Delegate Good Times - Come On!

Today, I served as a delegate to my SD 64 conference for the first time ever!

It was an uncontested endorsement for my amazing House Representative, Kaohly Her! (and for her counterpart in the other part of the district, Dave Pinto).

Also uncontested was our fantastic state Senator Erin Murphy. She's amazing and I am so happy to support her (her acceptance speech gave me goosebumps).

There was also a long-delayed farewell presentation/speech from my former Senator, Dick Cohen, who retired in 2020. Dick was a long-time supporter of the arts and an all-around good guy, and I was glad to hear from him (sadly, the guy sitting next to me had never heard of him before, but he seemed to appreciate it as well).

We got to hear a passionate GOTV message from my Tufts classmate, and Minnesota's Secretary of State, Steve Simon.

And there was a lot of other general conference business. It was not a small agenda!

Then we got to the "Walking Caucus" part of the afternoon, electing delegates for the CD and state conferences next month. It's a process that sounds confusing, but actually seems to work; basically, sub-caucus leaders come up and say a candidate's name (or "uncommitted"), and their major issue (eg: McCollum - Boundary Waters, or Uncommitted - Climate Change, etc.). Then, delegates and alternates  are apportioned based on the representation in these sub caucuses. In practice, it ended up with Betty McCollum having a big herd of us on one side of the room, and her challenger, Amane Badhasso, with a  somewhat smaller group on the other side, and then a small batch of other issues in the center. People were counted and delegates chosen, and then everyone went home. (spoiler alert: I did not vie for a delegate seat, because Beatrix's performance schedule conflicts with it).

So a few takeaways from this. 

First of all, it was great to go and see and support these people that represent me that I value so much. I got  big hug from Erin, and to talk to Kaohly briefly, and Rep. McCollum was incredibly inspiring as she told us that she was on her way to Poland to meet with a Ukrainian envoy. Participating was worth it just for that (and seeing friends, and meeting some others).

I think that the conferences are *in theory* a good way to get involvement. They are based on strong democratic principles. But, as someone coming in for the first time, I don't know how good an entry point they actually are. I am somewhat politically savvy, and after I took things in I could see some more ways to get involved (and I'm thinking about restructuring some time to do so). But, especially after talking to the young man sitting next to me, I don't know that I would feel welcome or know how to take the next steps were I brand new to it. Heck, I couldn't even find Betty's room with the free pizza. If the DFL is going to be a "big tent" party, I think we need to be a lot better at letting people know how how to get into that tent, and what they can do when they are there.

Related to that — I totally see how gender equity has gotten better. The majority of candidates today were female. There were women up at the head table, and on the main committees. More women than men were considered in our sub-caucus for delegates. But again, coming in to this for the first time, the sense still was still very male. Almost every motion made and seconded was by a male voice — maybe because they just carry better in a cacophonous room. The leaders of most of the sub-caucuses were male. Now I am not saying they were ineffective leaders; on the contrary, everyone I saw today was really great, and affirming, and clear, and easy to work with. But they were all men, 35-55 year old men at that. I'm not even touching on the representation of non-binary people, people of color, and people with disabilities, because I don't feel equipped to discuss it. There was *some* though. 

I'm thinking through this in an anti-racist lens. In our sub-caucus, they wanted an equal balance between men and women. So there were 9 men, and so that balanced out between delegates and alternates. The 16 women had to decide amongst themselves, and were still deciding when I left. Now, 9 mean and 9 women is fair. Had it been 16 men and 9 women, I probably would have been on the side of making sure it was 9 and 9. But in this case, more women wanted to be delegates than men. Additionally, women have long been shut out of the process, and are still not equally represented in Congress today. So should "equal" have been 10-11 women and 7-8 men? Maybe? I don't know.

I'm not losing the good while looking for the perfect here. I value the people who were there today. I respect their participation in democracy. I respect their work and leadership, greatly. But it did get me thinking  lot about who takes their place in these rooms, and who does not.