Keep Calm and Party On

Here's How an Open Democratic Convention Would Work

Are you confused about what's going on with the delegates to the DNC and the presidential nominating process? You are in good company.

Join the Democratic activists launching Delegates Are Democracy on Friday morning at 10:00am ET for an informational session featuring Elaine Kamarck. You can register for the Zoom here - and please share with any delegates to the DNC you have in your network.

Ezra Klein’s podcast on How an Open Democratic Convention Would Work started with this description of her:

Elaine Kamarck has literally written the book on presidential primaries. It’s called “Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know About How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates.” She’s a senior fellow in governance studies and the director of the Center for Effective Public Management at Brookings.

But she’s also been in the room where all this happens. She’s worked on four presidential campaigns, on 10 nominating conventions, both for Democrats and Republicans. She’s been a superdelegate to five Democratic conventions. So she both has the theory and the history but the actual felt experience of what it is like when you are figuring out these rules and trying to work within them.

You can register here for what should be an informative - and optimistic - information session. American politics is mediated by parties. There is a lot swirling right now, but keep calm and party on.

Dem Voters: Delegates Are Legit

Welcome polling released last week showed Democratic primary voters overwhelmingly believe the results of the convention process would be legitimate. Nearly nine in ten (87%) say that if Joe Biden were to drop out, another nominee chosen by the delegates to the Democratic National Convention would be legitimate, compared to just 2% who would consider such a nominee illegitimate.

Information Vacuum

As Delegates Are Democracy noted in Axios earlier this week:

"There's an information vacuum," said Chris Dempsey, a longtime Democratic activist in Massachusetts who is working to inform delegates of their role at the convention. "The delegates we talk to have heard very little from the state parties or the DNC."

Filling the information vacuum now is key, before it gets distorted by Republicans.

Mission of Delegates Are Democracy

It is essential that Democrats nominate a candidate who has a strong and viable path to beating Donald Trump in November. As we approach the Convention in mid-August, the most important people in the party are not elected officials or donors or columnists, but rather the delegates whose job it is to select a nominee. In this time of uncertainty, Democrats must be prepared, informed, and organized. Delegates Are Democracy is being formed to provide support for an orderly, “small-d” democratic convention that supports the legitimacy of the process according to the rules of the Democratic Party and in the eyes of the American people. 

Get in touch with them here or at info@delegatesaredemocracy.com