On March 3rd, the Waseca County Convention called to order a little after nine in the morning. I arrived at about 8:59 after going to the Waseca High school by mistake; not realizing the convention was located at the Intermediate school behind the high school.
The convention took about four hours and was very successful as many important issues were discussed and debated. Four delegates represented New Richland: Mary Sack, Barb Finseth, a local cook from the Red Leaf, and myself.
As my first county convention it was very memorable. Throughout the entire meeting, the couple in front of the New Richland table, kept competing at who could be the first to second anything: amendments or nominees and just about anything else they could compete with. They argued over resolutions, “Of course, I wrote it,” was a common argument for why one of their resolutions was better than the other.
During the convection, all four candidates for the 1st district race in the Democratic field gave speeches trying to earn support. As well, representatives from multiple candidates in the Governors race gave short speeches in support of their candidates.
After the nomination of every position from chair to outreach coordinator and everything in between, the convention got to the nomination and voting of delegates to continue on to the state and district conventions. Speeches were given to try and persuade the 35 county delegates to vote for the he or she to move on and represent Waseca County.
I gave the first speech. It was different than any speech I ever gave in high school. No one was dreading going up there and speaking, including myself. It was exciting. After all eight of us gave our speeches it was time to vote.
Two women and one man were voted as the three delegates to represent Waseca moving forwards. The one man is yours truly. I will be representing Waseca County along with two other women as the delegates going to Le Sauer and Rochester later this year. I was also nominated as a co-chair of the delegate committee.
Moving forward and I’m extremely honored and thrilled to continue my involvement in the politic process. I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to get involved. It is a great feeling to get involved and feel like I am making a difference.
Within three days following the county convention, two of the candidates, running for the DFL endorsement for the 1st District of Minnesota, contacted me. To remain independent of anyone one person or political party I will refrain to the best of my abilities from naming any candidates or agendas of the DFL party. I talked on the phone with one of the candidates for over an hour got a really good feel of what the candidate represents.
The other candidate reached out and wanted to have lunch with me. I graciously accepted and we met and the local Red Leaf Café in New Richland. We talked, between the lunch and another phone call two days later, for over two hours on everything from her policies views and past job experience. It was an honor to sit with a former representative from our state and candidate for the United States House of Representatives. That lunch was something I will not soon forget.
Considering these experiences are the first opportunities in the political process, I strongly recommend anyone who hasn’t participated before to get involved in any way possible. It is a very rewarding experience and something where anyone can participate. A lot of people say, “all politics is local,” and they couldn’t be more accurate. More governing happens on the local and state level than any other level. As my favorite high school history teacher once said, “you can’t complain if you don’t get involved.” If you want to have a say, then do so!
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