Interview with Barbara Katz, DNC Convention Delegate

Barbara Katz, a Democratic Party convention delegate from Florida, was kind enough to allow me to interview her about the upcoming convention. She is extremely accomplished, having earned both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s from the University of Chicago in History and Political Science, a second Master’s from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and a law degree from UCLA. Her career spanned being a reporter, a speech writer for Indiana Senator Birch Bayh, and an enforcement attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Interview:

You’re one of the 146 elected official district level delegates from Florida to the DNC. It’s a large delegation, the district level delegates, plus the 30 automatic delegates, 29 PLEO delegates, 49 at-large delegates and 19 at-large alternates. You’ve been involved for many years in Florida politics, and are currently Vice-Chair of the Sarasota Democrats. Do you know some or many of the other delegates?

No. I know the people from my Congressional District, and I know a few of those from some of the other districts. I’m looking forward to making new friends.

You had to run for your position. What made you decide to run this year?

I ran in 2020, and I was elected as a delegate, but the whole convention was virtual because of Covid, and so I didn’t get to attend. I really wanted to attend as a delegate in person, so it was an easy decision for me to make to run this year.

What was the process like to get elected? Was there coordination with the Biden campaign?

I honestly cannot remember if we had to specifically sign anything that indicated that we would be Biden delegates. But when we ran, we were listed on the ballot as Biden delegates because he was the only declared candidate.  There was no direct coordination with the campaign, but before any of us could appear on the ballot, we were vetted by the Biden campaign.

The Florida Democratic Party submitted only President Biden's name for the presidential primary, so the presidential preference primary was canceled, and Biden was awarded all of the state's delegates.  The election for delegates was in April.

What was it like to run as a Biden delegate, and then end up voting virtually for Kamala Harris?

I was THRILLED because I felt that after President Biden’s disastrous debate performance on June 27th, it was all downhill from there. It was clear that Biden was on a losing trajectory and even though he has been a great president and has done remarkable things for the past 3 ½ years, we have to look to the future. I was very happy that he made the decision not to run.

I was not happy to have to vote virtually – it would have been more interesting to vote on the floor, and then the general US population would tune in, and see our enthusiasm. But I attended a virtual meeting of the DNC Rules Committee where this subject was debated and although there were some members of the Rules Committee who wanted voting to be in-person, the Democratic Party’s lawyers made a compelling argument: Even though it appears that Ohio, and a few other states, would allow for a later nomination than would be the case if Harris were nominated virtually, the lawyers pointed out that these were all red states, and we couldn’t count on them to stick to their agreements, and we couldn’t afford a challenge to the nomination. In the worst-case scenario, Harris and Walz would win in November and THEN the Republican Party would sue to challenge that she was not properly nominated.

What do you want to hear from Vice President Harris when she makes her acceptance speech?

I haven’t thought about this, but my gut feeling is that I want her to be inspirational. I’m not as concerned about the policies she talks about. I assume she’ll speak in broad strokes.  We need her to be strong on women’s reproductive rights, and of course on the economy - that our economy must continue to thrive and lift people up. She needs to be committed to appointing SCOTUS nominees who will care about our rights. I am less concerned with her specific legislative priorities in her speech.

From Governor Walz?

I feel he’s done a good job of introducing himself already, so I look to him also to inspire people at the convention. The Republicans are trying to tar and feather him every way they can, and he shouldn’t address anything they’re raising. I hope he says that we should work as hard as we can after leaving the convention to elect the ticket.

This is not your first time at a DNC Convention in Chicago, is it?

No, I was a cub reporter for the last night of the 1968 Democratic Convention, gathering “color” for Chicago’s CBS radio station, WBBM.  It was quite an experience.

Are you concerned about the protests this year?

Not concerned, I know there will be some. What would a convention be without protests? It was a different world back in 1968 in terms of how the police responded, when Richard J. Daley was mayor. I think the Vietnam War brought out more groups than the pro-Palestinian movement will have this year. And I expect that the protests won’t be anywhere near as violent, because the authorities have learned a lot since then.

What are you most looking forward to at this year’s convention?

First off, to be with people who are very happy about our new candidates. I think it’s going to be more celebratory than we had anticipated a month ago, and I think we’re going to give one another a lot of energy and pass that along to people watching the convention at home.

And then taking that enthusiasm back to Florida – sadly things have changed in terms of political composition over the past several years – it appears that many more Republicans than Democrats poured into the state during the pandemic. But we do have races that we have a chance of winning. We don’t formally have a U.S. Senate candidate yet, that will be decided on August 20th, but we have good candidates, and hopefully we will beat Rick Scott, and be able to pass the abortion rights amendment to the Florida constitution. That’s not a partisan issue – it’s being promoted by a nonpartisan coalition. In Sarasota, we have important local races – school board, hospital board – all will benefit from the energy we bring back. Across Florida, there are competitive races for the State Legislature and Congress, and we will expend energy and enthusiasm on all of them.