PHILADELPHIA — The Democratic National Committee needs to show supporters of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders that they are willing to be inclusive of the party's many newcomers, Alaskans said here at the Democratic National Convention Monday.
The opening day of the convention was a tumultuous one for some Sanders supporters as they waited to see what their place would be in the convention, where Hillary Clinton is expected to be nominated as presidential candidate later in the week.
New context for the Sanders delegates fight emerged as the convention began, as Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz stepped down after WikiLeaks released committee emails obtained by hackers, and Sanders gathered his delegates and told them they should vote for Clinton in the fall — to which many booed.
Some Alaskans found themselves particularly irked by DNC emails that related to a trip that Wasserman Schultz took to Alaska in May.
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In response, several delegates said that the DNC held the ball: The Sanders delegates needed recognition and respect. Several said that they would, in the end, vote for Clinton, particularly given the main alternative offered in GOP nominee Donald Trump. But the enthusiasm and dedication of the Sanders delegates was certainly on the line Monday.
Just after noon Monday, Sanders' delegates to the convention packed into a large ballroom for an address from the second-place candidate. When Sanders told the delegates they should vote for Clinton, many in the crowd booed, according to several Alaska delegates.
"I didn't expect him to outright say, 'We need to elect Hillary Clinton.' And I would say that the majority of the room was not very receptive to that," said Alaska delegate Nathan Sidell.
"I wasn't surprised to hear him say it at the convention but I would have expected him to say it in his convention speech later on," said Alaska Sanders delegate Olivia Garrett. "I didn't think that he was going to say it … just to Bernie delegates. I guess it's maybe to prepare people for later on," she said, referring to Sanders' plans to speak at the convention late Monday night.
Jill Yordy, an Alaska delegate and Sanders campaign employee, said the endorsement was "a very powerful moment," given the "huge disapproval" throughout the room. "And I think that really shows that people have taken this fight to the heart," Yordy said.
Yordy is a dedicated Sanders supporter, and said she doesn't think that the election in November will be a binary choice between Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Other delegates, however, said they would likely vote for Clinton, despite their fervent support for Sanders.
Sidell said that in the end, without evidence of vote tampering, he thinks that Clinton won the election, and he respects the democratic process. And, he said, "Hillary Clinton is infinitely better than Donald Trump, who is the manifestation of everything that's wrong in America."
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He advocated for Sanders supporters to "concede gracefully" and continue their liberal revolution at the local level, in school board and state elections.
"That's where the real change will be made," he said.
The loss for Sanders' delegates was not without context: Many were freshly stung by revelations of support tilted to Clinton by Democratic National Committee officials in emails released by WikiLeaks.
Those emails included correspondence related to a visit by the committee chair to Alaska earlier this year, and ongoing conversations on how to control the message at the state convention, after 82 percent of the state's Democrats voted for Sanders in the caucuses.
"That is an issue that hits close to home for Alaska, because Alaska was the subject of a number of those leaked emails, where the Bernie contingent was called an 'insurgency,' " Yordy said.
Several Alaska delegates said that the "insurgency" comment was the talk of the state, and represented what they saw as a dismissive tone regularly taken by top party brass toward Sanders supporters.
"It's insulting. It's patronizing," Sidell said. "And that's really the tone that I got out of the emails — a very, very patronizing tone towards us. Especially because these are the same people that turn around and say 'unity.' Like we need to be a unified Democratic Party, and then in their personal emails they're talking poorly about us."
Alaska delegate Taz Tally said he thought the DNC should be a neutral arbiter in the primary elections, "and clearly they weren't. And that's a disappointment."
Ian Olson, an Alaska superdelegate and national committee member, wasn't so sure about that.
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When a nongovernmental organization sets an objective to get somebody elected, Olson said, "is it biased? Probably so. Is it nefarious? Is it trying to do something malicious? I don't think so. And I think that's the big distinction here.
"People feel like they were disenfranchised from the experience. And that just creates frustration, and people are right to be frustrated about that," he said.
Olson was frustrated himself with the way he, as a superdelegate, was pressured to commit to vote for Clinton as early as last August.
Delegates said that how the rest of the week goes depends on how the Democratic National Committee reacts to enthusiastic Sanders supporters who many not be on board with Clinton.
"They have a responsibility to recognize and embrace the fact that there are so many new people in this party that want to be participating in this process. And if they can't recognize that, and respect that, then I think things could become more divided," Yordy said. "If they find a way to recognize that, to unite people who've come together over all of these different issues, then I think things can go well. But I think it's on the DNC."
"It would be an enormous mistake for the people who are running the convention — the Hillary people — to not allow whatever demonstrations of voice that the Bernie delegates want to have," Tally said. Ignoring dissent will only fuel the fire, he said. "Nothing should be squelched."
DNC officials clearly got some of the message.
The speakers at the start of Monday night's convention encouraged dissent and respect.
And a long stretch of the program was dedicated to introducing a compromise pulled out of the Rules Committee — a "Unity Commission" designed to encourage reform, particularly of the much-maligned superdelegate system.
Maine state Rep. Diane Russell, a "proud delegate" for Sanders, worked to sell the crowd on the potential for reforms.
"We can definitely do more as a party to ensure a fairer, more open process that places everyday voters at the center," Russell told the crowd.
"I want to be clear, we did not win this by selling out. We won this by standing up," she said.