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.
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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.
Get caught up on KUOW's earlier coverage of the 2024 DNC here .
This page will be updated throughout the DNC.
Washington Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland rallies support for Harris, a fellow 'Blasian' woman
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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