by DEREEN SHIRNEKHI and THOMAS BREEN
Eight New Haven-area Democrats have won the chance to help officially select their party’s presidential nominee this summer at what’s shaping up to be an uncontested — but plenty contentious — Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Those delegates were selected during a Third Congressional District Democratic Party caucus held Wednesday night at West Haven High School.
The slate consists of three residents from New Haven and one resident each from Wallingford, West Haven, East Haven, Guilford, and Hamden, according to Democratic Town Chair Vincent Mauro, Jr..
The eight selected delegates from New Haven’s Third Congressional District include Christine Cohen, Rebecca Hyland, Karen Martin, Beaver Hills ward co-chair Audrey Tyson, former Westville Alder Marty Dunleavy, Hamden State Rep. Josh Elliott, Patrick Perugino, and New Haven high schooler Jacob Schonberger.
These eight delegates will officially represent the New Haven area at Chicago’s DNC in late August, when thousands of Democratic Party elected officials, insiders, and activists descend on the Windy City to formally choose their party’s presidential nominee. Connecticut will be sending a total of 74 delegates (and five alternates), including the 40 so-called “district” delegates who were selected at caucuses across the state on Wednesday.
Incumbent President Joe Biden overwhelmingly won Connecticut’s presidential preference primary in early April, and is all but assured to secure the national party’s nomination this summer. (All 74 delegates heading to the DNC from Connecticut are “Biden” delegates, as state party Executive Director Sarah Locke explained, meaning they are obliged to vote for the incumbent president at the convention. That’s because no other candidate won at least 15 percent of the vote in Connecticut’s April 2 presidential preference primary.)
But Biden’s candidacy has become all the more fraught in recent weeks amidst a nationwide student protest movement against his administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Party leaders are bracing for a reprise of antiwar protests outside the Chicago convention in 1968 — which featured cops rampaging through the streets cracking young people’s skulls on national television — that they believe helped further fracture their party and elect Republican President Richard Nixon.
Josh Elliott, who received the most votes at Wednesday’s Third Congressional District Democratic Party caucus, told the Independent that he wasn’t able to attend the vote in person because of the ongoing state legislative session. But he said he’s excited and appreciative to have been selected.
“I’ve never been to a Democratic National Convention,” he said.
Despite being a “Bernie guy,” Elliott said that he will “excitedly” be casting his vote for President Joe Biden at the Chicago DNC.
“For me there’s no real tension,” he said, referring to current division in the Democratic Party. “I think he’s done a good job the last three years.”
Audrey Tyson, a New Haven Democratic Party stalwart who has long served as the co-chair for Ward 29, said she was “tearful” when she found out she’d been selected as a delegate for this year’s national convention. She thanked Mauro for her help in winning the delegate spot. This will be her second time serving as a delegate at the DNC, after traveling to Philadelphia in 2016 to vote for Hilary Clinton’s presidential bid.
“I feel so excited, because I’m someone who loves politics. … I love Biden. I think that he’s done a lot of wonderful things. I think he’s a very heartfelt president and cares about everybody, and he’s fair,” Tyson said.
She said she doesn’t foresee the Israel war protests being “an important factor” at the coming DNC. Instead, she’s thinking about how best to mobilize voters to back Biden in his all-but-certain November general election rematch against former President Donald Trump. “If people get out and vote,” she said, “I think [Biden] can do it.”
The district’s Republican delegates will be selected on May 20 at Milford City Hall.
