NW Bronx politicians praise DNC

Northwest Bronx delegates said they felt inspired and energized by events at the Democratic National Convention, where Hillary Clinton became the first woman in American History to accept a presidential nomination from a major political party. 

During the four-day Democratic convention, several big name speakers took the stage to support Ms. Clinton, a former secretary of state and senator from New York. Among them were First Lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama and Ms. Clinton’s own primary opponent, Senator Bernie Sanders.

Delegates from each state were present at the event including Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Rep. Eliot Engel, both of whom were delegates for Ms. Clinton.

“It was incredible, it was inspiring, I think most people I met walked out of there feeling very optimistic about the election coming up this year,” Mr. Dinowitz said in an interview after the convention. 

“The contrast between our convention and the Republican Convention was just amazing,” said Mr. Dinowitz, who has been a delegate in every convention since 1980, when he was a delegate for Sen. Ted Kennedy against then-President Jimmy Carter.

Mr. Engel, another longtime delegate, echoed the assemblyman’s praise of the variety of speakers at the convention.

“It had electricity, everybody realized we were about to break the glass ceiling in terms of a woman being nominated for president,” he said. “All the speeches that were in primetime were really remarkable.”

Mr. Dinowitz also spoke about the boos and jeers from Mr. Sanders’ supporters at Ms. Clinton’s nomination. 

“There were a very significant number of delegates who were Sanders delegates, I think that a lot of the people there had let out steam,” he said. “A lot of those people worked very hard for Sanders, so it’s understandable. I know that when I went to the 2008 convention, I was a Hillary Clinton delegate and I wasn’t booing Obama—far from it—but yeah, I worked very hard for Hillary and I was very disappointed that she lost.”

Mr. Dinowitz chalked up the fervor of Mr. Sanders’ supporters to the senator’s popularity among young people, saying that many of his delegates might not have ever been involved in a campaign before.

“I know exactly how they feel because I was in their shoes at some point in the past,” he said. “I was in the hall and there were some boos on the first day – and there were some boos on the last day, by the way – but the booing got less and less during the course of the four days.”

On the first day of the convention, “Bernie or Bust” supporters booed several speakers relentlessly; even Mr. Sanders himself faced criticism from the audience when he endorsed Ms. Clinton.

“That’s just a small percentage of the Sanders supporters there,” Mr. Dinowitz said. “The differences between Sanders and Clinton on the vast majority of issues just did not exist.”