DNC vendors represent ‘the landscape of Chicago’ small businesses
(CHICAGO) — Glenn Charles Jr. grew up on Chicago’s South Side. This week, his business is the first Black-owned company to be contracted for Exposition Services at the Democratic National Convention.
Speaking to ABC News outside the United Center, Charles reflected on the journey to get here and what it means for him and his team — which doubled in size in preparation for the convention.
“Our name is on most of the signage around the property, right?” he asked. “So just walking in the building and seeing the Show Strategies brand next to a DNC sign, that for me is kind of a moment.”
The four-day convention is bringing thousands of visitors to the city, and officials expect it to have a $150 to $200 million impact on the local economy.
Christy George, the executive director of the DNC’s Chicago 2024 Host Committee, called it “an incredible opportunity to showcase what Chicago is made of.”
“And the heart of Chicago is our people and all of our small businesses,” she said.
The committee sought to include as many local vendors as possible, she said, holding outreach summits across the city and working hand in hand with businesses through the application process.
“On the worker front, it’s in the hundreds. On the vendor front, it’s in the tens,” she said.
Eight of the 17 major contracts were given to minority and women-owned businesses, the committee announced previously.
“What we resulted with was a really diverse set of vendors for a number of our prime contracts,” she told ABC News. “It really, truly is going to be the most inclusive convention in history.”
Brook Jay, the CEO of All Terrain Collective, said being selected by the DNC was a boon to her business.
“I think having the DNC on our resume can do nothing but good things for this company,” she said. “We’ve been around since 1998 and we’ve done some of the most incredible projects you can imagine. But this definitely has been a highlight, and I think it really has piqued our interest about doing more things in politics.”
Jay said her company, which does experiential marketing, partnered with another woman-owned business and a Latino-owned business.
“We are really a true representation of what the Chicago landscape looks like,” she said.
Both Jay and Charles said putting together an event as large in scale as the DNC was a challenge, but that it was also an opportunity for their businesses to learn and grow.
“This industry is underrepresented from people that look like me, and also people from the South and West sides of Chicago who may not know that the hospitality and convention industry is a thriving industry that you can make a really good living off of,” Charles said. “So I wanted to be the representative for those individuals and give them direct insights to something that they probably have never witnessed before.”
(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has been gaining attention in the political world for taking on Republicans on major issues such as abortion access and immigration.
And now he could be bringing his political skills to the White House with sources telling ABC News that Shapiro is a front-runner to become Kamala Harris’ running mate.
Shapiro, 51, was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in Dresher, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1995.
Shapiro spent years on Capitol Hill working for several Democratic members of Congress, including Sens. Carl Levin and Robert Torricelli. During that time, Shapiro earned a law degree from Georgetown University in 2002.
In 2004, he won election for the 153rd district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was reelected three times. In 2011, Shapiro was elected to the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and remained on the board for five years.
In 2016, Shapiro was elected Pennsylvania’s attorney general. He was reelected in 2020 with over 3.4 million votes.
During his tenure, Shapiro took on high-profile cases, including investigations into alleged sex abuse in the Catholic Church and probes of pharmaceutical companies over the opioid crisis.
Shapiro also pushed back against former President Donald Trump’s conservative policies, including the proposed travel ban from citizens of Muslim-majority countries. Following the 2020 election, then-Attorney General Shapiro fought against several lawsuits that were filed contesting the results.
Two years ago, Shapiro ran for Pennsylvania governor and beat Republican challenger Doug Mastriano by more than 792,000 votes.
Shapiro has spoken out against abortion restrictions and pushed policies to expand reproductive rights.
“As governor, I will always uphold our state’s Constitution and protect a woman’s right to make decisions over her own body and have the health care services she needs,” he said in a statement last week following a development in a Pennsylvania-based abortion case.
Shapiro has denied repeated calls from state Republicans to deploy the National Guard in response to the influx of migrants in the state.
“The last thing in the world I’m going to do is put the brave women and men of the Pennsylvania National Guard’s lives at risk to be part of some political squabble at the border that [Texas] Gov. [Greg] Abbott has created,” Shapiro said in March.
Shapiro, who is Jewish, has also expressed his support for Israel in its ongoing conflict against Hamas and called out rising antisemitism in the state and country.
In December, he criticized then-University of Pennsylvania’s President Liz Magill following a congressional hearing on antisemitism on campuses. Magill did not directly respond to Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik’s questions about whether reportedly antisemitic rhetoric, including calls for “genocide of Jews,” constituted harassment.
“Frankly, I thought her comments were absolutely shameful. It should not be hard to condemn genocide,” Shapiro said on Dec. 6.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz as her running mate, the buzz around Minnesota’s governor has been about his political image as a folksy “Midwestern Dad.”
But what about his “running mate?”
Gwen Walz currently serves as Minnesota’s 39th first lady and could become second lady of the United States if the Democratic ticket succeeds in securing the White House this November.
