PHILADELPHIA — The roll call vote in which Democratic delegates nominated Hillary Clinton Tuesday featured much more drama than normal. Many Sanders delegates from Oregon walked out after their state voted. There was booing and cheering. Clinton won the delegate vote with the smallest share of the convention of any nominee since 1984.
In the Iowa delegation they had their own squabble in which the Clinton supporters who run the delegation tried to push Sanders supporters out of sight of the cameras.
Each state, during the roll call, positioned some delegates near the microphone. One or two delegates would announce the state’s vote. In many delegations, a Sanders supporter announced the Sanders vote and a Clinton supporter announced the Clinton vote.
But in Iowa the delegation leaders, including congressman Dave Loebsack, were all Clinton supporters. As the earlier states voted, Sanders delegate Jenny Gernhart lobbied her party leaders to allow a Bernie delegate to stand near the mic.
“We just wanted an attempt to stand in there,” said Brian Gerjets, chairman of the Cherokee County Democratic Party. “Not doing anything crazy, just being part of the scene.”
“In a state where we were 50 percent tied,” Gernhart argued, the Sanders delegation should have representation. “Up until I came here,” she told me, “I was making phone calls all downticket, and I get here, and these people don’t want me anywhere near the mic. Not just me, but anyone who was Bernie-affiliated.”
I asked Gernhart if the Clinton campaign or the DNC had made any efforts to bridge the gap with Sanders delegates. “No, they said ‘screw you, unify.'”
Denied a reserved spot next to the mic, Bernie delegates went rogue. One female Sanders delegate stood as close as possible to the mic, gentle leaning on a Clinton delegate awarded a prime spot. The Sanders delegate waved her sign in front of the faces of the party leaders, trying to get her sign on television. This did not engender good will.
Timothy P. Carney, The Washington Examiner’s senior political columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]. His column appears Tuesday and Thursday nights on washingtonexaminer.com.
