As Dems Look For Unity In Philly, Colorado Still Leans For Bernie

Originally published on July 26, 2016 6:53 am

The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia got off to a rocky start. Supporters of Bernie Sanders repeatedly booed speakers and even Sanders himself, when he urged his backers to support Hillary Clinton.

Some of the consternation came from Colorado's delegates, where Sanders won the caucuses.

"I'm a Bernie person all the way," said Cleo Dioletis, a delegate from Denver. "In my mind, I have to support a strong candidate who is ethically correct."

Dioletis, who said she would not vote for Clinton in November, is even more adamant in light of leaked emails from that Democratic National Committee. The email showed chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz saying disparaging things about Sanders and working to try and bolster Clinton's campaign.

"The Democratic party cheated and lied," Dioletis said.

Wasserman Schultz resigned over the emails and isn't presiding over the convention. She was slated to gavel the convention to order but stepped down after it was clear how bad the optics would look on opening day.

State representative Jonathon Singer (D-Longmont), another Sanders delegate, said the Clinton campaign needs to try to embrace Bernie supports, many who are young and new to the political process.

"If Hillary can really show that they're paying attention and that they're listening and they're invested," Singer said.

The catch however, is that Singer is not happy with the selection of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as Clinton's running mate.

"He's going to have a long way to with progressives to really prove he's going to do the things the progressives want."

Read Bernie Sanders' prepared remarks at the DNC: https://t.co/f2UEvPfU8m— NPR (@NPR) July 26, 2016

Sanders supporters can point to some victories though. They successfully changed the Democratic Party rules to greatly reduce the number of super delegates going forward. Key to Clinton's support base, super delegates are party insiders and elected officials who many Sanders supporters feel don't speak for the people.

Other Democrats expect all these differences to fade come fall and predict the party's more progressive supporters will back Clinton to defeat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.