A group of uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention ended their sit-in outside the United Center on Thursday evening, nearly 24 hours after it began and without securing a speaking slot for a Palestinian American on the DNC stage.
But the group vowed to keep fighting. The delegates walked back into the United Center just after 7:30 p.m. after waiting until 6 p.m. to get a call from DNC leaders about their request. The call never came.
“This has been a disastrous decision by the Democratic leadership to deny a bare-minimum ask that we requested weeks ago prior to the convention,” Layla Elabed, co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, said. “Nonetheless, uncommitted delegates and ceasefire delegates aren’t here just for a speaker, we are here to continue demanding of our elected officials and our candidates running for office within the Democratic Party to do better.”
The delegates invited Vice President Kamala Harris to visit each state with uncommitted delegates and speak to constituents by Sept. 15.
The sit-in garnered support from Mayor Brandon Johnson and U.S. Reps. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia and Delia Ramirez of Illinois. It began amid the prime-time speeches on the third night of the convention.
The group sat down on a sidewalk, passed a microphone and began sharing personal stories and pleas.
The demonstration remained peaceful and quiet. Whether to end it forcibly was a decision in the hands of DNC officials, according to the Secret Service and Chicago police.
The group’s primary demand was for Harris to end military aid to Israel and support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. They saw their additional bid for a Palestinian speaker as a secondary, “extremely reasonable” request — which they made months ago.
Uncommitted delegates said they had been in ongoing talks with the vice president’s team but didn’t get a formal answer until Wednesday night.
It was around 8:30 p.m. that night when a senior DNC official allegedly told the group, “The answer is no.” Members of the group also say they were told Harris would be giving the biggest speech of her life Thursday and the day “cannot be defined by this.”
“This level of suppression, silencing, exclusion in the party of representation, of inclusion, of diversity,” Michigan delegate Abbas Alawieh said. “It’s shocking. It’s a shock for the system. I genuinely can’t believe it, and so that’s why we’re staying out here.”
Journalists and other onlookers stood in a semicircle around the delegates and demonstrators as they sat cross-legged on the sidewalk. Others stood with a banner that read “Arms Embargo Now” in all capital letters.
“If any country in the world is using weapons to harm and kill civilians, we oppose it,” Alawieh said. “This isn’t a conversation that can be had in private anymore.”
Johnson chimed in Thursday, saying a Palestinian voice should be invited to the United Center stage before the convention ended. “We’re the party that welcomes a wide range of ideology,” he said.
Earlier, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota paid a visit to the uncommitted delegates. She walked up to the group amid cheers and embraced Alawieh as attendees of the DNC streamed out of the arena for the night. U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also Facetimed from a delegate’s phone.
Other Illinois delegates say the war in Gaza has not been ignored at the convention, noting the parents of an Israeli-American hostage spoke from the stage pleading for his return.
Illinois Sen. Sara Feigenholtz, D-Chicago, argued Harris has “demonstrated a lot of empathy” and she believes Palestinian voices “have been heard.” When asked whether she would support a Palestinian-American speaking on stage, Feigenholtz, who is Jewish, said “it depends on the message.”
“I would have a very difficult time listening to someone chanting ‘from the river to the sea,’” Feigenholtz said, referring to a phrase that has offended some Israel supporters and is seen by others as a call for peace and Palestinian liberation. “But if they’re talking about living in peace, side by side, then absolutely.”
When former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi passed by after a speaking appearance, two uncommitted delegates asked why she would not support a Palestinian American speaker. The delegates walked behind Pelosi, who was surrounded by security, as she got into her car. She didn’t respond to their questions.
“We just asked Speaker Pelosi, who sits in this car, if she believes that the 16,000 Palestinian children who have been unnecessarily murdered in this brutal war in Gaza deserve someone to speak to the experience of Palestinian suffering at the convention of a party that stands for equality and freedom and justice on every issue besides one,” June Rose, an uncommitted delegate from Rhode Island, said.
Asma Mohammad, an uncommitted delegate from Minnesota, noted there was no shortage of possible speakers. The convention took place in the home of the country’s largest Palestinian American population.
“It’s a shame that right here in this community, this community in Chicago, where we have the largest population of Palestinian Americans, that there is not going to be one Palestinian American speaker from that stage,” Mohammed said.
“Thirty miles from here, a 6-year-old Palestinian boy was murdered because he was Palestinian,” Mohammed said, referring to the killing of Wadea Al-Fayoume. “The least that our party could do is honor him by showing that Palestinian Americans are welcome on the stage.”
Contributing: Chicago Sun-Times reporter Mitchell Armentrout
Emmanuel Camarillo and Sophie Sherry are also reporters for the Chicago Sun-Times. Tessa Weinberg and Mariah Woelfel cover city government and politics for WBEZ.