of Democrats feel that way, that could be the biggest potential consequence of all.