President Joe Biden, Jill Biden and Hillary Clinton among anticipated speakers at DNC Day 1

Federal, state and local authorities are hoping to keep Chicago violence to a minimum during the 2024 Democratic National Convention this week.

The Chicago Police Department, the Secret Service and other agencies have been planning the operation for months and delivering public updates on the measures they are taking to prevent planned demonstrations from devolving – which they've done before.

"Oftentimes, it is forgotten that there was a Democratic Convention between 1968 and now," Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters last week. "It was a success."

He was speaking of Bill Clinton's second nomination in 1996. Chicago has hosted more major party political conventions than any other city – 14 Republican conventions and 11 Democratic ones between 1860 and 1996, according to the Chicago History Museum. But 1968, marred by large-scale protests against the Vietnam War, stands out as the most infamous political convention in U.S. history.

Read the full story by Michael Ruiz on Chicago officials' plan to keep violence to a minimum during the DNC

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The primary purpose of the Democratic National Convention is to officially nominate the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president and vice president. The convention marks the formal end of the Democratic Party’s primary election process for president of the United States, and the beginning of the general election season.

Each party holds their own convention every four years ahead of the nation’s presidential election. Candidates are nominated upon winning the majority of their party’s delegates.

Delegates for the Democratic Party include both pledged and unpledged members. Pledged delegates vow to support the candidate nominated in their state’s primary or caucus, but unpledged delegates, also known as “superdelegates,” are uncommitted to any particular candidate, no matter their performance during primary elections.

While superdelegates rarely play a pivotal part in the Democratic Party’s nominating process, in scenarios where the party faces uncertainty over its nominee, superdelegates can have a major impact and potentially swing the process in favor of a candidate who did not win a majority of votes during the primary.   

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ public record on border security has been relatively low key prior to his entry into the presidential election fray. But given Vice President Kamala Harris’ so-called position as “border czar” – and with Walz and her running mate – he has since been forced to take a stronger stance on the issue. 

“[Trump] talks about this wall. I always say, ‘Let me know how high it is. If it’s 25 feet, then I’ll invest in the 30-foot-ladder factory,'” Walz told Anderson Cooper in a CNN interview. “He’s not interested in that. He wants to demonize.”

Attempting to turn the narrative on Trump, Walz pointed to a Senate compromise bill that Trump-aligned Republicans killed. “The Border Patrol agents endorsed it. These are folks who know what needs to be done, but he’s not interested in solving the problem,” Walz said on the bill. “What Democrats need to do is acknowledge, and he has ginned up fear, but our border can work better.”

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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will debate on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News, the network announced earlier this month.

The announcement came shortly after Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, said he had proposed three debates with three television networks and that he agreed on certain dates in September.

Trump is rejoining the ABC debate days after posting on his social media network that he would not appear on the network, citing a lawsuit he has filed, the Associated Press reported.

His decision sets up a highly anticipated moment in an election where President Biden’s first debate against Trump led to Biden dropping out of the race and endorsing his running mate, Harris, to lead the ticket.

“I think it’s very important to have debates,” Trump said earlier this month. “I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.”

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Minnesota Gov. and Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz has proven to have a progressive track record on immigration. As governor, he signed legislation granting illegal immigrants in Minnesota taxpayer funded health care, driver licenses, and free college tuition.

"Ensuring drivers in our state are licensed and carry insurance makes the roads safer for all Minnesotans," Walz said after signing the illegal immigrant driver license legislation into law. 

In response to a law granting sanctuary status to illegal immigrants in Minnesota, Walz said: "All Minnesotans are safer when the limited resources of local law enforcement are focused on local crimes and when everyone feels safe to cooperate fully with the police. For example, if your neighbor witnesses someone breaking into your home, you are safer when your neighbor knows their immigration status is not at risk if they call the police."

Walz has been intensely criticized over his position on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants by conservatives and immigration hawks.

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Vice President Harris and President Biden butted heads on the issue of race during the 2020 presidential election.

"I’m going to direct this at Vice President Biden – I do not believe you are a racist and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe, and it’s personal and it was hurtful to hear about you talk about the reputations on two United States senators who build their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country," Harris said of Biden in 2019. "And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose bussing."

"I will tell you that on this subject, it can not be an intellectual debate. Among Democrats, we have to take it seriously, we have to act swiftly," Harris said. She would later be selected as Biden’s running mate.

Biden, in his response, called Harris' claims "a mischaracterization of my position across the board."

"I did not praise racists, that is not true. Number one. Number two if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights or not I'm happy to do that," Biden said. "I ran because of civil rights, I continue to think we need to make changes in civil rights."

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President Joe Biden’s declining health, put on full display during his July debate performance against Donald Trump, has continued to put the octogenarian president under scrutiny.

