Washington state hasn’t been a major player in a U.S. presidential election for decades, but in recent years, many of its leaders have risen to prominence in the Democratic Party.
That will be on display at the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week.
Medina Rep. Suzan DelBene, the new head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will speak to the convention Wednesday. Seattle Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has already spoken at several smaller events, fresh off a Michigan trip campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris.
They and other Democrats will join around a hundred delegates from the state, who mostly voted to enshrine Vice President Kamala Harris as the nominee last month. Some delegates held back on that vote , however, demanding Harris does more to curb Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza.
Washington’s leftist critics of the Democrats will also descend on Chicago. Socialist Kshama Sawant plans to "Disrupt the DNC" at a rally with perennial third-party candidate Jill Stein on Tuesday.
This page will be updated throughout the DNC.
Randall at LGBTQ+ event on 'what it means to be out and in power'
Emily Randall rolled up to Victory at the DNC, an LGBTQ+ gathering in a hotel near Chicago's Millennium Park, on a Lime scooter Tuesday afternoon. She couldn’t get a Lyft, but she’s used to scootering – during her last campaign for state senator in Bremerton, she rented an Unagi scooter for nine months.
“When I go to Seattle for meetings, if it's sunny, I like to pick up a Lime from the ferry dock, and that way I don't have to wait for a cab or a Lyft, and I get the wind in my hair,” Randall laughed. “Microtransit’s where it's at.”
Randall is running for Congress to represent Bremerton, Tacoma, and the Olympic Peninsula, and she’s heavily favored to win in November – it’s a district that hasn’t elected a Republican since the ‘60s.
That would make her the first queer Latina in Congress.
“Being the first hasn't been a central part of my campaign, but there are times when I really feel how important it is – certainly at LGBTQ events like this one,” Randall said, as she stood near the open bar in the back, waiting for a speaking lineup that included Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and actors Zachary Quinto and Wilson Cruz.
Randall feels at home in rooms like these – before politics, she was a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood – though she came from a working-class family in Port Orchard.
“I was just at a memorial service for a neighbor who had been with his longtime partner since 1985 and got to meet so many folks and hear their stories about what it was like to not be out, what it was like to begin organizing, what it was like to work in the AIDS crisis,” Randall said. “And I think about those stories about how hard people had to fight, and how much more work we still have to do, but what it means to be out and in power.”
Day Two of the DNC kicks off
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As Biden speaks, some WA delegates protest
Tamara Erickson, a Jewish delegate, puts her hand over her mouth with the words "No More Bombs" in marker, as a delegate partially blocks the view of her with a "USA" sign.
The Washington delegation erupted in cheers along with most of the Democratic convention Monday night when President Biden finally took to the stage.
But a few delegates wearing keffiyehs – garments pro-Palestinian protesters wear like shawls or scarves – did not cheer: They put their hands over their mouths and revealed the words "No More Bombs" written on their wrists.
Sabrene Odeh is a Palestinian-American "uncommitted" delegate from Washington who participated in the protest. She was part of the campaign to encourage Democrats to vote for " uncommitted delegates " instead of voting for Biden in March’s presidential primary, to register dissent over the president’s support of Israel. That movement only garnered about 10% of the Democratic presidential primary vote statewide in August.
"A few years ago, maybe it would have been cool to see the president of the United States," Odeh said. "At this point, I'm just here to make sure that Gaza's on the forefront of people's minds, because we're seeing babies get killed, and enough is enough."
In the Washington delegation and elsewhere in the room, pro-Biden delegates tried to block signs of protests with "USA" and "We ❤️ Joe" signs. Ryan Grim, a journalist for the website Drop Site News, described a similar action elsewhere on the floor where protesters unfurled a banner that said "Stop Arming Israel."
Odeh and another protester said state leadership was trying to get delegates to block the protesters from the view of cameras, including KUOW's. Those delegates told KUOW they weren't trying to block the view, and stopped after a while.
"They surrounded us, so that nobody could see us. And it's sick," Odeh said. "I really am disappointed in our state right now – in our state leadership, right now, and I hope they learn from this mistake."
A spokesperson for Washington Democrats said via email he wasn’t there and was unable to comment. A little after midnight, Washington Democrats put out a press release praising Biden.
"Tonight at the Democratic National Convention we saw enthusiasm, unity, and an undying appreciation for all that President Joe Biden has accomplished," Shasti Conrad, chair of the Washington Democrats, said in the release. "We also saw the vision for freedom and strengthened democracy that Vice President Kamala Harris will achieve when she is elected President. We heard from the women, men, workers and communities who will benefit along with every other American when Democrats win in November."
Washington GOP chair: 'Democrats suddenly believe in police and enforced borders'
Washington GOP chair Jim Walsh posted pictures on X of the secure perimeter around the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday, writing, "Oh, sure. At their National Convention, Democrats suddenly believe in police and enforced borders…"
Fences in a several-block buffer blocked anyone without proper credentials from reaching the United Center Monday, but protesters did at one point breach the fence, several outlets reported .
Krystal Marx (center, wearing a keffiyeh), a Washington delegate and former Burien city councilmember, attends the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19, 2024. Marx was possibly the only 'no' vote on the party platform in the Washington delegation. She wanted to see more commitment to a ceasefire in Gaza, and limits on military support for Israel, in the platform.
The Democratic National Convention voted to approve the party's platform by voice vote Monday, and the "yes" vote was far easier to hear than any "no" votes – but one of those dissenting voices was Krystal Marx, a delegate and former city councilmember from Burien.
