YOUNG DEMOCRAT ELECTED AS DEMOCRATS BREAK THROUGH IN HAMILTON COUNTY

    Indiana’s fastest growing county also doubles as Indiana’s fastest changing county when it comes to the political landscape.  With the 2019 results, it’s clear that voters are ready for a new direction in some of Indiana’s booming cities. In 2018 the glass ceiling cracked on two opposite corners of the county when J.D. Ford and Rachna Greulach were elected.

    State Senator J.D. Ford made headlines in 2018 in the state by becoming the first member of the LGBTQ+ community elected to the Indiana General Assembly and aging out the Hamilton County Young Democrats on the same day of his election.  His district included a significant portion of Carmel on the southwest side of the county. Township Board Member Rachna Greulach also made history in 2018 as she won a spot on the Fall Creek Township Board, which represents a large portion of Fishers, including the Geist area in the southeastern side of the county.

Throughout the year the Hamilton County Young Democrats have worked to expand on the momentum from 2018 and have played a key role not just as volunteers but as leaders within the party.  Of the eleven races Democrats contested in Hamilton County, four were due to young professionals stepping up to lead and serve our community. HCYD President, Dayna Colbert, personally recruited two of those same candidates.  With Hamilton County Young Democrat members Adam Kaps, Lane Skeeters, Jeremy Hawk and Sam DeLong on the ballot, we helped to provide a choice to voters who had never had one before in Noblesville and Fishers. While these candidates were not all victorious, they were competitive in districts and neighborhoods never thought to be on the table before.

Two of these candidates, Adam Kaps and Lane Skeeters, fell short of victory but gave incumbent Republican councilors a real challenge for the first time.  Kaps came within 57 votes of unseating an incumbent who had won with over two-thirds of the vote the last time he faced a Democratic challenger. Skeeters brought another strong challenge to an incumbent who had won with over 70% of the vote the last time he faced a Democratic challenger.  He brought the margin down to 127 votes. Colbert served as the campaign manager for both of these first-time candidates, making this a reality.

    Another first-time candidate and HCYD member, Sam DeLong, was victorious in unseating not only someone who was an incumbent Republican, but also the Vice President of the Fishers City Council.  Her campaign was managed by another young professional, Sara Serna. Together their hard work visiting residents in their communities made it possible to unseat someone who had never faced a Democratic challenger before.  She will serve as the youngest councilor on the Fishers City Council and brings a new, diverse perspective.

Our chapter worked hard to support Democratic candidates across the board in the county.  In March we ran a training session for both candidates and volunteers alike, providing invaluable experience that helped the operations of campaigns across the board.  We established a presence across the county this year hosting events in the cities of Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, and Westfield, as well as the northern town of Cicero.  Our local chapter planned the welcome reception for the Young Democrats of America National Convention in Indianapolis this year. The convention provided our members a valuable opportunity to network with fellow young professionals across the nation and attend training sessions to enhance their political skill sets.  We have seen our best fundraising year, increasing our funds more than fivefold, further giving us the ability to recruit, train and elect our candidates.

Fishers will see two Democrats sit on their City Council as Jocelyn Vare also unseated an incumbent in the At-Large race across the entire city.  With her victory and DeLong’s victory, both the current President and Vice President of the Fishers City Council lost their races. Our Communications Director served as her Deputy Campaign Manager.  Thanks to these victories, all residents of Fishers now have a voice in their city government and the decisions that are being made.

    In Carmel Miles Nelson will become the first Democrat to serve on the council thanks to his victory in the new West district.  All residents of Carmel now have a representative in their city government as one-party control has broken. Three other Democrats lost contested races with two of them surpassing forty-percent of the vote.  Many of our members and executive board served as volunteers for these campaigns, including Aaron Tellez who served as the volunteer coordinator for William Howard’s and Adam Kaps’ campaign.

    These gains were possible thanks to the hard work of the candidates, volunteers and residents of Hamilton County.  Together we will continue to make an impact and change in the suburbs north of Indianapolis and make an impact on statewide politics for years to come.

