Former President Bill Clinton takes the stage Wednesday night at the United Center, revisiting the site where he accepted his party’s nomination for a second term 28 years ago, the last time Chicago hosted the Democratic National Convention.
He is scheduled to speak shortly after 8 p.m., taking the stage after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Now one of the party’s elder statesmen, Clinton in his 1996 acceptance speech laid out his vision for building “a bridge to the 21st Century.”
Two decades into that century, the centrist Clinton is still revered by many Democrats, but the party in many ways has sought to distance itself from some of the signature policies of his era, including free-trade agreements, tighter restrictions on welfare and tough-on-crime measures.
Clinton’s presence on the penultimate night of the convention, ahead of the vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, comes as the party attempts to delicately transition from the era of President Joe Biden, a Clinton contemporary, to its new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Arkansas native is the third former Democratic president or presidential nominee to address the DNC, a marked contrast from last month’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which neither former President George W. Bush nor the 2012 GOP nominee, Utah U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, attended.
