Why am I running?

I believe in diversity – not only in our gender balance mandates and our Affirmative Action goals for this delegation, but also in age and experience. We need young people in Leadership – lots of them – and we need "new" people (even if they're not young), all with fresh ideas and new perspectives. But Democrats Abroad also needs some of those new and young leaders to stick around for two or three terms, and for some of those to stay involved for much longer than that – perhaps even 20 years!

When I first started in DA leadership, as Chapter Chair in Munich and as the head of Germany4Obama.com before that, I worked hard to recruit more young people up and down the leadership team. (At that time a leader in DA under the age of 40 was unique.) The Munich Chapter Chair who succeeded me was the youngest Chapter Chair we'd ever had, as was the Chair of DA-Germany when I left that position a few years later. I haven't just talked the talk on including and recruiting Young Dems in leadership – I believe my efforts helped to change DA-Germany.   

I'm no longer young, but I can offer 20 years of experience in DA leadership. I don't believe that I should be elected as delegate as some sort of reward for my long service, but I do think that my experience and institutional knowledge could be helpful to our delegation in Chicago. I ask for your support, and your vote – at the EMEA Regional Convention, or at the Global Convention in Costa Rica.