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Texas Democrats Among Friends at DNC

North Texas delegates are proud to be part of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. While it may take time, they’re also optimistic about changing Texas’ color from red… to blue.

George Nassar is both a delegate and Executive Director of the Texas Young Democrats. It’s his first national convention and he likes the way it feels to be around fellow Democrats.

“A lot of time, Democrats don’t get the sort of voice in Texas that we’d love to have,” Nassar says. “And being here surrounded by Democrats and surrounded by all those voices in unison asking for the same sort of reasonable progressive government that looks for the middle class, having everybody here be a part of that is a wonderful feeling.”

Nassar is from Lewisville and was bowled over by San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro’s speech.

“It was absolutely fantastic to see a Texan and a Latino up on stage just wowing the audience and impressing the nation,” he says.

Second time delegate Kathleen Thompson from Grapevine agrees and is also impressed by the diversity of the Texas delegation.

“We have young people, people who are in college, we have retirees, we have people of every race, we have different religions,” Thompson says. “We have a delegation that looks like Texas and I’m proud of it and I’m proud that’s the way the Texas Democratic Party and the National Party does it.”

While everybody seems impressed by the convention, getting around has been difficult.

“Transportation for delegates, I think they’ve been overwhelmed,” says Collin County resident and first time delegate Dorie Cranshaw. “I think it was Monday night we had a rain storm and people were literally waiting for the bus for an hour and a half in the rain.”

Cranshaw says despite the soggy weather, spending time with like-minded citizens has been exhilarating.

And while she acknowledges it may take awhile, Cranshaw is positive the political makeup of Texas will one day shift to the left.

“Texas is red now and at some point it will go purple and eventually it will go blue,” Cranshaw says. “But until that time, it’s great to be around other fellow Democrats.”

Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.