‘Don’t agonize, organize.’ State Democrats’ Tacoma convention offers rally cry after Roe
What was meant to be a celebratory in-person rally for Washington state Democrats gathering in Tacoma over the weekend became instead an intense round of motivational speeches, coming on the heels of recent Supreme Court decisions culminating with Friday’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
State, local and national party leaders were on hand Saturday to reiterate that the fight to protect reproductive rights was front and center and on the ballot in upcoming elections.
The topic even was woven into the convention’s land acknowledgment delivered by Puyallup Tribe Chairman Bill Sterud.
“The Puyallup Tribe has always had great women leaders,” he said, adding “and women should have the right to decide what you want to do with your bodies.”
The Washington Democrats hosted its bi-annual convention this weekend downtown at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, marking the party’s first in-person convention since 2018.
Amid the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, the daytime session was offered in a hybrid format so delegates could watch online. In person, masks and proof of vaccination/boosters were required.
While many political issues were highlighted in the Saturday speeches, each speaker gave special attention to the end of Roe v. Wade, and also calling for a state constitutional amendment to further protect abortion rights in Washington state.
“We must also stop the religious hospital mergers that restrict abortion access,” said Washington Democratic party chair Tina Podlodowski.
“We must protect abortion providers and caregivers and services as well as incoming patients and families from other states from the reach of those state laws that will criminalize people who participate in action to abortion or to access to other sorts of reproductive health care. Washington must be a sanctuary state.”
Quoting from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Tacoma City Council member Kiara Daniels told the audience, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.”
“Don’t agonize, organize.”
Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, speaking remotely to the audience over Zoom, said that “Yesterday was a brutally hard day.”
“(Supreme Court Justice) Clarence Thomas rang the bell of other issues that he would like to consider,” Harrison said, “from the issues of contraception to the issues of marriage equality.”
Harrison said it wouldn’t surprise him if the court, “full of right-wing radicals, decided to revisit Brown v. Board (of Education),” the decision that ended racial segregation in public schools.
He then cited the “First They Came” poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller and warned that inaction by Democrats and political apathy would lead to more lost rights among Americans.
“Yesterday we lost the battle, but I’ll be damned we won’t lose this war,” he said. “We have to stand up and fight for the rights of all Americans, because if they come for one they come for all.”
“And the DNC is going to be with you every step of the way,” he added, emphasizing voter registration and turnout for the midterms in November, along with the state’s August primary.
U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who represents portions of Tacoma along with the Olympic Peninsula, reminded everyone of the Jan. 6, 2021, violence at the U.S. Capitol. As a member of the Washington congressional delegation at the Capitol that day, he noted it was important to keep government functioning in the aftermath of the attempted hijacking of the day’s Electoral College proceeding by opponents.
“We went back, we walked through a crime scene and we certified the Electoral College vote, because we had to show the American people that insurrectionists and loser presidents don’t get to choose our elected officials. Voters choose.”
He rallied participants, saying political engagement was critical, warning against losing Democratic seats and adding, “don’t let (Republicans) take it away,” listing the Affordable Care Act, Social Security and voting rights as at risk following Friday’s court ruling.
Gov. Jay Inslee was set to speak in the Saturday evening session, among other party officials, with the keynote presented by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
Inslee, in remarks delivered Saturday at the state Capitol in Olympia, said the state would not cooperate with other states’ abortion investigations.
Inslee, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Friday announced a multi-state reproductive health care safe haven pact.
Murray, in a brief phone interview Saturday with The News Tribune, said that after the initial leak of the Roe ruling, “I think inside I was hoping every single day ... that the Supreme Court would recognize the recklessness of this and not go this far.”
Following Friday’s action, she added: “I am just so energized not just by myself and what I feel, but also by the people around me, the people I’m seeing who are saying the same thing — that this is outrageous. That in this country, the Supreme Court, at the direction of Republicans putting Republican nominees on the court has now taken away a fundamental right for women that we’ve had,” for decades.
Her main message to voters now: “Everybody has to get out, get involved, get to work and fix this.”
This story was originally published June 25, 2022 at 1:09 PM.