Marx is one of the "ceasefire delegates" from Washington who have tried to push the Biden administration to reach a ceasefire and put conditions on military support for Israel as casualties rise in Gaza.
"The platform either needed to have an agreement to push for a ceasefire by a certain date, or even at all," Marx said. "At this point, I think we're just desperate to hear that our next president wants a ceasefire, or that there will be an arms embargo to Israel."
The party platform is a 90-page document that is mostly words on paper – it doesn't bind elected leaders to do what it says but acts as a weathervane for where the grassroots of the party stand on key issues. The 2024 platform says Democrats will make billionaires pay income taxes of 25%, calls for building 2 million homes nationwide using tax credits and funds for local governments, and passing legislation to make the right to abortion "the law of the land once again."
The platform was reportedly not updated after Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee. Instead, it mostly speaks of President Joe Biden's diplomacy in the Middle East: "The United States strongly supports Israel in the fight against Hamas," the platform says. Biden's administration "has made real progress on a way forward that will free the hostages, establish a durable ceasefire, ease humanitarian suffering in Gaza, and make possible normalization between Israel and key Arab states, together with meaningful progress and a political horizon for the Palestinian people," it adds.
Marx wore a keffiyeh, a symbol of support for the Palestinian people. There would have been more keffiyehs and more "no" votes, she said, if all the Washington delegates were present, but many of them were stuck on buses coming from other locations. Marx said she spent two hours on a bus, but she knows one delegate who spent at least four hours.
Before the convention started, a pro-Palestinian rally gathered a few blocks away, and while Biden was inside doing his stage check, a protester on a megaphone could be heard chanting, "Democrats can go to hell."
What Washington’s first trans delegate wants to see from party leadership
Leiyomi Preciado, a Washington state delegate from Bremerton, poses at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024. She believes she's the first out transgender delegate from Washington state. Sitting in the convention center Monday, she wore a sash with the words "Cowboy Kamala" — a reference to the most recent Beyoncé album.
As far as Leiyomi Preciado knows, she’s the first out transgender delegate from Washington state to the Democratic National Convention. Preciado said she hopes to hear support for trans people this week at the convention from the "top leadership and brass of our party."
"Coming out forcefully, and saying, 'You know what, trans rights, queer rights, LGBTQ rights, are important. We're not going to back down, and we're going to continue to fight for this marginalized community that is a part of the great big tent that is the Democratic Party,'" Preciado said.
The delegate from Bremerton said watching Republicans attack trans people like her in the last year has been difficult.
"Republicans have always been great at messaging, and they've utilized trans people as scapegoats to be able to rile up bad actors and people who, for lack of better terms, are misdirecting their anger and frustration when we're all in this together," she said.
The Washington State Democratic Party said the state has had nonbinary delegates before, but not openly trans delegates "that we can find with a quick records check [going back to 2016]," spokesman Stephen Reed said in an email.
In 2016, Sarah McBride of Delaware became the first trans speaker at a major party convention when she spoke to the DNC in Philadelphia.
Socialist Alternative appears at DNC, without Sawant
In Chicago's Union Park, down the street from the DNC, the leftist group Socialist Alternative is co-sponsoring "March on the DNC," criticizing the Biden administration for allowing Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza.
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"Killer Kamala and Genocide Joe," one speaker called Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden. Some protesters carried signs that read, "Victory to the Palestinian resistance,” referring to Hamas.
Notably absent: former Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who publicly split from the party recently. She’ll hold her own "Disrupt the DNC" event, appearing with third-party candidate Jill Stein at Grace Church of Logan Square at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
Why Washington's delegates are starting the convention in light-up cowboy hats
Washington delegates Jasmine Inas and Azziem Underwood try on and show off the delegation's light-up disco-ball cowboy hats on the first day of the 2024 Democratic National Convention. Their hope: That Beyonce will perform this week in Chicago.
When Washington state Democrats met for their state convention in Bellevue in June, the vibes were anxious, with lots of talk about losing democracy if former President Trump wins in November.
The vibes are very different among Washington's delegation in Chicago. Delegates from across the state are more hopeful that Vice President Kamala Harris can carry them to victory and take back the U.S. House in November.
Illustrating that hope, many delegates wore light-up disco ball cowboy hats to the convention Monday, an homage to Beyonce who many hope will perform at the convention this week (though that’s unconfirmed). One delegate wore a sash saying "Cowboy Kamala," a play on the name of Beyonce’s album "Cowboy Carter."
Young delegates report surge of enthusiasm behind Harris
Young delegates say their friends are more excited about Harris. Ben Godfried, 17, led West Seattle High School’s Students for Biden. His classmates’ feelings about Biden worried him.
“The enthusiasm gap was dangerous, even in a state like Washington state,” Godfried said.
Rohana Joshi is the chair of the King County Young Democrats and said compared to a couple months ago, there’s a new sense of excitement.
“Everyone's really energized and excited to be voting and utilizing their voice to be doing something so historic,” Joshi said. “And I think I can speak for everyone in this delegation, but we are all just so eternally grateful to be here and be such a fundamental part of creating history in the United States.”
Azziem Underwood says even Republicans he runs into at the Fairwood Safeway in King County tell him they’ll vote for her. He notes the campaign is "more energetic" now.
“This new energy that we have since the [state] convention, since Vice President Kamala Harris is now our presumptive nominee. We're so excited and energized and motivated because of this, this newness. We got the old still there, I'm not gonna mention his name,” Underwood said, referring to President Biden.
The tenor toward President Biden is mostly thankful, calling him a “hero” for stepping aside. The president will speak to the entire convention Monday evening.
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