Clinton achieves historic nomination

Carter videotape

To see former President Jimmy Carter's videotaped message to delegates at the Democratic National Convention, go to https://twitter.com/hillaryclinton/status/758089389276889088.

Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee for a major political party Tuesday, a historic moment for Democrats as the internal dissent that rocked the party gave way to a hard-fought sense of unity.

The tone was set by Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis, once at the center of one of the party’s biggest feuds when he spurned Clinton in 2008 for Barack Obama. Declaring that Clinton was “about to shatter the glass ceiling again,” his prime-time burying of the hatchet could have been a symbol for supporters of Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders still simmering over his defeat.

“I give you a leader who can unite us as a nation, a leader who can break down barriers and build a better future for every American,” the Atlanta Democrat said, seconding her nomination. “She will fight for us all with her heart, soul and mind.”

Clinton formally became the party’s pick after a roll-call vote Tuesday that culminated when Sanders rose to request that the former secretary of state become the party’s nominee as the convention hall erupted in applause. It was an emotional gesture from a runner-up trying to bridge the party’s troubled divide.

Still, the searing wounds after a bitter primary fight proved hard to heal. The Vermont senator, who attracted droves of younger, more liberal first-time voters with his vows of a political “revolution,” struggled to snuff out the revolt he started.

Scattered shouting matches broke out as delegates arrived at the Wells Fargo Center, and pro-Sanders protesters swarmed a media tent outside the arena. In the morning, Sanders was jeered again by his supporters when he made the case that Clinton was the only way to prevent Donald Trump from winning the White House.

“It’s easy to boo,” he told the delegates. “But it’s harder to look your kids in the face who would be living under a Donald Trump presidency.”

And yet Democrats were eager to paint the contrast of their runner-up enthusiastically endorsing the party’s nominee with the chaos that erupted last week at the Republican National Committee, when Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was booed off the stage after he refused to endorse Trump and told his supporters to “vote their conscience.”

Ceiling shattered

Clinton’s formal nomination marks the end of a quest that began nine years ago, when the former first lady and New York senator announced her first run for president. After a bruising loss to Obama, she lamented that she failed to “shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling” and served as his secretary of state and quietly prepared to run for the White House again.

In a bitter campaign, she overcame questions about her use of a private email server while secretary of state and a surprisingly stiff challenge from Sanders. The self-described socialist won nearly 2,000 delegates and stayed in the race long after his victory was mathematically impossible, stirring up supporters who still defy the party’s nominee.

In Clinton, though, Democrats hope they have a candidate who can unite the party’s African-American base — she overwhelmingly won Georgia and other states where black votes formed the bulk of the party’s electorate — and working-class and liberal whites.

At Tuesday’s meeting, a long list of speakers praised her as the most experienced presidential candidate in generations in a not-so-subtle contrast to Trump’s lack of elected experience. Others cast her as the unequivocal continuation of Obama’s legacy.

“We’ve made so much progress,” former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said. “And now, we need to elect the person who will finish the job.”

The biggest star on the stage Tuesday was Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, who prepared a personal portrait of his wife instead of the policy-heavy addresses he often gives.

“She’s the best darn change-maker that I’ve ever met in my entire life,” he said, painting a portrait of a worldly candidate driven to solve the nation’s problems. “And she sure is worth every single year she put into making peoples’ lives better.”

A Peach State accent

The evening also had a Georgia flair. Aside from Lewis, former state Sen. Jason Carter took to the podium to introduce a videotaped message by ex-President Jimmy Carter, his grandfather. The younger Carter, declaring Georgia a “battleground state,” said his family was itching to stump for the nominee.

“My grandparents demonstrate that there is a strength in love, humility and service that no amount of anger, pride or salesmanship can match,” said Carter, who ran for governor in 2014 and may run yet again. “That principled strength sustains them in the work they do every day, and that same principled strength will elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.”

Na’ilah Amaru, a former combat veteran and graduate of Georgia State University, also praised Clinton as a transformative figure, saying the first time she saw the candidate she was on TV addressing a group of men “with such confidence and ownership of self.”

“Her poise and presence fundamentally changed how I would claim my own space in the world,” Amaru said. “I was 11.”

The tone went from joyous to mournful when the "Moms of the Movement," the mothers of black children who died in clashes with police or gun violence. Lucia McBath, a Georgia woman whose son Jordan Davis was killed by police in 2012 after a dispute over loud music, said Clinton is the only candidate who isn't afraid of saying "black lives matter."

“She isn’t afraid to sit at a table with grieving mothers and bear the full force of our anguish,” she said. “She doesn’t build walls around her heart.”

Outside the arena, though, Clinton’s critics made clear their fight wasn’t over. More than 70 Sanders supporters occupied one of three media tents for more than an hour, prompting police to block the entrances. Back inside, other Sanders allies cast their focus on a new phase of their struggle over the party’s ideals.

“Our movement continues. Our revolution continues. We will never stop working for a future we believe in. We will never stop fighting for the change we need,” said Shyla Nelson, a Vermont activist who formally nominated Sanders. “And we will never forget the man who leads us.”