“Not me. Us.”

When I heard crowds cheering this at Senator Bernie Sanders rallies during his 2020 presidential campaign, I remembered why I got involved in politics in the first place. Like so many others, I was spurred into taking committed political action as a reaction to the inauguration of Donald Trump in January 2017. However a year earlier, I was in high school with no direction, when I first heard Senator Sanders’ message and it stirred my heart.

On July 11, 2020, I found myself as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, casting my vote for the senator. This was ahead of the convention, which will begin on Monday and go on until Thursday, in which former Vice President Joe Biden will accept the Democratic Party’s nomination for president of the United States.

In June, I was elected as an at-large delegate for Bernie Sanders. There will be no in-person convention this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It would have been wonderful to do a little sightseeing around a big city, build long lasting relationships around the country, and to have experienced the caucusing and speech-making in person. Even without an in-person convention, being a member of Generation Z has given me the ability to navigate this virtual convention through technology.

Technology has helped me to adjust to some of these big changes in my life. YouTube has given me the chance to still watch speeches and what remains of the convention process. I have also been able to connect with fellow Sanders delegates from all over the country through social media. I even had the chance to do an interview with KITV via Zoom.

As a pledged delegate for Senator Sanders, I cast my vote for his nomination. On the same ballot, I also voted to approve the Rules Committee’s decision to continue much needed reforms. This includes the work of creating a better presidential nominating process, as well as continuing to limit the influence of superdelegates (elected officials and party higher-ups) over who should be the presidential nominee.

Votes Count

Ever since 1952, there has not been a single convention in which the presidential nominee was not decided by the first round of voting. If this rare event were to ever happen, superdelegates would be free to vote independently of who their state chose to be the party’s nominee. This allows for a fairer system where every Democrat will know that their vote counts.

These reforms were created with the hard work of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders’ supporters. There is still a lot of work to be done, but steady progress is being made toward a more fair Democratic National Committee.

However, it is important to note that — while we will work together when we agree — creating a more fair, grassroots-driven Democratic Party will require healthy debate when we disagree. In this spirit, I voted against the current draft of the Democratic Party platform, which does not contain language supporting a Medicare-For-All universal, single-payer health care system.

We are in the middle of a public health crisis. And with more and more workers having to stay home, their families are losing access to the health care coverage that came with their jobs. This creates a sense of urgency for all people to have the best health care possible.

With polls showing over 80% of Democrats wanting universal health care, it’s frustrating that the Democratic Party’s national platform is far behind its own members. Hawaii’s own state platform includes such language, and it’s never been more clear that’s what the country desperately needs.

We are in the middle of a public health crisis.

Those of us who want to see these and other radical transformations of our society will need to organize in mass numbers beyond the convention, both from within and outside of the Democratic Party to put pressure on all our political leaders, including Vice President Biden and Senator Kamala Harris, our future president and vice president.

Admittedly, it has been harder to do this work without seeing our fellow delegates in person, but Bernie delegates have learned a lot since 2016. I’ve seen the network of progressives we’ve been building over the past four years spring into action to fill in the voids created by the lack of a physical convention and a more substantive process.

I am proud to be a small part of this movement for political change, and I am confident that this will be a movement that will last far beyond Senator Sanders’ run for president.