You're watching Democratic National Convention coverage from Chicago.
I'm Frederica Freiber.
We'll stay with NewsHour coverage, but we want to check in now with here and now senior
political reporter Zach Schultz, who comes to us from Chicago and hi, Zach.
So leading up to tonight's headliners of Bill Clinton and Tim Waltz, you've been reporting
on the ground there in Chicago, of course, and you heard from some big names that came
to speak to the Wisconsin delegation today.
That's right, Fred.
The Wisconsin delegation breakfast each morning has had a pretty impressive list of Democratic
stars from around the country coming in to speak, and today was no different.
There is Julie Sue, the Labor Secretary, Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey, and the big
name was Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker, came in and addressed the Wisconsin delegates.
And what she talked about was own the ground game.
She was talking about winning in the fall.
It's not about rallies or enthusiasm.
It's about getting out there and knocking doors.
Also speaking was Representative Mark Pokan from Madison.
He referred liberal from Madison in Congress, and he had the same message, talking about
the importance of getting out there and knocking doors this fall.
Here's what he had to say.
We'll soon go back home and the real work will begin, because we live in a purple state.
That means we have some red and maroon areas, we have some beautiful indigo blue areas,
but overall we are purple.
And no one knows that more than the people in this room that we do not make politics
a spectator sport.
We are in the game.
So obviously the race for president is very, very close in Wisconsin, but Pokan also spoke
to you about the state legislature.
What did he say there?
Well, Democrats are getting bullish on their possibilities of actually flipping the assembly.
With the new redistricting lines, they are fully expecting to win seats and shrink the
Republican majority.
In the Senate, they hope to pick up at least one, maybe two or three seats.
Not enough to flip it there, but to break the super majority.
They think there is a more realistic chance every day that with Kamala Harris doing better
and better that she can pull more of these new people running in these wide open districts
around the state.
They're optimistic that they can actually pull it off.
There's a lot of very interesting seats that have a slight Republican lean, and if there's
enough momentum at the top of the ticket, that could make the difference in terms of giving
Tony Evers one chamber to deal with next year when it comes to talking about the budget.
Very, very interesting.
Zach Schultz, thanks so much.
We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.
You will be here at the same time tomorrow with latest updates from the last day of the
DNC in Chicago.
On Friday, join here in now at 7 for full coverage of the convention and what it means for Wisconsin.
What's over there?