For release to all media, news sources, and politically involved youth:
In anticipation of the Democratic National Convention, we are proud to announce the Young Delegates Coalition.
All over this nation, young people are increasingly demanding that the DNC, which desires and needs our votes, actually fight to make policy changes that earn our support. We see that the only way to ensure policy changes and promises that make real progress towards the goals that affect our generation is to increase the youth representation within the national party.
Thus, over 50 young delegates who have already been elected to represent our states have banded together to seek out more students, young professionals, and members of the next generation of Democrats to be Delegates to the DNC. We will recruit young candidates contesting these positions and endorse them in order for them to be bolstered in their campaigns to be delegates, on the sole condition that they put their pledged candidate and policy differences aside from other delegates to focus on the needs of the next generation: highlighting the major issues that uniquely affect us, from the impending disaster of climate change, to the growing inequality and burden of student loans, to the devastation of gun violence and police brutality.
What happens if young delegates don’t act? Well, the average age of a DNC Delegate is 60 years old. This means that the older establishment of Democrats right now dominate the creation of the party’s platform, the nomination process, and the writing of rules to control delegate allocation and representation. As young people, we cannot continue to allow our decisions in the party we align with to be made by aged and outdated points of view that don’t prioritize the issues that we know our generation will be left to face if we simply wait for the DNC to change itself.
That’s why we’ve united to change the DNC and hold it accountable to the next generation. This is a chance to unify the party by connecting with youth interests, and to earn our votes to defeat Donald Trump, the goal of all Democrats, while making real policy changes.
We send this message out to all young people: research the dates of your state’s convention to nominate national delegates to the DNC, and run. You can change the DNC from within, but we need your help. And in exchange, we are ready to support any young person running to be a DNC Delegate, no matter what candidate they run for.
Stand with us, and bring the voice of the next generation to the DNC:
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Follow us on Twitter: @YoungDelegates