DENVER — President Biden won Colorado's presidential primary in March. Democratic and unaffiliated voters chose Biden to be the Democratic nominee. Yet, it will be delegates selected by Colorado's Democratic Party who will now get to pick who Colorado supports instead.
Delegates like Jefferson County Commissioner Tracy Kraft-Tharp.
“I always wanted to be a delegate to the national convention,” Kraft-Tharp said.
She never ran to be a delegate before because, in recent presidential election years, she was either running as a commissioner or for re-election as a state lawmaker.
“This year, because I'm retiring, I said this is on my bucket list," Kraft-Tharp said. "This is one of the things I want to do."
She was selected as a delegate to support President Biden at the Democratic National Convention (DNC).
Since Biden is no longer a candidate, she is a free agent, which explains the email she received Monday afternoon.
“Dear delegate, I know you have before you an extremely important decision to make for our party in our country,” the email read. "Rubber stamping any one candidate will not serve the party’s ultimate goal of defeating Donald Trump.”
“It's from Marianne. Marianne Williamson,” Kraft-Tharp said.
Williamson is attempting to be nominated as a candidate at the DNC in Chicago next month.
“No, I have not seen that email, but there is zero to no chance that I would consider Marianne Williamson for my delegate vote,” Wanda James, a CU Regent and DNC delegate, said.
James was also selected as a delegate to cast her DNC vote for Biden. She was picked because she attended her local precinct caucus, then went to her county convention and ultimately to the state convention, where she was selected to represent Colorado as a delegate for Biden.
“You go to the first meeting, and you think you’re good, but that gets you into the assembly process,” James said. “It’s not difficult, but it is definitely confusing.”
Those meetings this year happened virtually for the Colorado Democratic Party. They often take place in school classrooms and auditoriums.
When voters selected Biden as Colorado’s Democratic presidential primary winner, they really were telling the Colorado Democratic Party to select delegates who support Biden.
“You're voting for people like me,” Kraft-Tharp said.
“We have a presidential primary that dictates how many delegates are portioned to each candidate,” Shad Murib, Colorado Democratic Party Chairman, said.
Kraft-Tharp and James are among the 72 Colorado Democratic delegates who were picked to choose Biden but will now choose as they please.
“This isn't fantasy football," Murib said. "We have a representative democracy, and so folks are able to trust their peers to help make these decisions."
As party chairman, he said he would not try to demand that all 72 delegates pick the same person.
"No, certainly not going to mandate a united decision,” Murib said.
Kraft-Tharp campaigned to be a DNC delegate like she was running for office. She shared a Facebook message she posted in April asking other people going to the convention for their vote.
“There are people that sent out mailers, like what you do when you're running for State Rep.,” Kraft-Tharp said. “People elected me because, ideally, they believed in me. They believed in my values. They believed in who I am. They trusted my judgment.”
And she will go to the convention picking Harris.
“There's going to be a number of people that are going to put their names up," Kraft-Tharp said. "As a delegate, yeah, I get to make that decision.”
“What’s really important for this conversation is this is a very Democratic process,” James said.
In August 2019, James, along with her husband, Scott Durrah and Lisa Calderon, hosted a fundraiser for Harris when she was running for president. James will also cast her delegate vote for Harris.
“Even being elected as regent, clearly we don’t take every vote that I make as regent, we don’t put that up for a vote of the people to make sure that I am doing exactly what everybody in the district, or the majority of the people in the district, want me to do,” James said.
This process is just like the November election. Colorado voters make their pick for president, but they are really picking electors to cast the state’s electoral college votes for that person.
If the Democratic nominee wins Colorado in November, that means voters are really telling the Colorado Democratic Party to send the 10 electors it chose to cast Colorado’s 10 electoral college votes for the Democratic nominee.
If former president Trump wins Colorado in November, it means voters are really telling the Colorado Republican Party to send the 10 electors it chose to cast Colorado’s 10 electoral college votes for Trump.