Capitol Coverage: Opening Day of DNC

The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia got off to a rocky start yesterday. Supporters of Bernie Sanders booed as he endorsed Hillary Clinton earlier in the day, and some of the consternation came from Colorado. Bente Birkeland has more.

Capitol Coverage: Opening Day of DNC kgnu

Clinton has the difficult task of unifying Democrats divided by an intense primary season. Some of the consternation came from Colorado’s delegates, where Sanders won the caucuses.

“I’m a Bernie person all the way, said Cleo Dioletis, a delegate from Denver. “In my mind, I have to support a strong candidate who is ethically correct.”

She said she would not vote for Clinton in November. Dioletis is even more adamant in light of new emails showing that Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said disparaging things about Sanders, and worked to try and bolster Clinton’s campaign.

“The Democratic party cheated and lied,” said Dioletis.

Wasserman Schultz resigned over the emails and will not preside over the convention this week. She was slated to gavel the convention to order but stepped down after it was clear how bad the optics would look on opening day.

State representative Jonathon Singer (D-Longmont) is another Sanders delegate. He said the Clinton campaign needs to try and embrace Bernie supports, many who are young and new to the political process.
He’s going to have a long way to with progressives to really prove he’s going to do the things the progressives want. He believes Clinton can bring the majority of people on board.

“If Hillary can really show that they’re paying attention and that they’re listening and they’re invested,” said Singer.

Singer however is not happy with the selection of Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as the running mate.

“He’s going to have a long way to with progressives to really prove he’s going to do the things the progressives want.”

Sanders supporters can point to some victories, for instance, they successfully changed the Democratic party rules to greatly reduce the number of super delegates going forward, those are party insiders and elected officials who many Sanders supporters feel don’t speak for the people.

Other Democrats expect all these differences to fade come fall and predict the party’s more progressive supporters will back Clinton to defeat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.