I hope you have been following the Democratic National Convention. The Convention theme is "Stronger Together" - in stark contrast to last week's Republican festival of bigotry and divisiveness. Democrats Abroad is there in Philadelphia with its delegation and you can follow along with the Convention and Democrats Abroad participation in many different ways.  The messages we are listening to this week are messages of hope and inspiration.

We’ll be regularly posting on our Facebook page and we will be providing regular updates on our website – with first-hand reporting from members of our delegation.  And for Check out our twitters at #daphilly2016.   During last night's roll call when Democrats Abroad announced its vote, Democrats Abroad was the number one twitter.

If you want to watch the Convention, you can tune into CNN which will be providing regular coverage – or you can watch the Convention’s own coverage either here https://www.demconvention.com/watch-live/ or on YouTube at (http://www.democratsabroad.org/2016_dnc_convention.

You can keep up to date with the schedule for the Convention at www.demconvention.com, but in brief the scheduled highlights of the upcoming evening events are:

Monday:  First Lady Michelle Obama and Senator Bernie Sanders

Tuesday:  President Bill Clinton and the Roll Call Vote for President

Wednesday:  Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama

Thursday:  Acceptance Speech by Secretary Hillary Clinton

So tune in and follow the action.  We are going to come out of the Convention energized and united for what looks to be a hotly contested election in November.

Many thanks and congratulations to the Super Duper Dump Trumpers! Here are the seven who reported that they did EVERYTHING on the list. Great job everyone!! 

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Ok, now it’s official: Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for President.  If you watched Trump's shamelessly unreal acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last night, you may be dazed and bewildered from being screamed at for more than an hour about the (wholly imaginary) Dystopian States of America. It's been a week of divisiveness, bigotry, crudity projecting a vision of an uglier and crueler America.  The only redeeming words spoken were when Melania Trump quoted our wonderful First Lady Michelle Obama – without attribution.

But we can’t sit around fretting about the fate of the nation - and the world - under a Trump presidency. As a party we are busy taking our campaign into communities across the country and  around the world. In the coming weeks, we’ll have more to say about OUR nominee and HER vision for a better America – and the many other wonderful Democratic candidates running for office across the country.  

But for now we invite you to purge the venom and take the ONE WEEK DUMP TRUMP CHALLENGE.

Happy 4th of July!

Below is an online press kit divided into three sections

• Media requests

• The organisation

• The convention

If you are a member of the media, and have any further questions, you can contact us at press@democratsabroad.org.

Democrats Abroad speaks with Laurie Gayle, Humanitarian Officer and Deputy Chair of Communications for Social Media about her experience of the refugee crisis, life in Scotland, and why she’s involved with Democrats Abroad.

Ten years ago and after stints living in England and Ireland, native Texan Laurie Gayle settled in Edinburgh, Scotland, and felt immediately at home. “My grandfather was born here,” Laurie explains. “I’m a proud Texan and there is something that aligns between the strong identities that both Texans and Scots have.  And of course, we both love fried food, live music and the bottle of whisky isn’t that far away.”

Laurie, who currently directs DA’s Facebook and Twitter channels as Deputy Director of Communications – Social Media, was prompted to join Democrats Abroad when a call to action was published on Facebook to recruit an entire new Chapter Committee in Scotland.  “The only way to run for a leadership position in Democrats Abroad is to become a member,” she recalls. “It only takes two minutes to join, so I did and shortly after I was elected Chair of the Scottish Chapter of Democrats Abroad.”

Around the world, our hearts go out to the people of Orlando. Our votes go out to U.S. leaders who support gun control. 

For most people, a bank account close to home is a fact of life. Sarah, an American researcher living in Canada, had thought little of how this right could come under fire until the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) went into effect. She now faces the anxiety of invasive monitoring of the account she shares with her British husband and worries about how she can save for her future. FATCA, a law intended to target those who evade taxes by stashing untaxed earnings in foreign banks, unjustly hurts normal Americans abroad—whose only crime is having a bank account in their country of residence.

Democrats Abroad is truly an international organization. Active members who keep it alive, like DNC member Gary Suwannarat, work tirelessly because they recognize the wide-reaching impact of US policies and understand the power of each and every vote.

(Gary Suwannarat, all the way on the left, is joined by fellow DNC members Caitlin Craft-Buchman and John Eastwood, and International Chair Katie Solon, reminding Americans overseas to Vote From Abroad)

Raised by active FDR-style liberal Democrats in a Republican-dominated Colorado district, Gary jokes that her political involvement is likely a “genetic inheritance.” Her appetite for affecting change led her to work in international development throughout southeast Asia, landing her in Thailand where she helped to revive a Democrats Abroad branch in 2003.  Now retired, she has represented our organization within the Democratic National Committee since 2012.

The Democrats Abroad Global Convention in Berlin came to a successful close on Sunday after a long and action-packed weekend.

Our congratulations to all the delegates elected this weekend at the Democrats Abroad regional caucuses and Global Convention!