The Candidates (1)
- Kristen Jafflin
I joined Democrats Abroad, Switzerland eight years ago, after moving to Geneva just a couple of weeks before President Obama's inauguration and thankfully learning of an inauguration party hosted by Democrats Abroad.
A life-long Democrat and committed voter, I have long been active in Democratic and progressive politics. As an undergrad, I was a leader in my campus feminist and GLBT groups, and I have been an active participant in many progressive causes, from marching against the Iraq War to pushing for graduate-student workers' rights as a member of our graduate student union while studying at UC Berkeley. I'm also an enthusiastic voter – I registered to vote as soon as I turned 18, and I participated in get out the vote drives in Nevada in 2004 and volunteered to work as a poll worker during the 2008 election.
Since arriving in Switzerland, I've been an active member of Democrats Abroad, participating and volunteering frequently for all manner of events, from Art Walks to Expat Expos. I've been active in the Basel Chapter-in-Formation for over a year, helping with a great voter registration effort and many election-related events, including Debate and Election-night Watch Parties. Since the election, I’ve redoubled my involvement, completing database training and certification on the new DA database and helping organize action events to respond to the current Republican administration and other events of interest to the group.
It is vital that we resist the Republican administration and fight to take over the House and Senate in the mid-term elections. As vice-chair of DACH Basel, I hope to put my passion, skills and experience to use strengthening our local chapter to help us all in that effort. My top priority is to help Americans living in the greater Basel area make their voices heard in US politics, both by registering and voting and through other forms of political action.
Towards that end, I have three top priorities for 2017:
- Outreach to Americans living in the region, to make them aware of our activities and to recruit more people interested in helping with and shaping our efforts.
- Activism to make our voices heard on issues of concern to us.
- Preparing for the mid-terms in 2018 by updating and extending information in the database and developing a local GOTV team that’s trained in voter registration.