Pennsylvania delegates excited about casting ‘historic’ vote

PHILADELPHIA >> Pennsylvania delegate Shelly Rahman couldn’t contain her joy after she voted for Hillary Clinton to officially clinch the Democratic nomination for president.

“The convention is awesome! With lots of ups and downs but with a positive direction,” said Rahman, an Upper Darby resident. “The most progressive platform. We had two wonderful candidates. Between the two the best came out. It can not get better than this.”

Rahman, who came with Jammie Lau, of Villanova, said she hoped to continue to hear a message of unity during the convention and wanted to see Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump defeated in November.

Lau agreed. She wanted to hear “what we Democrats stand for.”

The two women were just a few of the numerous delegates from Pennsylvania who watched as Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf officially cast the 126 votes for Clinton Tuesday night inside Wells Fargo Center during the second night

of the Democratic National Convention.

For those in attendance, it was a historic moment not soon to be forgotten.

Despite casting his vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders, Jim Savage of Linwood called the experience of nominating a presidential candidate exciting and he learned a lot about the process as a whole. Even though his candidate didn’t clinch the nomination, Savage was still pleased to hear the positive message coming out of the convention.

“I’m glad to see a very positive convention compared to what we saw last week in Cleveland,” he said. “I just want to hear a positive vision for America, understanding that there’s problems. How do you fix them? How do you move forward together as one people. Try to get over some of this irrational hate that’s being jibbed up by conservatives and start getting the economy back working for regular people.”

Knowing Clinton has worked so long and hard for the historic moment, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said he couldn’t imagine what she was feeling at the moment she officially clinched the nomination.

Rendell compared the contentious situation between Sanders supporters and Clinton to the 2008 campaign after Clinton lost the nomination to then-Sen. Barack Obama. He said while some Sanders supporters won’t ever get

behind Clinton, most will eventually come around.

“This was a great convention,” he said. “Not just because of the speakers, they were all good, including Sen. Sanders. Sarah Silverman was out of sight when she said was ‘you’re ridiculous.’ But I believe we will get 85 to 90 percent of the Sanders voters by November. Not now. By November. That’s enough to win Pennsylvania, to win Ohio, to win Florida and win the election.”

Rendell said Pennsylvania was very much in play when it comes to its status as a battleground state.

“Anyone who thinks we’re not in play is crazy,” he said. “Donald Trump has a simple – in my judgement – untruthful message that resonates greatly with white Democrats. Especially white Democrats who worked in the manufacturing sector who lost their jobs. Most of them didn’t lose their jobs because of trade. They lost their jobs because of technology.”

Rendell emphasized Democrats still have a lot of work to do to keep Pennsylvania out of the hands of Trump.

“I think Hillary Clinton needs to show a little bit of her soul, talk a little bit about the things she did before she was first lady,” Rendell said when asked how Clinton could combat Trump’s influence. “She’s a great human being who’s fought all her life for people who are vulnerable. For kids, for older people. People have to understand that she did that way before she got involved in politics.”

He further said Clinton needs to give “concrete proposals” to issues concerning Americans.