CALIFORNIA DNC PRESS DEMOCRAT AUGUST 2019 PAGE 1 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES: WHO IS YOUR CHOICE? BY DNC MEMBER MARY ELLEN EARLY Mary Ellen Early Is founding editor of the California DNC Press Democrat DNC Delegation Members at CDP Convention in May of 2019 At last year’s Summer DNC meeting in Chicago, members voted to pass STAYING UNITED AFTER CONTESTED NOMINATION PROCESS some changes to the way presidential candidates will BY DNC MEMBERS KEITH UMEMOTO AND ALEX ROOKER be selected at the 2020 Na- tional Convention. Automatic unpledged dele- In 10 months, we'll know who House occupant, and 2 of gates (formerly known as our Party's nominee will be and the 12 debates are finished. “super delegates” in the in 14 months, we'll know the In examining the Dele- White House occupant. media) will not be able to gate Selection Rules, there vote for a presidential nomi- Tremendous forces are going is a real possibility of unan- nee on the first round of against us: unimpeded Russian convention balloting. intervention; voter ID, purging ticipated consequences. These delegates include voter files, inconvenient or inac- When a candidate has to cessible polling locations in get at least 15 % of a Democratic governors, U.S. CDP Vice Chair Alex senators, members of con- Democratic precincts and other state's vote to receive any voter suppression tactics; Citi- Rooker is Treasurer of gress and DNC members. delegates, a long standing the Association of zens United/billionaire spend- The only exception is in rule, there conceivably State Democratic the case of a deadlocked ing; RNC's prolific fundraising; a Chairs and Vice Chair could be only one candi- convention, where no candi- motivated Trump core of believ- of the DNC Women’s date has enough delegate ers; Trump lies suffocating the date getting delegates with Caucus votes to secure the nomina- air waves; and forbid the far less than 50% of the tion on the first ballot. This thought - a US Supreme Court vote in some states, or very hasn’t happened since decision. few candidates getting del- If we lose, you know the con- 1952. egates. What will our re- sequences will be horrific; our Nonetheless, Iike you, I sponse be as Democratic have watched the first two core Democratic Party issues sets of presidential debates will be further diminished. activists if this occurred? with great interest. All of the Trump has only begun. This could result in a bro- candidates have qualities The general electorate is kered convention with no that would make them good starting to focus on 2020. We candidate having a majority leaders, and indeed, any have our Delegate Selection of delegates, which last occurred in 1952 with Adlai would be preferable to the Rules and states are submitting Stevenson being the Demo- Keith Umemoto is a current occupant of the their delegate plans. Twenty White House. cratic nominee. Co-Chair of the CDP one Democrats are vying to Credentials Committee Continued on Page 4 replace the current White Continued on Page 4 AUGUST 2019 CALIFORNIA DNC PRESS DEMOCRAT PAGE 2 WESTERN STATES DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE AND TRAINING IN OCTOBER BY DNC MEMBER JESS DURFEE Please share with other Make your hotel reserva- tations on messaging, digital Democratic Party leaders tion here: organizing, grassroots out- in your community: reach, state-to-state and cross- https://book.passkey.com/ organizational support, target- Western States event/49956097/owner/2302/ ing & other topics to lead to Democratic Leaders home victories in 2020 in the West- Conference & Training ern States. Renaissance Downtown For your planning, registra- Please consider spending a Hotel tion will begin at 1:00 PM, day or two in Phoenix volun- Phoenix, Arizona Friday, Oct. 11 with the open- teering with the Arizona Demo- October 11-13, 2019 ing session at 2:00. The clos- cratic Party either before or ing session will end at 1:00 after the conference. Arizona To RSVP for the Confer- PM Sunday, Oct. 13. The offers an opportunity to flip a ence, use this: conference, being held at the US Senate seat and to move Jess Durfee is Chair of the https://tinyurl.com/ Renaissance Downtown Ho- this key state from red-to-blue DNC Western States Cau- y6xorjmn or email me tel (a union venue), will in- for the 2020 electoral college cus and a member of the at [email protected] clude workshops and presen- count. DNC Executive Committee DEMOCRATS NEED ASSAULT WEAPON-FREE ZONE AT OUR NATIONAL CONVENTIONS B ਸ DNC Mਤਬਡਤ਱ Bਮਡ M਴ਫਧਮਫਫਠਭਣ This is the letter I sent on or African-Americans or 8/8/19 to the Wisconsin immigrants in early July, NEXT DNC MEETING Governor, the Mayor of with many media reports Milwaukee and to DNC about the Democratic