In Chicago, Democrats Are Newly Hopeful They Can Win the Fight for Congress

As they gather to formally nominate Vice President Kamala Harris, top Democrats say their candidates — who they feared would be dragged to defeat by President Biden — now have the wind at their backs.

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Support for the Harris-Walz ticket has some Democratic leaders optimistic about retaining the Senate and possibly even winning back the House.

When Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, huddled for a few moments between events in a congested back hallway in a hotel on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convention, they could barely contain their ebullience.

Mr. Walz said the remarkable brightening of their party’s mood in just the few weeks since President Biden announced he was dropping out of the presidential race was continuing, seemingly unabated.

“They keep talking about a sugar high,” Mr. Walz said, “but it keeps rolling.”

Mr. Schumer said he was receiving a hero’s welcome at restaurants in Chicago, with diners pausing to applaud him in what he read as a sign that they were newly hopeful that Democrats could prevail in November.

“There’s a giant sigh of relief that, ‘Hey, we’re going to win this thing,’” Mr. Schumer said.

Just over a month ago, on the heels of Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance, Democrats were despondent, openly fretting about losing the White House and being locked out of power in the House and the Senate. And Mr. Schumer still has real challenges ahead, with his Senate majority hanging by a thread and must-win races looming in Montana and Ohio among others if he hopes to remain in power next year. Some of those embattled contenders are staying home to campaign rather than hobnob with their fellow Democrats at the United Center in Chicago.

But there is no doubt that congressional Democrats are feeling the wind at their backs in the Windy City, where the mood is now downright jubilant as the party prepares to formally name Vice President Kamala Harris as its nominee. Polls are showing an essentially tied presidential race and down-ballot Democratic candidates riding a wave of enthusiasm generated by her candidacy. Top House Democrats are again contemplating capturing the majority after the chances for that appeared to be slipping away with Mr. Biden struggling against former President Donald J. Trump.

ImageDown-ballot Democratic candidates are riding a wave of enthusiasm generated by Vice President Kamala Harris’s candidacy.Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

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