Numbers enrolling as Democrats are falling, Democratic State Committee candidate warns
I’m Danielle Allen, chair of Ward 2 for Cambridge Democrats, and I am running for Democratic State Committee for the Middlesex and Suffolk Senate District. I am proud to have been rebuilding grassroots engagement in my East Cambridge ward alongside my fellow chair, Mary Lee Dunn, chair of Ward 1. Mary Lee has endorsed me in this race, as have state Reps. Marjorie Decker and Michael Connolly, and many others.
I write to highlight for all voters the urgency of the Democratic State Committeewoman race for the Middlesex and Suffolk District. We have a contested race for this seat because of the importance of this role.
Democratic State Committee members work to support the grassroots infrastructure of the party, just as Mary Lee and I have been doing at the ward level. We know the kind of support that ward and committee chairs need from the state committee. The state committee also establishes the rules and basic procedures for the party.
Currently, the number of people enrolling as Democrats in Massachusetts is declining. This is true nationally as well.
Our party needs to reverse this trend, and we need to work on this at the very same time as we work to reelect Joe Biden as president. We need to be a party that fully embraces the values of inclusion, engagement and healthy competition. We can win people back by embracing those values.
Some will say that right now we should focus only on the upcoming election. But I know we can walk and chew gum at the same time: We can win an election and work on making our party a fully inclusive, highly engaging vehicle for healthy competition and healthy democracy. I am running for state committee so that we can get both things done!
I hope to earn your vote during this early voting season or on election day on Tuesday. Learn more at allenforma.com.
Danielle Allen, Otis Street, Cambridge
Are the numbers dropping because they failing to remain registered at all, moving out of state, choosing another party or choosing to be Independent?
An increase in Independent status could be a sign of a desire on some parts to poison pill the Republican Party on election day, thinking they might unseat a Trump win in that party’s primary on Tuesday.
Others may be changing to independent as they fear that our nation is going to collapse into full fascist and that fascists tend to find excuses to persecute any that have opposed them once they get into full power (like the Nazis did in Germany). This is a very real fear among a segment of the population.
I’ve always been an independent but nearly always have voted Democratic in elections in this state. There have been two times I did not vote Democratic but never for National Office positions. It’s because of the chance that someone would run that I personally did not approve of in some way on the Democratic ticket that I kept to being Independent (think of a Kyrsten Sinema kind of person who lied their way into office as a Democrat and then basically did not support what she claimed she was in any way once in position).