In 1992, I worked as a volunteer for my first presidential campaign. I was president of the University of Richmond Young Democrats, which was hosting the second presidential debate. Bill Clinton had won the mock election at this traditionally conservative school, which made national news, and, as a result, I was invited to sit with Hillary Clinton at the debate. That night, I not only met Bill and Hillary Clinton, but everyone who was anyone in Virginia Democratic politics. And it was the beginning of my own political career.
Fifteen years later, as the youngest woman and youngest African-American member of the Virginia General Assembly, vice chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, a member of the Democratic National Committee and a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, I found myself courted by a stellar field of presidential candidates. For me, it was a choice between Hillary Clinton, who had opened the door that led to where I was today, while providing a role model for a strong woman politician, and Barack Obama, who was appealing to a new generation of Democrats. It was a difficult choice. But in December 2007, after meeting with both candidates and talking to their campaigns for months, I decided to go with Hillary.
After Obama won the Virginia primary and it became clear that superdelegates could decide the nomination, the pressure was on. For the next three months, I was called, e-mailed and stopped in the grocery store, the mall and out to dinner by people asking me to switch to Obama or stick with Hillary. I even received calls from Bill and Hillary directly. It was the most stressful decision of my life, between the candidate I had admired for years and the candidate who excited me in a way I had never been excited politically before. I felt as if I had to choose between my mother and my brother. And I had to do it with the media asking practically every day what I was going to do.
On the night of the North Carolina and Indiana primary, I made my decision. Senator Obama was attracting new people to the political process with an energy I had never seen in my lifetime, which had not happened since the days of John and Robert Kennedy. It appeared that the only way for Senator Clinton to win the nomination would be in a way that would tear the party apart and lead to a Democratic defeat in November. The election became more than about the candidates—it became about the direction of the party and the country. So I became the first in a wave of superdelegates to switch my vote from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama.
At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, as Barack Obama officially became the Democratic nominee for president, things have come full circle. On Tuesday night, as I watched Hillary Clinton emphatically announce her support for his candidacy and make the case for her supporters to back him, I got teary-eyed. And on Wednesday, when Senator Clinton asked the convention to nominate Senator Obama by acclimation, I cried. They were tears of relief that the process was finally over, and that she was beginning the healing process for the 18 million Democrats who voted for her who now must support Senator Obama if they value what she stands and fights for. They were tears of pride in the woman who not only started me down the road to elected office but paved the way for the first woman president of the United States. They were tears of joy for the moment in history when a major political party nominated an African-American, 45 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. outlined his dream for America. And later that night, when Bill Clinton spoke, I got goose bumps as we saw the torch being passed again to the next generation by a man who was also seen as too young and inexperienced, but who went on to become an extraordinary president.
In those two nights, not only did the party unite, but my own political journey came full circle.
Jennifer McClellan represents the 71st District in the Virginia House of Delegates