Con- The DNC does not Chair Tom Perez: vention being the week of usually meet during Last weekend saw two July 13, it could be a tipping presidential election years, massive killing disasters (El point for one of those neo- other than a brief business Paso & Dayton), with as- Nazis, the ones that have meeting the day after the sault weapons. I had hoped "fine people" involved. Democratic National that our 2020 National Con- I fully understand the dev- Convention ends. vention would not be in a astation of assault weapons. For this reason, we do not state that allows people to In the picture below, I am expect to have another walk around with loaded about to lead a convoy out General Meeting of the guns. I understand that of Phuoc Vinh in Vietnam DNC until Friday, July 17, Wisconsin is an Open Carry (1967-68). The M-60 ma- 2020, in Milwaukee, state, like Texas, but one chine gun can put out 300 Wisconsin. cannot carry a weapon in rounds a minute. the open, near police sta- tions, Court Rooms and of course not in our Conven- tion facility. Well, can we make sure there is a one mile radius Gun Free Zone around the Arena? Declare an emergency or pass some new legislation for a two week Period of No Guns at or near the Demo- cratic National Convention. DNC Member The Trump Convention Bob Mulholland will be 98% white. The resides in Chico and can Democratic National Con- be reached at vention could be over 50% [email protected] minority and thus, the exact type of facility that could attract the thugs that killed 31 over the weekend. And of course, if Trump is at- tacking Mexican-Americans AUGUST 2019 CALIFORNIA DNC PRESS DEMOCRAT PAGE 3 LGBTQ UPDATE B ਸ DNC Mਤਬਡਤ਱ Lਠ਴਱ਤਭਢਤ Zਠਪਲਮਭ One of the major differences between our Party and the GOP is that we celebrate di- versity and seek to make our Party and our nation stronger by inclusion--rather than exclu- sion. In 2018, Democrats made major gains in federal, state and local races by reaching out and including traditionally disenfranchised communities. The LGBTQ community is one such community--and our efforts bore fruit in 2018. LGBT DNC members, including Western States Regional Caucus Chair Jess Durfee, Western States Executive Committee Member Garry S. Shay and I have been working on replicating the recent mobilizations to Arizona and Nevada in conjunction with LGBTQ Pride events for 2020. New California Democratic Party LGBT Caucus Co-Chair Lester Aponte and California Young Democrats President and San Diego County Democratic Party Chair Will Rodriguez-Kennedy have joined that conversation/effort with gusto. And I hope to have news to share on that score in the near future. Meanwhile, efforts are underway to improve LGBTQ representation in state affirmative action plans for the National Convention. And messaging efforts are similarly being as- sembled. On the messaging front, a survey of participants at the 2019 Victory Fund/ California DNC Member Laurence Zakson is Secretary Institute revealed the top three issues for LGBTQ leaders and organizations are: of the DNC LGBT Caucus Passing the Equality Act Opposing Conversion Therapy and advancing conversion therapy bans at the state and national level Protecting LGBTQ people abroad In 2018, there were a total of 682 LGBTQ elected officials nationwide. And we had significant pick ups in getting to those numbers. Federal Officials Rep. Sharice Davids (KS) DNC REDESIGNS WEB SITE Rep. Angie Craig (MN) Rep. Chris Pappas (NH) We have something exciting to show you! We just redesigned the Democratic Party's website -- Rep. Katie Hill (CA) and although we may be a little biased, we think it looks Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) pretty cool. See for yourself! State officials The Democratic Party is proud to be the party of the Gov. Jared Polis (CO) people, which is something we took to heart when designing our new site. The new Democrats.org is a State Rep. Lisa Bunker (NH)* place to learn more about who we are and what we value, State Rep. Gerri Cannon (NH)* read up on what we do, and figure out ways to get in- volved in your own community -- plus, we have a State Rep. Brianna Titone (CO)* full Spanish version of the site, too. State Rep. JD Ford (IN) The team here at HQ worked tirelessly to get the new website up and running, but it wouldn't have happened State Rep. Megan Hunt (NE) without the support of loyal Democrats like you. So, what State Rep. Susan Ruiz (KS) are you waiting for? Take a look at what you helped make possible: State Rep. Brandon Woodward (KS) Visit Democrats.org Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee Christine Halquist (VT)* Of course, creating a new website isn't the only thing State Senator Nickie Antonio (OH) you're helping us do.