Democrats don’t like to think of the period — the Before Times of the presidential campaign — when President Joe Biden stumbled through a debate and his party descended into collective panic over his dwindling reelection prospects.

“It was absolutely challenging,” recalled Ken Ulman, Maryland’s Democratic Party chair, in an interview advance of the Democratic National Convention, which starts Monday in Chicago. “There was a lot of angst. It was palpable by everyone who cared about beating Donald Trump.”

In the dizzying period following the June 27 debate, Trump — ahead in the polls — survived an assassination attempt, emerging with a bandaged ear and, two days later at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, selected Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate.

On July 21, Biden, 81, withdrew following questions about his age and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the party’s nominee. Now, Harris faces her biggest moment to date — a Democratic Convention acceptance speech Thursday in which she must distinguish herself from Biden, who is beloved within the party but was an unpopular candidate, according to polls.

History shows that the White House campaigns of vice presidents can be weighed down by the chief executive’s baggage. In 1968, Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey — entangled in the unpopular Vietnam War policies of President Lyndon Johnson — lost a presidential bid to Richard Nixon.

Harris, at least so far, is mostly managing to develop her own brand, said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

“Biden was in no shape to run again, and choosing between two old white guys wasn’t appetizing. Now voters don’t have to pick an old white guy,” Sabato said.

“Harris has a honeymoon for that reason, and the fact that voters know vice presidents don’t make the decisions. So she isn’t held responsible for Biden’s unpopular policies, so far at least. Hubert Humphrey wishes he had had it so good,” Sabato said.

Trump, 77, the former president and Republican nominee, has sought to tie Harris to the political liabilities Biden faced.

Trump’s campaign says the country is suffering under “Kamala’s economy,” and he said at a North Carolina rally on Wednesday: “Does anyone here feel richer under Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe than you were during the Trump administration?”

In June — with Biden still the presumed Democratic nominee — Trump seized on a Harford County case in which a man who entered the country unlawfully is charged in the murder of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five.

While Trump blamed what he calls Biden’s “open border” policies, Harris has countered that it was Republicans who shelved bipartisan Senate legislation in May intended to reduce the volume of border crossings.

Republicans label Harris the southern “border czar,” a title she does not hold. Her border assignment, according to a 2021 White House memorandum, was to explore the “root causes” of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, a role that led to a series of recommendations for addressing economic insecurity and other issues driving border traffic.

Harris’ acceptance speech will come on the final day of the convention, which will convene at the United Center and fan out to hotels, meeting rooms and restaurants around Chicago where delegates, lobbyists, state and national leaders — including future presidential hopefuls — will meet.

Maryland’s 118-member delegation is staying at a downtown hotel along with delegates from New York, Wisconsin and other states.

“Conventions have multiple functions,” said University of Baltimore professor John Willis, a Maryland delegate who was secretary of state in the administration of Democratic Gov. Parris Glendening.

“There is a nomination function,” Willis said. “But then what is (California Gov.) Gavin Newsom doing? It’s a testing ground for future candidates.”

Gov. Wes Moore, a prominent national surrogate for Democratic presidential and Senate campaigns, is expected to land a prime convention speaking spot.

Biden, former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will address the delegates before vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, speaks on Wednesday and Harris on Thursday.

In Chicago and beyond, Harris’ campaign will emphasize most of the same issues — such as abortion rights and safeguarding democratic principles — that Biden did, according to Democratic strategists from inside and outside the Harris campaign. They say Harris, because she is a former district attorney and California attorney general, can be especially effective spotlighting Trump’s May conviction on falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex.

Her gender, relatively young age (59) and past advocacy for abortion rights can help her court young voters, particularly women.

“She is probably the most effective messenger on reproductive freedom in the country,” said Jessica Mackler, a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official who is president of EMILY’s List, which helps elect women who support abortion rights.

“She’s spent her entire life leading on this issue,” Mackler said. “She can mobilize voters that we need to win — women voters, voters of color. Young voters, and young women in particular, are really motivated by her.”

Abortion has been a central election issue since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision in 2022 that had made abortion a constitutional right.

Maryland’s November ballot includes a proposal that would further protect abortion rights in the state by including them as an amendment to the state constitution.