Grandma, mother and granddaughter represent at Democratic convention | Opinion

When covering a political convention like I’ve been doing this week, we spend a lot of time writing about politicians and what they say.

But we hardly ever pay much attention to the people they’re talking to — and sometimes those people are actually more interesting.

So let me introduce you to three Florida women I met this week at the Democratic National Convention here in Chicago.

A grandmother, a mother and a daughter, they’re representing three generations pitching for the blue team for the past 50-plus years.

The mom, Samantha Hope Herring and her daughter Savannah Atkins, are both delegates, while the grandmother, Pat Dansky, is a party volunteer.

“When she (Herring) was a baby, I took her to McGovern headquarters, and that’s how it all started,” Dansky said. “She was a kid for Carter, a college kid for Clinton, a mama for Obama. I thought (Herring) was gonna be a grandma for Biden, but it looks like it’s gonna be Harris.”

Herring is the Democratic chair in Walton County, on the Florida Panhandle adjacent to Alabama. Republicans there outnumber Democrats 66% to 13%.

Her local congressman is Matt Gaetz, a Republican so joined at the hip with Donald Trump’s MAGA movement that he even came to court to show his support for the former president, in the case where Trump was later convicted on 34 felony counts in connection with the cover-up of hush money payments he made to porn actress Stormy Daniels.

Herring became the first woman ever elected from West Florida to serve on the Democratic National Committee.

And she passed her love of Democratic politics to her daughter, taking Atkins to a Bill Clinton rally in Baton Rouge while she was still in diapers.

“I did campaign calls for Obama when I was an older kid,” recalled Atkins. Now 26, she is a huge fan of President Joe Biden.

“He’s the best president of my lifetime,” she said. “He’s done so much for us, and he’s putting everything towards progress, and that’s what he’s always done for our country, and it’s wonderful to see him do things with such decency and optimistic values and doing everything he can for the American people. I mean, it really does mean so much to me, especially being a young woman from Florida and everything we’re dealing with down there with (conservative Republican Gov. Ron) DeSantis.”

Like many, they were shocked when Biden stepped down in favor of his vice president, Kamala Harris.

“When he made that decision, I said, I trust you, Joe, wherever you go, I’m going with you,” Herring said. “So 100% in for Kamala, and I absolutely love (vice presidential nominee Tim) Walz. I think he’s fantastic. I think he’s going to help us in a lot of our rural areas. I happen to work in a lot of the red rural areas in our state, and I believe that he could be very, very helpful.”

After years of being in the minority, Atkins and Herring might be poised for a win.

Their convention uniform is a pink jacket with light-up lettering “#4 WOMEN,” and a map of Florida on the back. It’s a show of support for Florida Amendment 4, which would insert the right to abortion into the state’s constitution.

“My daughter and son were born two years apart,” Herring said. “And when they were born, they had the same exact health care rights. But today, in state of Florida, they don’t, and there’s something fundamentally wrong with that.”

Amendment 4 has been polling well and abortion rights have won everyplace the issue’s been put to voters, including my home state of Kansas, land of the Summer of Mercy and Operation Rescue and a Legislature dominated by the pro-life movement.

“I think this is really much more serious than just that one issue, I believe it’s about eroding rights,” Herring said. “It’s about turning our country back to a place that’s very dark and frightening, and some of us are going to stand at the front lines and not allow that to happen, and that’s what our jacket says.”

Atkins says the convention, her first, has been an inspiring experience. “I’m just so happy I can be here and share this with my mother and my grandmother,” she said. “We’re watching history being made. I want to do this for the rest of my life.”

No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, you have to respect that kind of enthusiasm in the young. It bodes well for democracy, and for America.

Wichita Eagle opinion editor Dion Lefler is covering the Democratic National Convention for McClatchy’s Opinion teams.