The Presidential Primaries Are Important, but Aren't All-Important.
They are not why I'm active in my state's party organization, though. Nominating a presidential candidate is just a small part of what interests me. I'm a lifelong Democrat, because I've seen what the difference is between having Democrats and Republicans in power.
Some people seem to think that Democratic Party organizations, from local to national, are only about picking a presidential nominee. While that's an important function, it's far from all the party does. I'm just a precinct chair for the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) party, and a delegate to a couple of convention levels. Our precinct caucuses are over now. Bernie Sanders will get the majority of Minnesota's delegates to the National Convention. That's already been decided.
So, what happens next in the DFL Party or your own state's Democratic Party?
Well, next month, we'll have our State Senate district convention. I'll be a delegate. There, we'll be sorting through the candidates for the State Senator for our district and our state House district. Those are very important positions. They affect legislation that affects us all. There won't be local elections. We'll have conventions for those in a couple of years. We'll also elect committee members and other officers for the State Senate District. Those always include some new people, often younger activists who want to run for those position.
At that district convention, we'll elect delegates to the Congressional District convention. I'll be a delegate to that convention, too, most likely. There, we'll do just two things: We'll endorse a candidate to represent us in Congress. It will be our current representative, Betty McCollum, almost certainly, although there will be a couple of other candidates. She's done a great job of representing us for several terms. She's progressive and capable. We'll also elect delegates to the state convention. I won't be trying for that.
At the state convention, the main event will be electing delegates to the Democratic National Convention, along with our state's members of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). Those are important things to be done. The presidential Convention delegates, though, will be elected to match the results of those precinct caucuses. We know how many each candidate will get. The DNC members, are superdelegates, though. So it's important who those people will be. I won't be there for that election, though.
That's this year. We go through the same process every year, though. There are local offices, ranging from school board members, city council member, county board members, and all sorts of other offices. The DFL endorsements for each of those offices are and important function. The DFL-endorsed candidate almost always is elected. Every two years, we have state legislators, House members, sometimes a Senator and our Governor and other state offices to deal with and candidates to endorse.
It's interesting to be part of all this. It's not just about the presidency. In fact, that's the least interesting function of our party organization's responsibilities. It is all those other offices that are really the reason that organization exists. Those who participate play a large role in determining who they will be. People who want to be part of the process and are willing to do the work join the organization. Those who don't join won't help to make all of those decisions. They can vote in the elections, but that's it.
Want to be part of it all? Join your local Democratic Party organization and you can. Who knows? You might even become a leader in the party. You can, if you want to, and have the skills and moxie to do so. It's a job worth doing, if you want to make a difference.
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Thanks for the pep talk. 