As an educator, activist, and someone who describes herself as one of her husband’s closest advisers during his time as a congressman and governor, she already has a reputation as someone familiar with politics and the spotlight.
Background, passions and career
Born in Glencoe, Minnesota, Walz, 58, and her three sisters, were raised by parents Val and Linn who worked as teachers and small business owners.
After attending Gustavus Adolphus College and Minnesota State University, she followed in her family’s footsteps and became a teacher as well, focusing on English.
In addition to teaching in public, alternative and migrant schools, she also served as an administrator and coordinator for Mankato Area Public Schools for more than two decades.
In an episode of the “What If It Works” podcast released last month, she was interviewed by her former student, Ann Vote, who grew up to become a teacher herself.
Vote called Walz’s high school American Literature class her “most memorable.”
Said to be passionate about improving equity in education, Walz has also taught in prisons and expanded education among incarcerated populations.
She is an avid supporter of the Bard Prison Initiative, a program dedicated to providing college-level educational opportunities in prisons. With the help of other congressional spouses, she expanded the initiative to more than 11 states.
That included educational opportunities from prestigious institutions such as Notre Dame and Washington University, she said on the “What If It Works” podcast.
During the episode, she also discussed her work with the Eastern Correctional Facility where she helped establish a debate team that beat Harvard University’s team.
“The arguments were so unique and different than what was heard on the college debate circuit,” she said.
LGBTQ+ rights are of high importance to her as well, she’s said, and students recall her and her husband being strong allies back in the 1990s.
Jacob Reitan, a student at Mankato West High School in 1999, said he told Walz he was gay before he told his parents, and her ability to openly discuss gay issues during the 90s “meant the world to [him].”
The couple turned to politics due to dissatisfaction with the Iraq War and they sought to enact change, she said during the podcast interview.
Since becoming first lady of Minnesota in 2018, she set herself apart by becoming more heavily involved compared to other political spouses.
In fact, she is the very first first lady in Minnesota to establish her own office in the state Capitol, according to the Star Tribune.
“[Tim and I] do work really closely together, and there are issues where I do a lot of the work and share my thoughts,” she said on the podcast. “We are still one another’s closest advisers.”
She added that she also works closely with her husband’s chief of staff.
She has even proven capable of replacing her husband when the need arose.
The New York Times reported on a 2006 fundraising dinner for Tim Walz’s first congressional campaign, during which he suffered from laryngitis. A seasoned public speaker, the report said, she stepped in and delivered an eloquent speech on his behalf.
Met teaching at same high school
Known as Gwen Whipple at the time, she met Tim Walz while teaching at the same Nebraska high school.
They even shared a classroom at one point.
After their first date of dinner and a movie, Tim Walz apparently leaned in for a kiss which she declined. He replied, “That’s fine, but you should know I’m going to marry you,” the Star Tribune reported.
The couple wed in 1994.
“The first project we ever did together was Earth Day,” she recalled on the “What If It Works” podcast. “We thought, gosh, we really have complementary things about our styles that work well together.”
The Walzes were quick to combine their teaching talents, establishing an annual summer trip to China for their students.
They even spent their honeymoon on one of these trips, and the Star Tribune said that they sacrificed sharing a room to accommodate their odd number of students.
The two later relocated to her home state of Minnesota, where they expanded their teaching duties at Mankato West High School.
Per the Star Tribune, their relationship resembles a movie plot: He taught social studies; she taught English. He coached the football team; she coached the cheerleading team.
The Walzes have been married for 30 years and have two children, 23-year-old Hope and 17-year-old Gus.
Their children represent how their policy beliefs are quite personal to them, they say, particularly with regard to reproductive rights.
“When my wife and I decided to have children, we spent years going through infertility treatments, and I remember praying every night for a call for good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone rang, and the agony when we heard that the treatments hadn’t worked,” her husband, 60, reflected during his debut campaign event in Philadelphia earlier this month.
“So, it wasn’t by chance that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope,” he said.
On the campaign trail
He continues to proudly introduce his wife as he steps into his new role in the national spotlight.
“I can’t wait for all of you and America to get to know my incredible wife, Gwen, a 29-year public school educator,” her husband said during the Philadelphia rally.
Recognizing the daunting position she has been thrust into, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Harris’ husband, extended his support with a phone call following the official announcement of her husband as the vice presidential pick.
“I remember getting this call four years ago, and I actually know what you’re going through right now,” Emhoff reassured her. “But the good news is, I’ve already been through it.”
“I’m going to be there for you,” he added. “And we’re going to do this together.”
The Harris-Walz ticket and their spouses head back to Pennsylvania for a campaign bus tour on Sunday, just prior to the Democratic National Convention starting Monday.
“This is the first time all four principals have campaigned together, following the rally in Philadelphia earlier this month,” the campaign announced in a press release.
This campaign event will take on a more intimate feel as the candidates and their spouses plan to speak to voters individually in community settings, officials said.
