In the Zoom where it happens; Dems discuss history-making virtual convention
Christian Sesek with Joe Biden
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Bibiana Boerio in 2018 file photo
When national Democrats met Monday, participants made history with their first presidential nominating convention taking place virtually.
Libertarians had already convened that way in May, and Republicans will follow suit next week during a year marked by the novel coronavirus.
Perhaps it was the beer that made Milwaukee famous, but the 2020 Democratic Convention has its claim to fame, too, with the first Black major-party nominee for vice president in Kamala Harris. As takeoff on a song from the musical “Hamilton,” they can call it “The Zoom Where It Happens.”
The Pennsylvania delegation to the 2020 Democratic convention wasn’t going to be staying in Milwaukee, which lacked enough hotel rooms.
Had the convention taken place, ahem, conventionally, Keystone Staters were actually going to be bused back and forth from Chicago.
Delegate Bibiana Boerio, 66, of Westmoreland County, had used Zoom previously in both business and academic settings, and she said Tuesday that from the technology standpoint, all was going well.
“I really appreciate that they made the decision early not to send us to Milwaukee,” she said, to tamp down the spreading of a highly contagious disease.
Opting out of the app that would have enabled her to appear in a box on convention viewers’ screens, she said there might be a glimpse of her hosting a dozen socially distant masked people or fewer outdoors during the final night of the convention Thursday as former vice president Joe Biden gives his acceptance speech and moves from presumptive to official nominee status.
Boerio’s gathering will have “Biden for President” posters and non-helium balloons, but no flurry of confetti, and she’s still working on the set-up of a projection TV.
Boerio was the top vote-getter among 14th Congressional District delegates in the June 2 Democratic primary. Her counterpart in the 2018 congressional contest, U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler of Peters Township, also took that spot among Republicans, and he’ll be a delegate as Republicans nominate President Donald Trump in a bid for a second term.
Boerio said she wrote to her congressman about Fayette County lagging two points behind the national unemployment figures even before the pandemic, but did not receive a reply.
“Look at the promises not kept,” she said of the Trump presidency. “Where are the steel jobs? Where are the manufacturing jobs?”
She called Joe Biden, a Roman Catholic, “a man of faith” and cited verses from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 25, which talks of feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty a drink, welcoming a stranger, clothing the naked and visiting the imprisoned.
“I think Western Pennsylvania has roots that believe in hard work and honesty and taking care of your family,” Boerio said. “For many people, those roots are based in faith, and I don’t see any of those elements (Donald Trump) delivers. Is the economy better than it was four years ago? Hell, no.”
The switch from an in-person gathering to a virtual one has its drawbacks.
“I feel badly for the younger folks for whom this was really an opportunity to go and meet people,” she said.
The youngest delegate from Western Pennsylvania is Christian Sesek, 24, of Brownsville.
A third-year law student at Duquesne University, Sesek has never been to Milwaukee, and he had been looking forward to visiting.
The Fayette County Democratic committeeman said he decided to run as a Biden delegate because “I think there was a lot of misinformation swirling about the process in 2016.
“I wanted to see how it worked and dispel the myth of people in ivory towers making decisions.
“I am young, and young people need to be involved in the process and step up to the plate.
“My future’s on the ballot.”
Delegates voted on the platform and other matters electronically via what the delegates called a secure ballot from Aug. 3 to 15, and Sesek was a deputy whip, making sure votes were submitted on time.
Online, he has attended sessions of the rural caucus, which wants to see broadband and infrastructure expansion; a youth caucus; and a poverty eradication group. He took a week off from his summer internship at a law firm in Belle Vernon to attend the convention virtually.
Sesek identified Franklin Delano Roosevelt as his favorite president. “He lifted my grandparents out of poverty,” he said. “My dad was a steelworker and my grandpap was a coal miner.”
The communities that now make up the 14th Congressional District voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2016, and Sesek said he’s taken some flack over his views, but “several friends who are Republicans have congratulated me that someone from Brownsville was able to become a delegate.
“I was impressed with (former Ohio governor and Congressman) John Kasich’s stance in coming out as a Republican and supporting Joe Biden. Of course, Michelle Obama is always riveting. I was also pleased Sen. (Bernie) Sanders came out and doubled down on Joe Biden.
“In politics you can”t please everyone.”