1980 Democratic National Convention
For Hugh Carey, the 1980 Democratic National Convention was about as close to a coronation as one could get after a collegial though still actively contested primary that had lasted late into spring. It was being held at Madison Square Garden in New York City, his hometown and the beating heart of the American economy in the state of which he was the second-term governor; key speakers included both former mayor Abe Beame and the incumbent (and close Carey ally) Mario Cuomo, both of whom spoke on the opening night to emphasize the theme of Carey being "the man who saved New York" and that he would carry the same energy and vigor to restore America next. The keynote speaker on the next night was Geraldine Ferraro, a first-term Congresswoman from Queens, who officially read out that Carey had been nominated as the next Democratic candidate for President and then gave a star-making address that immediately made her a name to watch in the House moving forward. Ted Kennedy gave a famed address where he hearkened back to the legacy of his slain brothers and famously declared, "The dream shall never die!" - though Carey was about as far from a Kennedyesque figure as there was, drawing a connection from the last Irish Catholic President to the man who was likely the next one was meant to cast Carey as the next natural step in the evolution of the New Deal coalition over the past fifty years.
The speeches were the sideshow to speculation about the Veepstakes, however, with it being understood that Carey would announce his running mate during the convention, as was practice. The delegates in theory were in charge of such decisions but it was unlikely they would foist somebody upon Carey whom he did not want. The debates inside both the DNC as well as the Carey camp were lively and went in two directions. The first was that, with the Republicans badly unpopular after twelve deteriorating years in the White House, Governor Ronald Reagan badly lagging in the polls (and with the Republicans holding their convention in mid-August, after the Moscow Olympics had ended)
[1] and Carey having enjoyed broad support across the party without an acrimonious primary, it was time to "go bold," as his speechwriter Bob Shrum
[2] and pollster Pat Caddell (who had he snagged from the successful 1976 Carter primary campaign) suggested. To them, this meant picking a candidate who would invigorate the left wing of the party that while tolerant of Carey as a vessel to defeat the GOP after being locked out of power for twelve years could use a jolt of "excitement" that would show commitment to truly transformative policy that was what it would take to shake America out of its decade-long malaise of stagflation - the Second New Deal's chief prophet, in other words, a bridge between the Old Left and the New. Caddell was intrigued by the idea of either Shirley Chisholm or Barbara Jordan as genuine out-of-the-box choices of placing not just a woman but a
Black woman on a national ticket, while Shrum for his part was a bit more muted, instead suggesting a Midwestern progressive like Wisconsin's Bill Proxmire, Iowa's John Culver or Minnesota's Warren Spannaus (it was broadly accepted that Mondale did not want to reappear on a Presidential ticket again).
Carey's "Brooklyn Boys," so named for being his New York-based brain trust of consultants and political allies, saw things differently, and were able to leverage their personal relationship with the Governor and his own biases about the best course of action to take to turn the campaign's eyes south. The success of the GOP in breaking through in the South beginning in the 1960s was a threat to the national dominance of the Democratic Party, and though Carter had nearly swept the Old Confederacy save suburbanized Virginia
[3] that had been on his own strength as a good old boy peanut farmer from Georgia. A gruff Irish New Yorker would have a very different appeal and it seemed plain that despite Reagan not carrying a single Southern state in the GOP primaries, that it was the most fertile ground for him to go on offensive with the GOP on their back heels elsewhere. Go bold, or be smart - that was the way Carey ally Congressman Mario Biaggi later termed the debate. Being smart meant putting a Southerner on the ticket for geographic balance and to not abandon the region to the Republicans, with Reagan regarded as highly likely to name a Southern running mate himself. The debate then curiously turned into a bunch of very distinctly New York men and women arguing over who the best Southern Veep would be.
Carey's personal choice won out. It was thought that Cuomo or his son Andrew, a key campaign staffer for Carey, were the biggest partisans in favor of the runner-up from the primaries, Florida Governor Reuben O. Askew, but it turns out that Carey himself was Askew's biggest admirer. "If I hadn't run, I'd have voted for the guy!" Carey chuckled in a documentary of the 1980 campaign released in 1990; the upsides seemed obvious. Askew's political bonafides on their own were impeccable, having cleaned up the South's most notoriously corrupt but fastest-growing state, swept the South in the primaries, and managing to balance the needs of a polity that was simultaneously liberal, moderate and conservative on different issues all at once. Askew gave Carey a foot not just in the Northeast and Midwest, where his style seemed likely to excel, but in the booming Sunbelt and together he and Askew formed a ticket that had won a hyper-majority of Democratic primary votes - a tangible partnership of two very different personality types but whom had both succeeded in appealing to
actual primary voters, not hypothetical ones waiting to be inspired by a bolder choice. A few other names were bandied about - Biaggi was a big supporter of Texas's Lloyd Bentsen, Robert Abrams pushed hard for Kentucky's Walt Huddleston - but it was Askew who Carey had grown to like and respect during the campaign and Askew who was seen as bringing the most upside. Carey called Askew, who earlier in the convention had given an enthusiastic speech encouraging his delegates to vote for Carey, to let him know he was the choice.
Carey's acceptance speech emphasized the key themes of his campaign - national renewal in tackling the problems of inflation and wage stagnation through infrastructure spending, employment programs and other Keynesian injections - with a key phrase: "Fifty years ago, the Republicans ran the American economy into the ground behind an ideology of greed, of laziness, and of corruption, and fifty years ago it took a Governor of New York who had helped fix his home state to know how to fix the country and make it whole again. His name was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, perhaps one of if not the greatest Presidents we have ever had. Now, fifty years later, what do you know? They've gone and done it again! And so fifty years later, just like then, a New York Governor is gonna go to Washington to roll up his sleeves to fix it!"
There was absolutely no doubt what Carey was promising something more akin to Humphrey in '68 than the last two cycles - a full-throated defense of the New Deal and an excoriation of a GOP that shifted away from it. This was the Brooklyn Boxer coming out swinging, not with vague paeans to personal integrity like Carter or dazzling the young Left like McGovern. A line had been drawn in the sand - and a month later, in August, the Republicans would have their chance to give their own answer...
[1] The inverse of the order of OTL's 1980 conventions
[2] Who still writes Kennedy's speech for him
[3] NoVA and Greater Richmond were once Republican bastions
