Following a shaky summer, which included public feuds between the leadership of the Alabama Democratic Party and the Democratic National Convention, the state’s delegation arrived in Chicago for this week’s event with a common goal of nominating Kamala Harris to be the country’s next president.
But under the lights at the United Center, state party chairman Randy Kelley wanted to emphasize unity and energy within the Alabama group and the Democratic Party as a whole.
“I think we’re like any normal family — We all have our differences,” Kelley told AL.com at the DNC. “But we heal our differences, and we are ready to go forward and concentrate on the main thing, and that is electing Kamala Harris as President of the United States.”
Kelley had previously claimed that the Biden-Harris campaign’s decision to deny the state from sending certain delegates was racially motivated. And state leaders protested the national party’s selection of Alabama delegates, after DNC Chair Jaime Harrison told Kelley that the state party had missed selection deadlines.
The interparty conflict has been on display in the lead-up to the convention, including in recent reporting that a DNC document said that Alabama’s delegation process had been governed by a “number of bad-faith actors.”
Delegates AL.com spoke to emphasized the group’s commitment to focus on the convention and their “excitement” for the historic opportunity to nominate Harris for the presidency.
“I don’t think that anything that was happening or that, even what that article’s about, is affecting anything today and anything that’s going on with this convention,” Donna Foster, who was elected as an at-large delegate said. “The way I feel, anything that was happening prior, we are here together … anything that may have been divisive, we’re leaving it behind.”
Jamie Lowe, a 24-year-old and District Three delegate, attended the DNC virtually as a Biden delegate in 2020.
Now the chair of the Lee County Democratic Party, Lowe said Harris’ youth and energy will fuel Democratic “camaraderie” ahead of the election in November.
“Age is more than just the numerical value — I think the vice president brings energy,” Lowe said. “She brings the prosecutorial focus and personality that, I think Joe Biden certainly has, but it feels easy to be energized by a candidate that is speaking directly to voters with power and emphasis.”
Lowe also said that as a Black and Indian-American woman, Harris can connect with the Alabama electorate.
The state’s Black population is about 27%, according to Census data. Lowe said Black voters have been a core part of the state’s Democratic base.
“Having another candidate that has firsthand experience in what it’s like to be a Black and brown person, a person of color in America, goes far in and of itself,” Lowe said. “I think she also understands the importance of preserving the voting rights in her support for the Congressman John Lewis bill.”
State Democrats also hope that excitement about the top of the ticket will help other candidates, including Shomari Figures, who is running against Republican Caroleene Dobson for the closely-watched District 2 congressional seat in south Alabama.
Both Kelley and Foster echoed Lowe’s belief in the strengths of Harris as a candidate over former President Donald Trump and the historic opportunity to nominate her for the presidency.
“We couldn’t have a better contrast between Kamala Harris than former President Trump,” Kelley said. “She has a track record. She’s come up to the ranks from the Attorney General, to the Vice President, and now we’re looking for her to be the first woman president.”
On Thursday, the Alabama Delegation will join the rest of the convention to make Harris the first Black and Southeast Asian woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee.
“I am here to see history,” Foster said. “This is an exciting time for all of us, and I want to be a part of this. Not if, but when Kamala Harris wins, I want to be a part of it.”
Sofia Abdullina, a Syracuse University senior from Boston studying magazine, news and digital journalism and international relations, and Griffin Uribe Brown, a junior from Chicago studying magazine, news and digital journalism and policy studies, are reporting for AL.com during the Democratic National Convention. They are covering the DNC as part of a program with Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.
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Publish date : 2024-08-19 22:00:00
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