Lisa Ring of Richmond Hill said Monday from the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia that leaked Democratic National Committee emails showing favoritism to Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders are both vindicating and troubling.
“It’s vindication for what Bernie Sanders supporters have been saying all along,” Ring said. “The cards were stacked … favoritism in the party helped Secretary Clinton get where she is today.”
Ring is a Sanders delegate from Georgia’s 1st Congressional District. Nearly 20,000 DNC emails released by Wikileaks show support among party staffers for Clinton and explored ways to weaken Sanders. Political parties are supposed to be neutral during contested primaries.
“If what the people want is not being heard and what the party wants is being done, it’s very troubling,” Ring said. “That’s not democracy.”
Ring was one of 1,846 pledged Sanders delegates — 46 percent of the total — who voted for their candidate at the convention Tuesday. Sanders has endorsed Clinton and did so again during his speech Monday night in Philadelphia. Ring said Monday that she thought there was a possibility of a contested convention, which could have occurred if Clinton’s so-called “superdelegates” sided with Sanders.
“It’s never too late,” Ring said. “You never know what will happen.”
That was avoided, however, when Sanders himself made the motion to appoint Clinton the nominee. Several Sanders supporters staged a walkout at that point, chanting, “This is what democracy looks like.”
Sanders supporters were also clearly unhappy during the opening night of the convention, at one point being called “ridiculous” by comedian Sarah Silverman, an admonishment that drew chants of “Bernie!” When Sanders called Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump “a bully and a demagogue,” he was met with screams of “so is Hillary!”
Ring said Sanders has encouraged his delegates to be “respectful” of Clinton.
“The problem is, he started this movement of the people, so now it’s the people deciding how they want to react,” Ring said. “You have a lot of angry people.”
On Tuesday, Ring, who along with her husband John is trying to jump start the Bryan County Democratic Party, said she would remain in the party and work to better it.
“There’s an air of tension,” she said. “Half of the Democratic Party is being treated as if we don’t matter. “There is a fracture there.”
