DNC: Tammy Duckworth and Andrew Yang speaking in the final night of Democrats' virtual convention

 

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth

Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang will be among the speakers tonight (Aug. 20) preceding Joe Biden's acceptance speech, the finale at the virtual Democratic National Convention.

Sen. Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran, is expected to focus her remarks on the issues facing military families and on the life of Beau Biden, according to a source familiar with her speech.

The Thai-American senator introduced Beau Biden,  at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Joe Biden's eldest son died in 2015 from a form of brain cancer. 

Like most of the other speakers, in keeping with the social distancing required to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Duckworth will not be at the Wisconsin Center in Milwaukee. Instead, she’ll deliver her remarks from Washington, D.C., in view of the Capitol.

The first-term senator, who lost her legs when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq, was reportedly on the short-list for Joe Biden's vice president choice, before he settled on Sen. Kamala Harris.

Entrepreneur Yang's surprising campaign  catapulted him onto the national scene even though he had never held an elected office. 

His main proposal of a Universal Basic Income for every adult in the U.S. seemed far fetched during the campaign but has gained ground during the pandemic when several senators, including Harris, backed a similar measure to help get though the unprecedented health crisis.

Unlike other Democratic candidates for POTUS, Yang refused to blame Trump for all the ills facing the country. 

“You are missing the lesson of Donald Trump’s victory,” he said during a February presidential debate. “Trump is not the cause of all of our problems and we are making a mistake when we act like he is. He is a symptom of a disease that has been building up in our communities for years and decades. And it is our job to get to the harder work of actually curing the disease.”

Yang was not originally scheduled to speak but his tweet about expecting a speaker's slot drew support from other AAPI Congressmembers, causing the DNC to find a spot for him on the speakers' list.

The New York-born Yang says he wants to use his time to urge his youthful, but passionate, followers, many of whom had vowed not to vote for Biden, to cast their ballot for the Democratic nominee.

After Biden accepts the Democratic nomination for President, his running mate, Kamala Harris, who accepted her nomination Wednesday night, is expected to join him on the stage at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware to close out the unconventional convention.