A. Brando Corsaro,

Communications Director, Hamilton County Young Democrats

Edited by Dayna Colbert,

President, Hamilton County Young Democrats

HOW YOUNG GETS IT DONE

Originally posted in The Action Report.

The first meeting of the Hamilton County Young Democrats took place in March of 2017 when a small group of friends came together as they saw real opportunity to make a change in the county and their community. The goal, both then and now, was to promote the ideals and principles of the Democratic Party by encouraging the involvement of young people ages fourteen to thirty-five in civic and political affairs. Within a few months the chapter would be officially chartered by the Indiana Young Democrats and registered as a committee with the Indiana Election Division. That original group of leaders that formed our chapter would soon find the need to bring new talent due to various life obligations. Four months into chartering, the founding executive board passed the torch onto two new leaders. I was elected president alongside a new treasurer who was a senior in high school. Both of us lacked the experience and had never done anything like this before. What we didn’t lack was the motivation.

During that crucial time the new treasurer and I helped to keep the chapter established.  Meetings were often just the two of us and an occasional young democrat coming to see what we were about. As president I had to balance planning local events, managing all communications, recruiting members and keeping up with meetings for the Indiana Young Democrats. I also assisted with our treasurer’s campaign finance reports. Once the treasurer resigned, many meetings were simply myself and an alumni member from the founding group.  They still wanted to help me support the organization we were trying to build.

After a rocky 2017 the chapter began to gain real traction during the 2018 election cycle. After the anniversary of our first year of being chartered, our new executive board began to fill in. We even added two new positions to the board and had enough interest that one of the positions was contested. Two of our board members ran for office before turning thirty to our excitement. We soon grew to over fifteen members strong with consistent new faces attending our regular meetings. During the 2018 election cycle we had two of our board members play a pivotal role working on the Coordinated Campaign, which focused on promoting the entire Democratic ticket from Senator Donnelly to Dee Thornton to a spate of down-ballot candidates running in Hamilton County. Other members volunteered over fifty hours of GOTV efforts to local candidates in the county as well.

This year, our chapter has made great strides to engage with young activists in all corners of Hamilton County. We’ve held events and meetings in Carmel, Fishers, Noblesville, Cicero and soon Westfield. Many of our members are serving pivotal roles for local municipal candidates including campaign managers, deputy campaign managers, volunteer coordinators and more.  Not to mention the ones who have stepped up to the plate to run as candidates this year. We have members serving as committee chairs for the  Hamilton County Democratic Party and we have held two separate trainings for candidates this year to help build the bench. Thanks to a successful bid by the Indiana Young Democrats, the national organization Young Democrats of America brought the 2019 National Convention to Indianapolis. The convention hosted over one thousand attendees from across the nation and our local chapter stepped up to host the Welcome Reception for the convention. The convention offered valuable workshops and trainings for our members and provided an opportunity for them to network and gain ideas from like-minded young people from across the nation. Multiple presidential candidates as well as the Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, attended and spoke at the convention.

What is in store for our future? For the remainder of the year we have events geared towards further recruitment of new talent both as members and potential 2020 candidates. We are hosting the After Party for the Hamilton County Annual Dinner with a host of speakers (details later in this issue of the Action Report). We still are hard at work with our candidates for the elections in November and we are ready to bring home the gold. Whether we are celebrating our wins or reflecting on our losses, we will take the knowledge we gain for our 2020 plans.

Next year we will apply that knowledge. We’re ready to work with our local candidates in 2020 to further our gains. We give back to the community outside of our campaign efforts. We continue to grow, we continue to learn, and we will continue to win.

You can support us by giving your time, your treasure, or your talent. No matter your age you can contribute to our chapter’s growth and efforts. Whether you’re a young person looking to join and contribute, or a supporter willing to sponsor our efforts, you are an integral part of our success. At our heart we’re a civic youth organization; but we know we’re part of a much larger team under the umbrella of the Democratic party. Join us as we move the needle here in Hamilton County to change Indiana’s fastest growing county from red to blue.

Dayna Colbert, 

President, Hamilton County Young Democrats

Edited by A. Brando Corsaro,

Communications Director, Hamilton County Young Democrats