Janesville delegate shares his takeaways from the convention and hope for the future

CHICAGO — Shawn Reents, a Rock County Democratic delegate, said uniting the nation and protecting workers rights are some of the biggest takeaways from the first two nights of the Democratic National Convention.

“Everybody is united, not just behind our nominee, but just everybody united on so many issues, whether it be reproductive rights, labor issues, workers rights; we are there together thinking about how to make it better,” he said.

He said that powerful speakers and messages that he and the other delegates are hearing have brought many emotions forward.

“It’s been amazing,” he said. “I don’t know how to describe the energy that’s on the floor.”

He said that worker rights are important to him being a delegate from Janesville. He said Janesville is a union city. The United Auto Workers union is the “backbone of Janesville,” he said. He shared that he feels that Kamala Harris’ effort to protect workers rights is what has brought back his hope.

“It’s about making sure that workers are able to retire within the community and have pensions that they don’t have to worry about,” he said.

Reents said that he feels like there was a notion at one point that the Republican party was locked into former president Donald Trump winning this election. However, he feels like there has been a resurgence of unity in the Democratic party.

“I think the energy has changed tremendously, and there is so much excitement on so many levels, of people that are ready to talk about it again, and talk about what we need to do to continue to move forward,” he said. “One of the biggest messages is we can’t go back, we can’t go back to where we were. That energy is just continuing to build and build. And it’s, it’s amazing.”

He said that his goal after the convention and what he will be bringing back to Janesville is to keep talking about policies that are at stake.

“That’s what it’s all about, is just continuing to educate workers, continue to educate family and friend friends of what the issues are and how, how deeply important this is to save our democracy,” Reents said.