Texas State Democratic Convention
So I spent the Thursday through Saturday in Austin for the state Democratic convention.
My alternate (Paul Gomez) and I got to Austin at about 4pm Thursday and checked into our hotel. Thanks to my usual procrastination, I had booked the room at the last minute and the only place with a room was a Travelodge 7 miles away from the convention center. After checking in we had dinner at the Iron Cactus with other members from Senate District 9 (which is so 
impressively gerrymandered shaped that it covers 3 counties). After that one had the option of exploring 6th Street or attending the various parties organized by Democratic candidates and organizations. Protip: button up shirt +undershirt + 95 degree weather = not cool, not cool at all.
Friday we got up at 6am for the long day ahead. After a minor snafu with credentials check in (Louisiana license), I got my delegate lanyard. The problem I quickly found is that there are a lot of caucuses you want to go to, but very few that don’t have overlapping schedules.
Issue caucuses I wanted to go to vs caucuses that I actually went to in bold:
| Topic | Start Time | End Time |
| Grassroots Training | 9:00a | 10:00a |
| Single Payer Universal Healthcare | 9:00a | 11:00a |
| Energy Policy | 9:00a | 11:00a |
| Transportation & Public Infrastructure | 10:00a | 11:00a |
| Black Caucus | 10:30a | 1:00p |
| Stonewall Democrats | 11:30a | 2:00p |
| Democrats Against the Death Penalty | 12:00p | 1:30p |
| Computer/Technology | 12:00p | 2:00p |
| Senate District Caucus | 3:00p | 5:00p |
The caucuses themselves were pretty uneventful, though most of the speakers at the Energy Policy caucus had a rather anti-nuclear stance which I strongly disagree with. Fun fact, Texas currently produces the most wind power of any state and by next year will be the leading wind power producer on the planet.
At 3:00pm the Senate District Caucus started, and we began the arduous 
process of electing people for positions like national delegate and electoral college elector. Obviously for some positions there were a lot of candidates, so we had to do run-offs, voting took quite a while. At 5pm we adjourned for the general session in the main ballroom. For which there were
| Position | Name | County | Pres. Pref |
| Presidential Elector | Michael Reynolds | Tarrant | Obama |
| National Delegate | Katy Hubener | Dallas | Clinton |
| National Delegate | Fatema Biviji |
Dallas | Obama |
| National Delegate | Marvin Sutton | Tarrant | Obama |
| National Delegate (At-Large) | Windolyn Mosely | Tarrant | Obama |
| State Democratic Executive Committeeman | Kennedy Barnes | Denton | Obama |
| State Democratic Executive Committeewoman | Susan Culp | Dallas | Obama |
| Nominations Committee | Gerald Johnson | Tarrant | Obama |
| Nominations Committee (At-Large) | Julie Allen | Dallas | Obama |
| Credentials Committee | Dexter Rhodes | Dallas | Obama |
| Rules Committee | Issac Brown | Denton | Obama |
| Resolutions Committee | Robert Lackey | Dallas | Obama |
| Platfrom Committee | Timothy Skaggs | Dallas | Obama |
What happened at the general session? Speeches, lots of speeches, most of them emphasizing the need for party unity. Highlights:
This went on till about 11pm, at which point we returned to Senate District caucuses to finish voting which took till about 3am. The next day (Saturday) was spent on procedural stuff in general session, interrupted by a simulcast of Hillary Clinton’s concession speech. But frankly Paul and I left that morning and got back to Dallas at about 11am.