Report from Connie Borde, DNC Representative and former DA France Chair
DA DNC Representatives with Senator Corey Booker (NJ): (from left to right) Ken Sherman, Martha McDevitt-Pugh, DA Global Vice Chair Alex Montgomery, DA Global Chair Julia Bryan, Senator Corey Booker, Constance Borde, Orlando Vidal, John Eastwood, and Adrianne George.
Mid-August and the Democrats Abroad DNC team made its way from various parts of the world to San Francisco to attend the summer meeting of the Democratic National Committee. (August 22-25). This important and exciting meeting was the last General Assembly before we all head to Milwaukee, WI in summer 2020 for the Democratic National Convention.
We eight DNC members nostalgically recalled our first meeting in 2016 when Tom Perez, newly elected Chair of the DNC, pledged to make the Democratic Party the “party of the people” and the party of unity. Today we look back to what seems like yesterday, and we unanimously concur that Chair Perez has achieved his promise. And it couldn’t come at a more urgent time, one of the most critical political moments in American History.
DA Global Chair, Julia Bryan, has forged new partnerships for DA within the Democratic Party. The Association of Democratic State Chairs (ASDC) pledge was passed unanimously in June by ASDC members – made up of the Chairs and Vice Chairs from all 57 State Parties (all 50 States + DC + 5 U.S. Overseas Territories + Democrats Abroad) and unanimously endorsed by the ASDED - the Association of State Party Democratic Executive Directors.
Building up such an infrastructure – a 57 state party strategy - will be essential to winning in 2020. In the words of Julia Bryan, “the Association engages in this critical work to ensure that State Parties have the tools and resources they need to elect those who share our values, will make a difference in our communities, and will improve peoples' lives.”
The Democratic Party presidential debates leading up to the 2020 Primaries have proven to be a complex but transparent exercise in democracy at its best. Over the next few months Democrats Abroad will be preparing for our own Global Primary. Our Chair and leadership team have announced that sixteen presidential candidate campaigns have signed on to participate in the launch of our petition process on September 1st. For more information about the petitions and how that process works, do check out our Candidate Petition Process. We are committed to bringing these candidates to our overseas voters and make our Primaries as meaningful as possible.
In San Francisco we saw and heard all the presidential candidates and we personally met with several of them. This fall we'll hear from many of the campaigns in a series of online candidate forums being organized by Democrats Abroad.
There’s a lot of territory to cover from now until November 2020. Getting Out The Vote, phone banking, partnering with state chairs, working with the DNC on voter protection (Donald Trump has announced his withdrawal from the Universal Postal Union – UPU – a serious setback for absentee ballots), targeting elections where we can play a role, staying on topic and staying on top of all the issues.
Working with the DNC is crucial. And we are.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Martha McDevitt-Pugh
Senator Elizabeth Warren (MA) speaking at the Gala