Walz has also begun spearheading campaign events of her own, including a Utah Women for Kamala kickoff call on Thursday.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, she said she was “especially outraged” about former President Donald Trump’s platform, specifically in regards to public school funding and his stance on reproductive rights.
The report said the call raised over $50,000 for the Harris-Walz campaign.
ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — After nearly two years of House Republicans vowing to investigate President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings — while repeatedly falling short in substantiating their most significant claims — the House Judiciary, Oversight, and Ways and Means Committees on Monday released a nearly 300-page impeachment inquiry report filled with familiar allegations against the president, who has already announced he will not seek a second term.
The report, released on the first day of the Democratic National Convention and the morning of the day the president is slated to speak, rehashes many of the allegations Republicans previously made against President Biden while alleging that they have uncovered “impeachable conduct.”
However, the report does not recommend specific articles of impeachment; it instead says that the decision on the next steps will be left to the larger congressional body.
There appear to be no new bombshells in the report. The report details six so-called key findings alleging that the Biden family received $27 million from foreign entities using shell companies, $8 million in questionable loans, special treatment for Hunter Biden and White House obstruction of the impeachment inquiry into the president.
While the report is highly detailed and cites a wide array of documents and testimony, it provides few, if any, instances of Joe Biden himself being directly and knowingly involved in illegal or improper activities – mainly focusing on the actions of his son, Hunter Biden and his allies, and the president’s brother, Jim Biden.
The report appears to serve as a roadmap for House Republicans if they move to draft articles of impeachment for the House to then take up when Congress returns on Sept. 9.
It’s not clear yet what the next steps will be, including if articles of impeachment will even be drafted and formally introduced. If articles are introduced, one of the House committees — likely Judiciary led by Jim Jordan — would then hold a markup to pass the articles out of committee for House floor consideration. It’s not clear if Speaker Mike Johnson would hold an impeachment vote on the floor. Republicans have hesitated for months to move forward with impeaching Biden because they do not have enough votes to clear the measure, and many believe Biden’s actions do not merit impeachment.
Congress is only in session for three weeks in September and out on recess until after the November 2024 election. Notably, since Biden has dropped his reelection bid, House Republicans have already trained their sights on the new presumptive Democratic ticket, launching fresh investigations into both Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz.
One of the key allegations in the report says that James Biden and Hunter Biden received a total of nearly $8 million in loans from entertainment attorney Kevin Morris, who represented Hunter Biden; family friend Joey Langston; and car dealer John Hynansky.
The vast majority of the alleged loans — more than $6 million of it — came from Morris, who allegedly paid more than $1.9 million of Hunter Biden’s tax liabilities, helped the president’s son buy a new house in Venice, California, and hire security. But, the report added, “Mr. Morris’s wealth allowed him to cover these tax debts and other debts for Hunter Biden without regard to expectation of repayment.”
The report suggests Morris’ financial assistance “creates the perception, at the very least, there was an unspoken quid pro quo or unlawful campaign contribution for which Mr. Morris would erase Hunter Biden’s IRS troubles—and by extension, help the Biden campaign rid itself of a serious liability—and receive some benefit in return.”
But the report does not provide any direct evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden himself in relation to this financial assistance.
Notably, multiple previous associates of Hunter Biden told the Oversight Committee over the course of the investigation that President Biden had no involvement with Hunter’s business dealings. Rob Walker, a longtime business associate of Hunter Biden, said in a closed-door interview in January that President Biden “was never involved” in Hunter Biden’s business dealings. “To be clear, President Biden — while in office or as a private citizen — was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false,” Walker said in his opening statement.
The report also claims the White House obstructed the Committees’ investigation into President Biden’s alleged retention of classified documents by preventing White House officials from testifying, erroneously asserting executive privilege and limiting access to materials from the National Archives.
Biden’s alleged retention of classified documents was independently investigated by Special Counsel Robert Hur, who recommended against charging Biden. While Hur says he found evidence that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified information,” he determined that charges were not warranted because “evidence does not establish Mr. Biden’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hur’s decision to not recommend charges against Biden relied in part on his finding that Biden would come off as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory” to a jury, a statement the president has slammed.
The report sharply criticized the White House for asserting executive privilege over the audio of Biden’s interview with Hur, arguing that the recording itself was necessary to understand Biden’s “mental state” and overall culpability. The DOJ defended its decision not to turn over the recordings by arguing the audio was “cumulative” and releasing them would harm “the evenhanded administration of justice” by preventing future cooperation from witnesses.
In June, House Republicans voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress over his failure to turn over the audio recordings, though the DOJ declined to prosecute Garland due to a longstanding policy against prosecuting an attorney general. A Republican-led effort to hold Garland in inherent contempt for his failure to turn over the audio tapes, which would have led to Garland being fined $10,000 per day until he complied with a congressional subpoena, failed in July.