Tammy Baldwin snags DNC speaker slot on same night as Harris

• An electric convention speech can supercharge a Senate candidate's national profile, like it did for Illinois Senate nominee Barack Obama at the 2004 DNC.

For non-incumbents, speaking slots give them the chance to be alongside powerhouses like Obama and former President Clinton.

• The Harris-Walz campaign, meanwhile, is staring at tough odds for keeping the Senate and wants to do whatever it can to help.

Zoom in: The party needs non-incumbent nominees like Elissa Slotkin (Michigan), Ruben Gallego (Arizona) and Colin Allred (Texas) to win in November if it has any shot of keeping its Senate majority.

• Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) will also be in Chicago.
• The exact lineup of speakers is still being confirmed, multiple sources told Axios.
• Vice President Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday.

Republican Senate candidates were given similar opportunities at the GOP convention last month.

The intrigue: Some vulnerable Democratic candidates have decided to skip out on the trip to Chicago, including Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.).

The bottom line: Momentum has shifted toward the Harris campaign in a number of swing states where there are also critical Senate contests.

• Before the Biden-Harris swap, Democratic campaigns privately worried that they would have to significantly outperform the Biden campaign in battleground states to win.
• Now, there is optimism that the top of the ticket might actually be helpful in November.

Go deeper: Biden's handoff to Harris set for DNC in Chicago