As we do after all of our DNC meetings, I’ve prepared a short report for you about our recent DNC meeting held in August 2019. We had a number of great events, including a “Meet the Candidates” session, our general session, an Executive Committee meeting, four Standing Committee meetings, and a number of caucus and council meetings. Here are some updates about what happened:
Sessions
We had two big sessions during this meeting. We started with a fabulous “Meet the Candidates” session on Friday, where we were joined by the amazing Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Speaker Pelosi spoke on the achievements of the House Democrats and what they are doing to maintain the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020. In the afternoon, we were joined by Reverend William J. Barber II who talked about the Poor People’s Campaign and the need for a moral movement. He left us all inspired to take action and unite together. You can watch his remarks here.
The remainder of Friday’s session featured many of our amazing presidential candidates, who addressed the membership either in person or via video. We are thankful to them for taking the time to join us and share their vision for America.
During Saturday’s general session, we heard welcome remarks via video from San Francisco Mayor London Breed. We also heard from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, who talked about the work Democratic secretaries of state are doing to protect the right to vote.
The DNC also elected six new at-large members to fill DNC member vacancies, elected Chris Korge to serve as our National Finance Chair, and approved the chair’s recommendation to appoint Luis Heredia to serve on the Executive Committee. The DNC also considered reports from three of our standing committees at the Saturday session. More information on those reports are available below.
Finally, DNC Treasurer Bill Derrough, DNC Assistant Treasurer Lorna Johnson, and DNC National Finance Chair Chris Korge shared an update on the Party’s finances.
Credentials Committee Report
Credentials Committee Co-Chair John Currie reported on the work that the Credentials Committee has engaged in regarding a challenge to the election of the state chair and vice chair from the Alabama Democratic Party and issued a final ruling on the credentials of those individuals. You can find a copy of the report here, which was approved by the full body on Saturday.
Rules & Bylaws Committee Report
Rules & Bylaws Committee Co-Chairs Jim Roosevelt & Lorraine Miller gave a report on the many hours of meetings held over the past few months by the committee to review Delegate Selection Plans submitted by various state parties.
They also presented an amendment to the DNC Charter that adds the president & vice president of High School Democrats of America to the DNC. This amendment unanimously passed the Rules & Bylaws Committee and was adopted by the full membership during the Co-Chairs’ report.
Resolutions Committee Report
The Resolutions Committee considered a number of resolutions submitted by members.
Among the resolutions adopted by the DNC were a “Resolution Establishing the DNC Environmental and Climate Crisis Council”, a “Resolution on Gun Violence”, a “Resolution Urging Comprehensive Immigration Reform” and many more. In addition, we passed a number of commemorative resolutions honoring DNC members Fagafaga Langkilde, Frank LaMere, and Betty McElderry, Birch Bayh, Douglass Diggs, and many more. The DNC Executive Committee also passed a commemorative resolution honoring the former Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco.
A packet of the final resolutions, as approved by the DNC, can be found here.
Caucus and Council Meetings
Throughout the DNC meeting, each of our regional caucuses, as well as our constituency caucuses and councils, held meetings to discuss the work they are doing in 2019 and 2020 to elect Democrats up and down the ballot.
Several elections took place to fill vacancies in specific caucuses and councils. In the Eastern Region, Betsy Maron from Delaware was elected to a vacant Executive Committee representative position. In the Western Regional Caucus, Howard Chou of Colorado was elected to a vacancy on the Caucus Executive Committee.
Upcoming Meetings
As I shared during our meeting, our next scheduled meeting of the Democratic National Committee will take place on July 17, 2020 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This will be the day after the adjournment of the Democratic National Convention. In addition, we anticipate another Executive Committee meeting in early 2020.
Those are a few quick highlights from our meetings in San Francisco. I am truly looking forward to working with each and every one of you in the weeks, months, and years ahead as we build toward elections this fall and next year.
Have a wonderful weekend, and I look forward to speaking with you soon. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me or my office.
Yours,
Jason
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Jason Rae
Secretary
Democratic National Committee
