by Natasha Chen and David Chong
'Hope' and 'change' took a backseat to a different campaign theme this weekend at the Texas Democratic Party's state convention in Austin: 'unity.' Party heads were pushing for unity between Hillary Clinton supporters and Barack Obama boosters every chance they had, hoping to buffer any fallout from Clinton's anticipated suspension of her presidential campaign on Saturday. That's no surprise considering the Texas convention is the first major event for the Dems after Obama secured enough delegates to claim the party nomination last week.
Obama and Clinton supporters in for the convention even informally organized a 'unity pub crawl' Thursday night, where Clintonites met at Bull McCabe's Irish Bar while Obama fans partied up the street at Club de Ville. At midnight the two sides would meet and "start the unity process." But video of the peace talks between the two tribes meeting at the neutral location of the Austin bar scene shows the unity process ironically involves a lot of yelling, finger-pointing, and immature insults. All that these Jets and Sharks were missing was a Leonard Bernstein score.
[VIDEO - Unity Party]
Unity Party from Natasha Chen on Vimeo.
Though this unsanctioned attempt at reconciliation may not have been an unequivocal success, it's clear why state Democratic leaders are worried about a party schism during a year when Texas Democrats have the chance to gain the five seats needed to take back the state house. Nearly one-and-a-half million Texans voted for Clinton in the state primary in March where she defeated Obama (though the Illinois senator did win the state caucus). And Clinton supporters came out in full force at the Texas Democratic convention, a wash of Hillary t-shirts, signs, and pins that drowned out most of the Obama spangle. It was clear many Clinton supporters were far from ready for party unity. Meanwhile, Obama delegates grumbled over a perceived reluctance from Clinton to come out and fully support him immediately after the final primary on June 3rd.
These party-wide tensions were being played out on a micro level in some of the Texas senate district meetings, where delegates from the same region convened to elect state party representatives and conduct other party business.
Senate District 19 is a geographically wide area stretching from San Antonio to the edge of El Paso, and includes two-thirds of the Texas-Mexico border. Delegates from this district began their meeting sitting on opposite sides of the room based on which candidate they supported. Clinton supporters sat on the left side and almost all of them wore yellow "Hillary" shirts and matching caps. Meanwhile Obama supporters donned red and white shirts and sat on the right side of the room. It seemed only a matter of time before each side would erupt into chants of "we've got spirit, yes we do!"
Democratic voters in this district had come out in strong numbers for both Obama and Clinton this past March, mirroring the statewide results with Clinton getting a majority of the primary vote in the region and Obama winning the area caucus. But even up to a week before the event, the rival groups continuously battled over the number of delegates their respective candidates would receive and have represented at the convention.
The mounting tension in the crowded convention room seemed ready to break out into a full-on dispute as meeting heads struggled to count delegates accurately. Then leaders from both groups forced everyone to sit by county, not by the Clinton-Obama divide. Soon after Sen. Carlos Uresti, who represents this region in the Texas senate, gave his unity speech to the crowd, asking everyone to shake hands and hug the person next to them, be they a Clinton or Obama supporter.
It seemed the Democratic leadership were willing to spoon-feed unity to warring Clinton and Obama tribes for the sake of the party when all else failed.
The 'unity' plea became the theme for almost all the speeches during the evening general session as well, including Hillary's surrogate and daughter, Chelsea Clinton, who indicated in the most unambiguous terms as of yet that her mother is putting party unity first.
Chelsea from Natasha Chen on Vimeo.
At one point every single Texas state lawmaker came on stage to make their own unity pitch, some more creatively than others. Texas House Democratic Caucus leader and state representative Jim Dunnam memorably called for a moment of silence for former GOP politicians like Tom Delay and Dennis Hastert. Given that the total presentation dragged on for at least an hour, perhaps the Texas Democratic leadership hoped the masses could be numbed into a docile state of unity ready to vote the party line come November.