An Iowan who has served on the Democratic National Committee for the past four years says there’s been a sea change within the party since Kamala Harris became the party’s presidential nominee.
Jodi Clemens of West Branch spoke with Radio Iowa from the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. “The enthusiasm and the energy that has been brought in the past couple of weeks has just been amazing,” Clemens said. “I think we kind of forgot what it was like to feel optimistic and it’s just been really great. Volunteers have been pouring in from back home and we’re just having a really great time.”
Clemens, who worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2020 Iowa Caucus campaign, described Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as “an inspiring pick” for vice president. “Minnesota’s doing some amazing things up there, passing some of the legislation that we’d love to enable on a national level, you know, free school lunches for all kids,” Clemens said. “The things he’s been able to achieve, I think us Iowans are looking up there, we’re ready to take back our governorship and our legislature and get some of our own progressive policies passed.”
Walz was the closing speaker at the convention last night. Delegate C.J. Petersen of Templeton uses the word “outreach” to describe the message party activists are getting from the convention stage. “Make sure we’re uncovering every stone and we’re going everything we can,” Petersen said. “We don’t want to wake up the day after the election and wonder what we could have done differently.”
Petersen, who was born deaf, was a brief sign language interpreter on the floor of the convention Tuesday night. During the roll call of the states, Petersen signed what the state party chair said during Iowa’s half minute in the spotlight.
(Additional reporting in Chicago by Ashley Byrd, Learfield)