Thank you!

The YDAz Delegation for the YDA National Convention made it home from Chi Town! Thanks to all of you who helped us out and the support you gave to get almost 40 of our best and brightest to Chicago!

The crew arrived Wednesday just in time for the first training session. Several Arizona YDs met other “new” Young Democrats at the new member orientation, and got the chance to share best practices with other states. A few of our potential future candidates went to the session on running for office, and the others spread out to the discussions on foreign policy, and the DREAM Act.

Thursday, we had a briefing from the National Political Director of Organizing for America, and the National Field Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (Arizona is where all the action is by the way). Several Caucuses held their initial meetings, including the Veterans and Military Affairs Caucus where our very own Cole Hickman (founder of the Caucus) ran for Vice Chair. YDAz congratulates Cole on his election to rejoin the Veterans and Military Affairs Caucus leadership!

We also had meetings for all three Convention Committees. In the Rules and Charter meeting we were represented by Cole Hickman; he has reported to us that YDA has cut an entire page of bureaucracy to streamline our operations. In the Credentials Committee our charter was accepted without problem; thanks to Kevin Bondelli for representing us there. Erica Pederson got an amendment passed in the Platform Committee pushing stronger support for accessible polling sites, particularly near college campuses. Congrats Erica, thank you for standing up for voting rights and young people!

Many of you also heard that our state High School Caucus Chair, Kyle Dignoti, was running for Vice Chair of the National HS Caucus.  On Friday morning, he unfortunately lost that election by a mere one vote.  However, there is a silver lining, Kyle has been appointed Chief of Staff of the HS Caucus by the new Chair, Sania Rahim from West Virginia.  Kyle has been an asset to YDAz and we know he will continue doing great things both here at home and the national level.

On Saturday, the election for national officers was held and all the candidates supported by Arizona won! We are extremely excited to get to work with our new national President, Crystal Strait of California. She is extremely experienced and savvy, having been a past President for the Young Democrats of California and the current Political Director for the California Democratic Party. Check out the new officers at their website and learn more about them there http://www.ydaworks.com/. Finally, we are very proud to announce one of Crystal’s first Presidential appointments was for our own Kevin Bondelli as her Chief of Staff.

Thank you again for your help getting our delegation to Chicago, we’re all extremely excited to bring back what we learned and get to work!  We will make sure and keep you all updated in the coming weeks and months about how we are putting our skills to work and turning Arizona Blue!