The UTD Mercury

Manfred Mecoy

Andre Rodriguez

Cara Shrontz

Paul Tran

At precinct, district and state Democratic conventions, four UTD students defied political convention by simply participating in the political process. In Texas, 17 percent of voters under 30 voted in the March primary election, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Manfred Mecoy, Andre Rodriguez, Paul Tran and Cara Shrontz were delegates for the Democratic conventions at various levels in the process of selecting a presidential nominee. Delegates vote for the candidate they support and discuss political issues with voters in the areas they represent.

The student delegates were familiar with political action and interaction: Mecoy helped coordinate the Obama rally sponsored by the University Democrats in February and promoted voter participation in the primary and caucus. Rodriguez went door to door in his precinct to gather voter opinions. Shrontz made phone calls and distributed door hangers to encourage voting in the primary. Tran was Chairperson for the Platforms and Resolutions Committee, the group responsible for writing and revising the state platform, at the district level, and campaigned for Hillary Clinton.

Shrontz was a delegate at the Dallas precinct convention. Mecoy was nominated to the delegation in his precinct and was subsequently nominated for the district and state delegation. Rodriguez was also nominated to the state convention.

Precinct convention delegates volunteer for the position, Shrontz said. A precinct convention nominee can then be nominated to the district and state convention, but that requires a bit of campaigning.

"In order to be nominated for the state convention, lobbying is required, as the attendees for the convention are the ones who vote for the delegates," Shrontz said. "Solicitations via email and demonstrating that the interested person is active at the conventions are some ways that potential nominees stand out for nominee selection."

National conventions work differently from the state and precinct conventions, as any Democrat can be a delegate for the Democratic National Convention, Mecoy said.

"The Democratic Party seeks to create a mixed delegation, seeking all people of gender, race, orientation and other affiliations" Mecoy said. "At -large delegates are chosen based on the demographics that are represented."

If the party officials believe a group is not adequately represented, he said, then the special seats can be used to balance out the diversity within the delegation.

Delegates can also change their votes, much like in the national convention. A delegate can sign up for a different candidate and vote for him or her, Mecoy said delegates tend to remain consistent with the candidates that they vote for.

Local and state conventions have much in common with the Democratic National Convention but are much smaller.

"The precinct-level conventions are in our neighborhood, the district level meets for one day, the state level meets for two and the national level meets for four days," Tran said. "The state level is broken up into caucuses, but this is much more so at the national level."

Tran will attend the Democratic National Convention as a member of the board of directors for the Stonewall Democrats, and as a representative for the College Democrats of America and the Young Democrats of America.

Despite the intricacies of the election process, Mecoy said keeping up with local and state politics doesn't need to be complicated.

"Paying attention to the news, reading an article a two a day will be beneficial," Mecoy said.

For Rodriguez, the motivation for the delegates to be involved in the political process is simple.

"Democracy is a government run by the people and if things are not run by the people, then changes will never occur," Rodriguez said.

Article Tools