“It’s possible, depending on Biden’s true capacities, that by rights he should have resigned and Harris should be president already — which probably would have put her in a better position to win the election even than her current honeymoon does," New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wrote in a recent Saturday column.

Ross even predicted the possibility of a major Biden health “crisis” in the next few months, which he argued would make Democrats wish he had resigned, not just given up his bid for reelection.

Concern over Biden’s health has continued following his disastrous debate performance particularly due to reports that some of his closest advisers and family members worked to hide the true nature of Biden’s physical and cognitive deficiencies from the public.

Just days before Biden announced he would not seek reelection, for example, White House senior deputy press secretary and deputy assistant to the president, Andrew Bates, called speculation that Biden faced a medical emergency while traveling to Las Vegas “100% false.” However, recordings from Las Vegas police released this week by the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project show that Biden was experiencing a sudden illness after canceling a speaking engagement he had planned in Sin City that day.   

Since announcing that he would not be running for reelection on July 21, Biden has held only six public events, according to his publicly available schedule.      

Days after the tragic events in Israel on Oct. 7, nine House Democrats voted against a resolution condemning Hamas and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself, including Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Andre Carson, I-Ind., Summer Lee, D-Pa., Al Green, D-Texas, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Delia Ramirez, D–Ill. Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., both of whom lost their primary battles amid massive efforts from pro-Israel groups to have them removed, also voted against the measure.

Democratic lawmakers have also been unafraid to rub elbows with radical anti-Israel groups and their leaders that express support for Hamas.

For instance, Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said she was “happy to see” Hamas’s Oct. 7 invasion. Meanwhile, Tlaib had no qualms about being the keynote speaker for a CAIR hosted event in January, Lee engaged in fundraising alongside the group in March, and roughly a month after Hamas’s attack California Governor Gavin Newsom met with representatives from the group’s California chapter. 

Tlaib was censured in November by her colleagues in the House of Representatives over her anti-Israel rhetoric, which included her use of the phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which is often considered a “rallying cry” used by Hamas.

Chicago, thanks in part to its geographical centrality, is the most popular city when it comes to major party political conventions.

Between 1860 and 1996, Chicago hosted 14 Republican Party national nominating conventions and 11 Democratic Party conventions.

After a near three-decade drought, Chicago is hosting the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois as well as the state's congressional delegation and Chicago city officials were instrumental in helping to land the convention. And one of their selling points was the vast number of hotel rooms in Chicago, which means that the thousands of delegates, officials, and journalists covering the confab would be able to stay within the city limits.

That is far from the case for many political conventions. Just last month, some delegates and journalists were housed in hotels far from downtown Milwaukee, site of the 2024 Republican National Convention.

The abundance of hotel rooms in downtown Chicago means that there will be easy access to both of the convention's venues - the United Center, an arena on the city's West Side where the prime time programming will take place, and McCormick Place, which is downtown near Lake Michigan, where daytime events will occur.

What are delegates?

Delegates and superdelegates will be in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention for their role in formally nominating Vice President Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee. 

Delegates are those who are determined during primaries and are bound to specific candidates, and are bound to vote for them at the convention if they remain in the race. 

What are superdelegates?

The 775 superdelegates, also known as automatic delegates, are comprised of Democratic National Committee members, all Democratic members of the House and Senate, Democratic governors and all former Democratic presidents, vice presidents, Senate leaders, House speakers, Democratic minority leaders and DNC chairs.

Those superdelegates do not vote on the first ballot but, if additional ballots are needed, can vote for whichever candidate they wish.

Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.

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Democrats will be hoping for a big boost in ratings from the selection of Vice President Kamala Harris as nominee, with eyes on whether they can get more viewers than their 2020 convention.

Democrats have been given a major boost in enthusiasm with the replacement of President Biden. Harris last week announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, a move that also enthused the Democratic base.

It is possible then that the DNC brings higher ratings than it did four years ago.

Viewership for the Republican convention had narrowly beaten its 2020 event, Axios reported, with about 19 million viewers across four nights. However, it was also down around 22% from the 2016 convention, the outlet reported, citing numbers from Nielsen.

Former President Trump’s speech this year similarly drew more viewers than his 2020 speech, but fewer than his 2016 speech.

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Several prominent figures from the Democratic Party are expected to speak at the party’s convention in Chicago taking place this week, beginning Monday. 

No formal list of speakers has been released, but those reportedly planning to make an appearance include President Joe Biden , former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former President Jimmy Carter’s son, Jason. Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will also speak during the final days of the convention. 

Biden and Hillary Clinton, the party’s nominee in 2016, will speak Monday on day one, while Obama will speak on day two of the convention, Tuesday. Bill Clinton is slated to speak Wednesday, on day three, alongside Walz. Harris will round out the end of the event Thursday with her speech.

In addition to Democratic Party figures and other people directly involved in politics, some major celebrities are working behind the scenes to secure their own appearance during the political convention, TMZ reported last week.