Democratic Delegates
Total: 50
Estimated pledged delegates: 3,700
Estimated superdelegates: 800
One law school student returned to his everyday life after spending a week as an Oklahoma delegate at the Democratic National Convention.
Second-year OU law student Erick Harris tried to play “catch-up” on his school work Sunday morning.
“I was rather exhausted Friday,” Harris laughed.
He didn’t get home until after midnight the final night of the convention. He was starving because he hadn’t been able to eat in the arena, he said. After an early-morning dinner, he had to pack, then head to the airport for his flight back to Oklahoma City.
“I was basically running on 4 hours of sleep between two days,” he said.
Despite the chaos of that last night in North Carolina, Harris wouldn’t change his experience, which he likened to his own version of “the American dream.”
“To be a 25-year-old law student having a coveted position people twice my age are trying to get … I felt very grateful for the opportunity,” Harris said.
He laughed that despite being so young, he was actually not the state’s youngest delegate. There was an 18-year-old freshman from the University of Central Oklahoma, he said.
As a delegate, the most taxing part of the convention was having to be in so many different placeshe was exposed to, Harris said. He was excited to be around congressmen, senators and leaders in the party he wouldn’t normally see. He also attended a variety of forums as well as the African-American and women’s caucuses.
He also said he loved seeing how a convention could energize and re-focus a party. It also reinvigorated his own goals and solidified his vote for November, he said.
He said he particularly liked Bill Clinton’s speech. While he couldn’t tell you which speaker was the best, he said he would rank Clinton as his favorite, followed by Obama, Michelle Obama, Julian Castro and finally Jennifer Granholm.
Harris said getting back into the routine of being a student isn’t a letdown because he expected it. He was incredibly thankful to have had the opportunity he did last week, he said.
CORRECTION: We erroneously described a vote by delegates. The vote was to determine whether the party platform should include a line affirming Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.
