Two months ago, I sat in a small restaurant with a few Missouri elected officials and others. I was following up with them in regards to the work on Right-To-Work union busting legislation that was coming up in the state house when my phone rang. After finishing with the legislator, I returned the call and received a pitch I hadn’t heard before. I knew that our National Committeeman — a significant position within the state party — had chosen to leave his position, but I had never really considered the role myself. When I was asked: would you consider doing this? I thought: whoa. Ok. I need time to think about it.
For the next two weeks, I did exactly that. I checked in with our state executive director, and asked him if there was any movement, if anyone else had signaled interest. After two weeks, the bug bite got me, and the pitch that I had heard a few weeks before sunk in.
If I was interested in working for change in leadership at the state and national level, would I be willing to put in the work to do it? After struggling for two weeks to find good reasons to say no, I kept circling back to the argument I heard on the phone: not only why not, but also a call to actually work for the kind of changes I believe in.
On Saturday afternoon, in a well attended state meeting, in a race that ended up with four candidates, I was elected to the Democratic National Committee on first ballot, and appointed to the Democratic National Convention Rules committee. While those may be “personal” accomplishments, a title is only worth what you make of it — and the effort you are willing to put into is what makes it mean something.
I had avoided writing this, but after some thought, I realized now is the time to at least say a few words both of thanks and a look to the future.