Chicago ready for DNC spotlight as nation's Democrats take over city

After 16 months of preparation and fundraising, Chicago is ready for its closeup.

And Gov. JB Pritzker — who helped land the city its 26th political convention — says Chicago is prepared, both inside and outside the United Center.

Tens of thousands of journalists and delegates arrived in the city over the weekend for the Democratic National Convention, which will formally begin Monday afternoon. So have thousands of protesters, who started day one of a massive march down Michigan Avenue — just as delegates, donors and guests checked into their swanky downtown hotels.

The world inside the United Center and its security perimeter will be a very different and insulated one than the one the rest of Chicago experiences.

Inside the arena, Democrats will amplify their campaign messaging of positivity over “weird” and help highlight Vice President Kamala Harris as a trailblazing candidate who could become the first Black and Asian American woman to take the White House.

Outside, protesters will do their best to have their voices heard — the focal point of a more than 10-months-long effort to force President Joe Biden and Harris to push for an immediate and permanent cease-fire to the Israel-Hamas War and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

Pritzker told the Sun-Times he anticipates that there will be some protesters inside the arena, especially from uncommitted delegates who are protesting the war in Gaza. But he said Democrats will show to the world that they respect “peaceful protests.”

“I hope that what people cover is at least about the protests, is that there were peaceful protests and that we protected the protesters and their rights, and at the same time, that we tolerate that as Democrats,” Pritzker said. “Republicans and Donald Trump, in particular, does not tolerate protests.”

“Obviously you want to allow them to exercise their free speech, but also not disrupt the proceedings,” Pritzker said. “So it’s a balance. Handling a heckler is an art. And I think actually that Kamala Harris has shown she’s got kind of a flair for that,” Pritzker said.

This month, Harris told a group of hecklers, "I'm speaking," as they interrupted a rally in her first visit to Michigan since becoming the Democratic nominee for president.

As for combative protesters, Pritzker said the city will "not protect people who are a danger to the people of Chicago, to the visitors of Chicago, to anybody."

"If you want to cause mayhem, you're going to get arrested. You're going to get charged, and you're going to get convicted," Pritzker said.

The Democratic governor said the National Guard has been part of contingency plans, should outside protests get out of hand. And guardsmen were spotted at Chicago Police Department headquarters on Sunday.

“Every level of law enforcement and protection that we can provide, we’ve made contingencies and so on. This has all been in the works for a year and a half now. By the way, there’s 60 years of experience. ... So I think there’s a lot of learning that’s been done, and it’ll be handled properly.”

Pritzker, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot were key in winning President Joe Biden’s nod to host the convention over New York City, Atlanta and Houston. And Mayor Brandon Johnson inherited the convention after taking office last year. Both Pritzker and Johnson will speak at the convention — Johnson on Monday afternoon and Pritzker on Tuesday evening.

The four-day pep rally will go down as the most expensive convention in history.

The Chicago host committee announced last week it had raised more than $95 million to pay for the convention, covering everything from lights and sound to food spreads, balloons and other party supplies. That’s $10 million more than Republicans raised for their convention last month in Milwaukee.

Untethered by contribution limits related to political campaign committees, massive gifts to Chicago’s host committee have come from corporations, including United Airlines, Peoples Gas, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Pfizer and Lyft.

Organized labor has also chipped in mightily, with large donations reported by the Laborers’ International Union of North America, Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of Teachers, among others.

A full accounting of contributors won’t be known till well after the balloons drop. Federal election law doesn’t require host committees — which are registered as nonprofits — to disclose their contributors until about two months after the convention ends.

Meanwhile on the other side of the aisle, Illinois Republicans have derided Chicago’s grand spectacle.

“You'll see marching bands. You'll hear John Legend at his concert. They're pulling out the stops for the convention,” said state Sen. Sue Rezin, R-Morris. “But what really matters is after the convention, when the taxpayers of the state and of this country really get back into their routine of going to the grocery store and being reminded that they can't afford to feed a family of four. … They're going to be reminded about what the Democrat agenda looks like and how it affects them.”