© 2024 Ideastream Public Media

1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
(216) 916-6100 | (877) 399-3307

WKSU is a public media service licensed to Kent State University and operated by Ideastream Public Media.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ohio Delegates Gather in Philidelphia for "Unity Breakfast" on First Day of the DNC

photo of Joyce Beatty and John Lewis
KAREN KASLER
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

Ohio delegates at the DNC heard a message of coming together at their required meeting Monday morning. 

It comes as their convention got off to a rocky start under outgoing chair of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.  

The convention is moving forward in the wake of a leaked DNC email scandal over senior party staff favoring of Hillary Clinton’s nomination and bashing fellow Democrat Bernie Sanders.

The Ohio delegates got a special treat – a short speech from civil rights icon John Lewis, the longtime Congressman from Georgia, who hadn’t even spoken to his own delegation yet. He praised Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine as her running mate, and though he never mentioned Sen. Bernie Sanders, it was clear he was talking to Sanders’ supporters.

“We got to roll up our sleeves. We cannot be divided. This is it. There’s no tomorrow. This is it,” Lewis said.

The party unity question continues to dog Democrats in the wake of the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

Columbus area Congresswoman Joyce Beatty introduced Lewis to the delegates at the breakfast, and said to reporters that she thinks most Sanders supporters will come around.

“You always have that one percent in everything. And I certainly respect an individual’s right of freedom for whomever they want to vote for, support as a candidate. But we are stronger together and this is our time to stand together,” she said.

Ohio Democratic Party chair David Pepper says he’s confident that things are already turning around in spite of the controversy involving the chair.

“This is a four day convention. We will spend the four days coming together and at the end of the day – you already see polling that more Bernie Sanders supporters are on board with Hillary Clinton now than eight years ago Clinton people were for Obama,” Pepper said.

While there have been no public displays of a divided delegation, there are 80 Clinton delegates and 63 Sanders delegates from Ohio – but many Sanders delegates are longtime party leaders and elected officials, and some have said they plan to join up as Clinton supporters by week’s end.

Karen is a lifelong Ohioan who has served as news director at WCBE-FM, assignment editor/overnight anchor at WBNS-TV, and afternoon drive anchor/assignment editor in WTAM-AM in Cleveland. In addition to her daily reporting for Ohio’s public radio stations, she’s reported for NPR, the BBC, ABC Radio News and other news outlets. She hosts and produces the Statehouse News Bureau’s weekly TV show “The State of Ohio”, which airs on PBS stations statewide. She’s also a frequent guest on WOSU TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, a regular panelist on “The Sound of Ideas” on ideastream in Cleveland, appeared on the inaugural edition of “Face the State” on WBNS-TV and occasionally reports for “PBS Newshour”. She’s often called to moderate debates, including the Columbus Metropolitan Club’s Issue 3/legal marijuana debate and its pre-primary mayoral debate, and the City Club of Cleveland’s US Senate debate in 2012.