VIBE CHECK

WITH 2024 IN THE REARVIEW, HIGH-RANKING DEMOCRATS ARE FINALLY ARRIVING AT THE HARD TRUTH THAT THEIR PARTY IS UNWELL. "DISARRAY" DOESN'T QUITE COVER IT. AS FOR WHAT THEY'RE DOING ABOUT IT-AND WHETHER THEY CAN EVER WREST THE COUNTRY BACK FROM TRUMP AND TRUMPISMIT DEPENDS ON WHOM YOU ASK

- JAMES POGUE

IT WAS THE “HOTTEST TICKET" IN CHICAGO, DESIGNED TO SPAWN A THOUSAND PIECES ABOUT WHAT THE PARTY MEANT.

Two thousand people RSVP'd. "I am not kidding when I say this is the best political party I've ever been to," the anti-gun youth activist David Hogg told a reporter.

"This is where Gen Z is." He was speaking at the "Hotties for Harris" event, held at a polished warehouse space midway through the Democratic National Convention last August. When I got there around midnight, a giant screen displayed floating images of Tim Walz's head, and hundreds of free condoms reading "Fuck Project 2025" were scattered and discarded all over the floor. At least a couple hundred people were still dancing. Every third person was wearing one of those ubiquitous camouflage Harris-Walz caps that had become an unlikely fashion item for Brown and Oberlin graduates working to elect a ticket that pundits and consultants seemed to believe might capture a serious slice of votes from America's hunting and fishing dads. "Democratic party girls," as Claudia Conway, the 19-year-old daughter of George and Kellyanne Conway, described herself, and TikTokers with millions of followers like Mattie Westbrouck had been invited by the score.

Off to the back was a little purposebuilt room with a display of free birth control, a "Wall of Weirdos" displaying photos of Republican officials, and a wall of so-called "hotties" who supported Harris, like Beto O'Rourke, Jason Kelce, and Elizabeth Warren, their portraits all framed and washed from overhead in the lime green Brat hue that seemed, at least for a little bit, like it might soon ride a wave of good feelings all the way to the Oval Office.

Florida representative Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, was standing quietly by the bar. He looked like he had partied himself out for the night.