On Saturday, 16 May 2020, more than 200 electors logged on from around Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to represent their country committees and vote for the candidates who will represent EMEA in the 2020 Democrats Abroad delegation to the National Convention. This was our first fully online regional convention. The people elected to represent DA’s EMEA region at this year’s DNC come from many countries across the region and well represent the diversity of our party and our organization. This year Democrats Abroad Germany had two big wins in these important elections.
The voting started with the election of the EMEA regional DNC member. There close to 50 candidates from our region, including six members from Germany:
- Antigoné McDermot, Heidelberg Chapter
- Christian Wollny, Hamburg Chapter
- Diane Haven, Kaiserslautern Chapter
- Evan Bermel, Berlin Chapter
- Jacqueline Routier, Berlin Chapter
- Kathryn (Katie) Solon, Munich Chapter
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Katie Solon won in the first round of voting. She received 5657 out of 9827 votes, for 57.6% of the vote, exceeding 50% threshold. Congratulations Katie! We spoke to Katie after the election, and she said, “I’m honored and thrilled to be elected to the DNC to represent Democrats Abroad and the millions of US overseas voters! We have work to do to win elections up and down the ballot in November and thousands of DA volunteers around the world already pitching in!” Katie is a founding member of the DA Austria and the former DA Global Chair 2013 – 2017. She is currently our at-large phone banking coordinator and the DCPA Representative. |
After the DNC election, the electors and candidates split into two Presidential Preference Groups (PPG) to vote on three delegates each to represent VP Biden and Senator Sanders. The Sanders room was chaired by Angela Fobbs from DA Germany, Wiesbaden-Mainz Chapter, and the Biden room by Liz Voss DA Switzerland.
In the Biden PPG, Germany had 17 candidates:
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Evie Walls made it through to the second round in all three elections. However, none of our candidates in the Biden PPG were elected. We thank everyone for their interest in serving and hope you all find other ways within Democrats Abroad to serve and make a difference.
In the Sanders PPG, Germany had 21 candidates:
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In the first election, Diego Rivas won with 67% of the votes in the final round. Congratulation Diego! After his election, Diego said: "In the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary, 72% voted for either Sanders or Warren. I'm humbled and excited to represent Democrats Abroad's progressive values at the Democratic National Convention". Diego Rivas is the current chair of our Berlin chapter. Honorable mention: Anya Leonhard made it through to the second round of voting in elections one and three.
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Following the EMEA delegate elections, the regional electors came together once more to vote on the region's two platform committee members, and discuss resolutions. Interest in resolution discussion let to several motions to extend the meeting two hours beyond the originally scheduled time. It ended with a motion to refer all nine resolutions up for discussion to the Global platform committee, leaving an opportunity for the electors on the call to submit arguments pro and con to the Platform Committee, and requiring the committee to hold a town hall to specially discuss these nine resolutions.
The Americas and the Asia Pacific Regions also held their regional conventions on the same weekend. Here are the results of the elections in all regions:
Regional At-large Delegates
Americas
- Timothy Ellis (CA), Sanders
- Miguel Madrigal (CR), Biden
Asia Pacific
- John Baumlin (JP), Sanders
EMEA
- Diego Rivas (DE), Sanders
- Anne Dlugosz (FR), Sanders
- Farid Ben Amor (CH), Sanders
- Juan Cerda (AT), Biden
- Marisa Grimes (RW), Biden
- Onelica Andrade (BE), Biden
2020-2024 Regional DNC Members
- Aaron Kruse (CN)
- Katie Solon (DE)
- Ken Sherman (CA)
Platform Committee Members
- Kent Getsinger (AU)
- Kiyoko Ayukawa (JP)
- Heather Stone (IL)
- Nathan Zaccai (UK)
- Rachel Eugster (CA)
- Sam Goodman (CR)
Congratulations to everyone! Good luck in your endeavors! If you are still interested in going to the Democratic National Convention, you can sign up to a volunteer at https://www.milwaukee2020.com/volunteer
There will be additional elections for convention delegates and DNC Members at the Democrats Abroad Global Convention on June 6, 2020.
Please be sure you request your absentee ballot at https://www.votefromabroad.org/, and you can check the status of your voter registration at https://iwillvote.com/
