Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in June. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Bernie Sanders supporters won Colorado s three seats on the Democratic National Committee, ousting longtime party leaders and Hillary Clinton loyalists.
The Democratic delegates at the state convention elected Terry Tucker, Jeri Shepherd and Mike Hamrick, the party announced late Monday. Sanders endorsed all three candidates and the campaign s supporters worked to get them elected at the party confab Saturday in Loveland.
The selections give party outsiders a foothold in the state and national Democratic leadership amid concerns about bias toward Clinton and other establishment candidates. Sanders’ strong showing at precinct and county level party meetings helped him stack the deck at the state convention — where he won the straw poll and claimed a majority of the delegates.
But his big showing does little to help with superdelegates in the 2016 election. The new DNC members will take office the day after the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia.
Not all Sanders supporters realized these DNC members wouldn t qualify as superdelegates until 2020. But others said it s part of a larger effort to abolish superdelegates and make deeper changes at the national party level.
“It’s not just about just one candidate. It’s about a movement. It’s about a revolution,” Hayden Pollock, a 21-year-old restaurant manager from Grand Junction, told The Denver Post on Saturday.
Two of Colorado s current DNC members — Mannie Rodriguez and Anthony Graves — are Clinton superdelegates. The third, Lisa Palacio Padilla, is so far unpledged to a candidate. She is the sister of state party Chairman Rick Palacio.
Both Graves and Rodriguez sought re-election as DNC members but lost.
Rodriquez is a Vietnam War veteran and finance chairman for the DNC s Hispanic caucus who received nominations from a Sanders supporter and Clinton surrogate Crisanta Duran, the state House majority leader.
But it did little to sway Sanders delegates at the convention to support him. Likewise, Beverly Ryken, the party s first vice-chairwoman and a former Air Force veteran, lost her DNC member bid despite endorsements from former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and CU Regent Michael Carrigan.
The full list of Colorado delegates to the Democratic convention, according to the state party:
1st Congressional District:
Clinton: Robert Rodriguez, Hon. Wellington Webb, Hon. Elbra Wedgeworth
Sanders: Cleo Dioletis, Jeremy Gall, Mark Lasser, Nita Lynch, Kona Morris
Elector: Michael Baca
2nd Congressional District:
Clinton: Hon. Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, Sonya Jaquez Lewis, Braulio Rojas
Sanders: Giselle Herzfeld, David Levy, Sarah Moore, Andrew Romano
Elector: Terry Phillips
3rd Congressional District:
Clinton: Mary Beth Corsentino, Sal Pace
Sanders: Erin Biggs, Pamela Liu, Root Routledge, Joseph Thomas
Elector: Mary Beth Corsentino
4th Congressional District:
Clinton: Kathleen Ensz, Jerad Sutton
Sanders: Matthew Brown, Lynnette McClain, Jason Sherry
Elector: Jerad Sutton
5th Congressional District:
Clinton: Judith Ingelido, Michael Perez
Sanders: Angelina Hagan, Jene Hanna, Michael Maday
Elector: Robert Nemanich
6th Congressional District:
Clinton: Amy Drayer, Patricia Shaver, Bryan Hartmann
Sanders: Christopher Davis, Thomas Grushka, Allison Vail
Elector: Amy Drayer
7th Congressional District
Clinton: Evie Hudak, Odell Barry
Sanders: Gabriel McArthur, Emilie Mitcham, Euell Santistevan, Terry Tucker
Elector: Ann Knollman
State Convention
PLEO:
Clinton: Rep. Crisanta Duran, Mayor Michael Hancock, Sheila Lieder
Sanders: Joann Fujioka, JoyAnn Keener-Ruscha, Raffi Mercuri, Rep. Joe Salazar, Jeri Shepherd, Rep. Jonathan Singer
At-Large:
Clinton: Hon. Polly Baca, Josie Heath, Sen. Rollie Heath, Harold Jobson, Hon. Sue Schafer
Sanders: Victoria Bard, Cortland Coffey, Jessica Crowe, Spencer Duncan, Wendy Howell, Michael McCorkle, Kimberly Netherton, S. Smith, Luis Franisco Vaszuez
Alternates:
Clinton: Antonio Esquibel, Lydia Guzman
Sanders: Michael Baca, Q Banister, Kevin Brauer, Caitlin Glidewell
