Kentucky Young Dems Put KY Old Dems to Shame

Last year, Kentucky Democrats couldn't manage to oust the most hated repug in America during the biggest national Democratic landslide in 72 years. We couldn't gain a single state senate seat, leaving that chamber in the hands of the most hated repug in the Commonwealth. We couldn't take an open Congressional seat in a district with majority Democratic registration.

This year, one of the candidates for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate is a lying, corporate-cock-sucking homophobe who thinks Kentucky's future lies in magic buggy whips, and the new chair of the state Democratic Party brags about how his hand-picked Democratic state senate candidate is anti-choice.

If the Kentucky Democratic Party were running a small central american nation, it would be executed in a peasant revolution.

Maybe the revolution will be led by the Young Democrats.

CHICAGO - With the fourth largest delegation in attendance, Kentucky's Young Democrats were a powerful force at the 2009 Young Democrats of America National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Delegates were in attendance from Hazard to Henderson, representing ages 16 to 34. With the largest delegation attending a national convention from Kentucky in decades, these delegates were able to help elect a Kentuckian to the position of National Vice-President and Vice-Chair of the Rural Caucus.

Colmon Elridge, III was overwhelmingly elected to the position of Vice-President within the YDA organization. Elridge received the largest number of votes for a vice president, walking away with over 85% of the vote total, with only one state not casting a single vote in his favor.

"I am very grateful to the over 900 delegates to the convention for giving me the opportunity to represent them for the next two years." Elridge said. "It has been a pleasure to serve as President of Fayette County Young Democrats and as National Committeeman for the Kentucky Young Democrats. I stand ready to take the experience I have gained growing these two chapters exponentially over the past few years to the national stage."

Colmon was elected along with the entire YDA Works! slate led by Crystal Strait of California. They will serve until the 2011 National Convention.

Delegate Travis Scott, of Paintsville, was elected to the position of vice-chair of the Rural Caucus. He was unanimously selected, along with the entire slate of candidates headed by Cassie Peters of Kansas. Scott plans to utilize his new position to help bring attention to the challenges facing rural Kentuckians.

"Rural and urban areas have much in common, but the unique struggles facing rural areas from New York to Kentucky to California deserve to be debated and discussed like those of rural areas," Scott told to the caucus. "Growing up in Eastern Kentucky has given me the experience necessary to represent rural Kentuckians in this caucus and bring our issues to the forefront."