One of my students, Daniel Rajaiah, had the opportunity to attend the Democratic National Convention. Below is his thoughts about his experience during that week.
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On Sunday September 2, 2012 I was privileged to be invited by members of the Ohio Democratic Party to attend and briefly speak to the Ohio delegation at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC. Realizing the importance of this opportunity I quickly purchased a one way flight to Charlotte for the following morning and emailed all my professors at UD to explain to them the situation.
After landing in Charlotte on Monday evening I took a shuttle to the Hilton suites where the Ohio delegation was staying at. I met my friends Nick Haneck and State Representative Jay Goyal in the lobby and explained my situation to them and they agreed to let me sleep in their hotel room. That same night Rep. Goyal introduced me to several other state legislators and we all took a shuttle to the John Legend concert and cocktail event at the NASCAR hall of fame. On the shuttle many of the legislators were talking about sports and other things that were not related to politics. Even though I have had pretty close contact with elected officials I have never seen this personal side of them before.
The convention was truly an eye opening experience. It was cleverly tailored to appease different section of the American voting public. Some examples of this include the way the convention was structured. During the afternoons and early evenings of the days during the convention the DNC would sponsor events for specific demographics. For example I was invited to a youth caucus event with Dr. Jill Biden, a women’s caucus event with all the female Democratic senators, a Hispanic luncheon with Secretary Hilda’s. These events were truly exciting. It was a true honor to stand next to Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Red fern when he dedicated all of Ohio’s electoral votes to elect Barack Obama as the Democratic Party’s nominee for President of the United States.
The best experience of mine at the convention was sitting on the convention floor listening to various elected officials speak about the importance of re-electing President Obama and moving America forward. It was a truly amazing experience to see the passion that so many fellow Democrats had. It felt that no matter where I went I was always bumping into famous elected officials. I remember sitting on the convention floor the day Barack Obama accepted the party’s nomination thinking to myself how I was sitting where history was being made. This truly made me realize the significant roll politics and conventions play in the United States.
I am very fortunate to have this experience and look forward to working hard to make sure President Obama and Senator Brown are re-elected this fall.
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