Dem
51
GOP
49
Our readers who served as delegates to the DNC were amenable to our request to submit a final reflection on their experience. First up is A.S. in Fairfax, VA:
I'm finally mostly caught up on sleep. You might expect 4 days running from about 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. to take a lot out of you, but you couldn't see it in the delegates in the building Thursday night (and at the parties after). The excitement and chatter continued all the way to the airport and throughout Chicago the next day. That excitement is a credit to the DNC planning committee and to the thousands of volunteers, police and security, staff, and others that gave a tremendous effort and made significant sacrifices to ensure the convention ran smoothly, delegates and guests were cared for, and that everyone felt safe throughout the week.
It occurred to me that some people may want to know how one becomes a delegate. In Virginia, we hold local conventions in each Congressional district and a statewide convention in Richmond. Any Democrat can run for election as a delegate at either the district level or state level. I had the honor of being one of four male-identifying delegates elected in my district. It may seem like these delegate slots are reserved for deep party insiders, elected officials, and campaign big-wigs, but the reality is, many of us delegates are party volunteers who simply give their time to expand the party locally, empower our candidates to lead, and do our part to help win elections.
The memories from this convention will fuel me through the next 70 days, and I'll recite some lines from my favorite speeches insufferably among friends, but the part of being a delegate I found most impactful was getting to know better many of my local elected officials and other party leaders. We have some incredibly smart, fun, talented leaders, and it is a privilege to call them friends. Within my delegation and among our elected officials, I was struck by the diversity of skill sets, experiences, and backgrounds represented. From masters of canvassing and voter outreach, prolific fundraisers, recruiters and organizers, pollsters and data analysts, graphic designers, social media influencers, and experts in a variety of policy issues, Virginia's representation at the DNC epitomized the team needed for any successful campaign.
So while I have to catch up on work and everything else I left behind for a week, I am inspired to find more ways to help from now until Election Day and to help our state legislators prepare for their elections next year, and if anyone else was inspired by that fantastic convention, just reach out to your local party—there is plenty of work to do.
Two final observations: (1) Virginia shared a hotel with delegations from many other states, and... be careful around California. They're party animals and they took over the hotel bars every night, and (2) The Toronto Blue Jays were in town to play the Cubs the weekend before, so we may have had some spies infiltrating the convention. Everyone was wearing blue so they would blend right in.
And now, C.L. in Boulder, CO:
This was my first national convention. I had never had a desire to go to the DNC before, for 2 reasons: (1) The nominee is always determined long before the convention, so the convention didn't seem to have much of a purpose, and (2) Conventions seem to be primarily cheerleading fests, and since I got laryngitis in 2015, I avoid yelling.
This year, I thought we might have a brokered convention, so I applied to be a delegate. If you missed Colorado's March 18th application deadline, then you were out of luck. I'm fairly well known in my county party and got elected at the congressional district level. If I hadn't been elected at the CD level, then my name would have been on the state party's ballot 2 days later. I made a short video, sent some e-mails asking CD and state delegates to vote for me and then went into the no-Internet-service mountains for a long-planned hut trip. I only recognized two women's names on the CD candidate list, so I thought that everyone in my county might vote for me. There were 14 candidates vying for 4 of my gender's slots in my CD.
We got a nice printed directory of all the Colorado delegates, both elected and automatic, at our first DNC breakfast. Extra people (e.g., delegation pages and standing committee members) were also included, with everyone's photo and bio. I wish that the directory had included our home county because I happened to meet three delegates from my county during the course of the week who I didn't know before! Evidently, you don't have to attend the monthly party meetings to become a delegate.
The state party estimated the cost of attending the DNC at $3,000. My cost for the convention was a little more than half that, but I had a roommate. I also had a three-leg airplane ticket because I went to New Orleans before heading back to Colorado. A friend in Chicago offered me his apartment free of charge, but the hassle of getting from the apartment to the hotel breakfast where they handed out the day's all-important credential overrode the savings. The state party helped delegates set up GoFundMe sites and provided some funding for those in need. I received a scholarship from the state party's Latino Initiative.
The TV-viewing public only sees the prime-time evening events, but there were plenty of sessions during the day that were open to the public and the delegation heard from prominent speakers at breakfast. I especially enjoyed hearing political strategists Celinda Lake and Frank Luntz. We could also interact with the daytime speakers and/or lobby our elected officials! (The exceptions were Tim and Gwen Walz, who had tight security around them.) For instance, I spoke to DNC Vice Chair Henry Muñoz and told him that I suspected he does most of the vice chair work. His two co-vice chairs are Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL).
The roll call vote and balloon drop were worth attending in person, but otherwise I might have preferred watching the evening events on TV. Lots of noise and commotion in the United arena—for instance, I couldn't really hear the songs with the roll-call vote—and we were discouraged from moving around. The food for sale in the arena was panned. The shuttles to the arena were slow, so I missed the beginning of each day's events, but I enjoyed chatting on the shuttles with delegates in our hotel from New Jersey, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. I happened to throw a deck of cards into my bag and played Spades the first day on the shuttle.
The party platform was approved on a voice vote without any discussion early the first evening (possibly without a quorum of delegates), though pro-Palestinian delegates wanted some recognition of the plight of the Palestinians in the platform. According to Heather Cox Richardson, the platform had not been updated to respond to Harris being the nominee and mentioned Biden multiple times.
I don't think that the automatic (aka super) delegates had to go through the same security lines that we had to go through. At least, I never saw them in our lines or on the shuttle buses.
If my Minnesota grandfather were alive, he would have been very pleased to see that Democrats are again embracing labor unions.
When I spoke to delegates who had attended previous conventions, they said this was the most energizing, joyous convention they've attended. And it was put together in very short order! It was an experience that I'll remember for a very long time.
Thanks to both of you for your reports. Fascinating stuff! And, truth be told, we've always suspected that Blue Jays "fans" are actually sleeper agents. We've also taken note that the former Montreal Expos now play just 3 miles from the White House. Hmmmmm... (Z)