By Roxanne Cordonier
I’ve been an active member of the Greenville County Democratic Party and Democratic Women of Greenville County for the last 30 years, and this is the first election season since 2016 where the excitement of the electorate is palpable.
At Democratic Headquarters, volunteers are fielding non-stop calls for Harris/Walz signs and merchandise. More importantly people are stepping up to volunteer. Making calls to Democratic voters has been more successful this year because voters are excited to hear about our candidates. There’s still plenty of work to be done, you can be a part of it all by filling out the volunteer form online Volunteer | Greenville County Democratic Party (greenvilledemocrats.com)
You can peruse the volunteer opportunities by clicking on the events tab at GreenvilleDemocrats.com. If you’re not computer savvy, come on down to Democratic Party HQ any weekday between 9 and 3 PM and one of our friendly volunteers will sign you up. Now is the time for change in SC. Don’t miss out on being part of the blue wave.
At the state level, the South Carolina Democratic Party has been organizing and lending support to county parties across the state. SCDP Executive Director Jay Parmley will be our featured speaker at the lunch/meeting on October 14 (noon at the Kroc Center). He’ll update us on what’s been happening at the state level, provide insights into the statewide picture, and maybe make some predictions about the November election.
Jay is a native of Wyandotte, OK, who brings over 20 years of experience in state-level Democratic party leadership. He got his start in a local Young Democrats chapter and served as president of the Young Democrats of America from 1999 to 2001.
After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, Parmley worked in higher education administration for eight years before being elected chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party in 2001, the youngest chair of a state Democratic Party serving at the time. During his two terms as chair, he also served as the party’s executive director.
Jay has also served as the executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party and the Alaska Democratic Party. Parmley worked for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as part of DNC Chair Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy, working with Mississippi Democrats before moving to South Carolina.
Get your Kamala on for October lunch
We’ve got a lot going on in this meeting but first come prepared by being properly attired. Kamala’s birthday is Oct. 20th, so we’re going to pull together some photos and video to create a birthday card. We’ll ask Jay to get it to her campaign. Wear your Kamala shirt and your local candidate buttons. Board members and others will be scoping out the room and taking videos of you and your friends sending a shout out to Kamala for her birthday. If we are able to find a photographer we’ll take a giant group photo as well. (If you know a photographer, please ask them to reach out by emailing demwomen@greenvillelledemocrats.com.
Candidates, we’ve got candidates
It’s the last chance for candidates to come speak to Dem Women. Invited speakers are: Bryon Best, running for Congress in CD-3, Sen. Karl Allen, who is running for re-election in state Senate Dist. 7; John MacCarthy, running for state House Dist. 27; and Ennis Fant, running for re-election for County Council Dist. 25. Each candidate can speak for five minutes. While there will not be a Q&A, we hope the candidates will come early and stay late so they can answer your questions personally.
Speaking of elections…
The committee charged with developing the candidate slate for leadership of Democratic Women for the next two years, will put its slate forward at the October Meeting. Shelly Dezen has led this committee and we are grateful for her hard work and commitment. But she will be out of town on the 14th, so Jen Boffey, a committee member and also our Outreach Chair, will present the slate. At this time, we will also accept nominations from the floor.
In the past, Dem Women leadership has been elected by a hands-up vote of those members who happened to be at the November meeting. We made several changes to our bylaws this year, which members approved. One of those was to require a digital voting process, making it possible for ALL members in good standing (paid up by October 1) to vote for their leadership even if they are out of town.
Thank you to our October sponsor: Cafe and Then Some. Greenville’s only comedy-dinner club announced it’s closing soon after 41 years of satire, skits, song parodies. Don’t miss the last chance. Dinner and shows Thursday–Saturday. Reservations, call (864) 232-2287. And the last Christmas show running from Oct. 17 to Jan. 4.
It’s a big meeting and you’re going to want to be there. Please join us but also please register. It’s important that we know how many attendees to expect.