DNC Announces Important Investment in College Democrats of America
This year marks the 30th anniversary of College Democrats of America (CDA) becoming the official youth branch of the Democratic National Committee. Since its inception as a part of the Young Democrats of America during the 1932 election campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt, CDA has had a lasting impact by promoting progressive values on and off campuses across the country. As the official youth branch of the DNC, our organization engages with college students through advocacy, outreach, and service to our communities.
In light of the growing importance of the millennial vote, CDA continues to serve as the voice for college students. We work actively to train members and equip them with the skills to become effective organizers who can fundraise, register people to vote, and raise awareness about a wide spectrum of issues facing our nation. CDA has been vital in molding and continuing to mold many of our nation’s future leaders.
This past year has been critical for the growth of our organization. CDA members ran and elected their most diverse executive board in the history of College Democrats. We kicked off the start of our new administration with a strategic planning meeting focused on the ways students can actively take on GOTV work, like hosting on-campus college phone banks and running canvassing export programs for neighboring states.
As an organization, we have accomplished so much: We welcomed seven new state federations from four regions of the country, bringing our total to 40 states chartered. Our goal by the end of 2018 is to charter every state in the union. We also organized thousands of phone calls and visits into crucial battleground states like Alabama, New Jersey, and Virginia for pivotal elections where Democrats came out on top. And we have no intention of slowing down.
CDA worked closely with the DNC to plan and host the CDA Convention last October, which had close to 300 participants from 27 states and nearly tripled the attendees from 2016. The program included a wide variety of local and national leaders as speakers, partner organizations, and elected officials who ran interactive panel sessions, discussions, and trainings on how to strategically support local Democratic candidates, motivate participants to run for office, and organize effectively on and off campus. Based on the successes and lessons learned from those experiences, we are looking forward to building on this progress at our CDA Winter Convention in our nation’s capital this March.
Additionally, CDA was proud to see that the DNC announced the opportunity for paid internships at the beginning of the year for full- and part-time interns to grant greater access to highly qualified interns of all backgrounds.
These accomplishments encourage members of CDA and millennials to become more involved with the Democratic Party at a national level, and there is so much more to look forward to. We are proud to be committed to:
- Working with the DNC to launch the Millennial Civic Engagement and Voter Participation Advisory Council to support students in a myriad of ways, including helping students prepare to vote absentee if they’ll be traveling abroad during the November general election and sharing new best practices for on-campus voter registration.
- Beginning to organize around issues that affect campuses and local communities — including the economy, healthcare, reproductive health care, immigration, and more. CDA is excited to engage in voter registration and education efforts in the spring to increase voter turnout in the upcoming elections.
- Keep ramping up our HBCU and millennial outreach efforts through our HBCU Outreach Committee and continued assertive organizing on campuses. Alabama showed the nation why this was important, and the work will continue in this upcoming year.
For everything mentioned above, we want to thank DNC Chair Tom Perez, who recently announced a line item budget and startup investment for our organization, which will provide the foundational support we need to mobilize college students on every campus to help elect Democrats across the country in 2018. This annual budget focuses on programming that will allow us to provide state federations, local chapters, and individual members the resources necessary to organize in their local communities. The DNC’s investment in CDA shows that our efforts are recognized, and that the DNC is investing in America’s future by empowering college students to help elect Democrats across the country.
We know that we could not have arrived at this landmark accomplishment through our work alone. We want to give a special thanks to our DNC Chair Tom Perez, our DNC staff support in Phil Kim, Heather Reid, and Elizabeth Renda, as well as our predecessors Marv McMoore and Ellen Lindblom for their work in helping us to accomplish these goals.
When the Democrats engage young people every step of the way, Democrats win, and it is our goal to elect Democrats running up and down the ballot, from the school board to the Oval Office, in 2018, 2020, and beyond. When the Democratic Party succeeds, CDA also succeeds. We are ready to do our part to make sure the Democratic ideals of compassion, competence, and decency make their way back into the highest office.
Want to get involved in College Democrats on your own campus? You can find your chapter at collegedems.com, and you can keep up with all the latest ways to get involved by following the College Democrats on Twitter @CollegeDems and on Instagram @CollegeDems.
