Just saw that VAYD has some photos and a live blog from the convention.

Go check it out by clicking here.

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James Carville just gave the keynote address to the NCYDs … as always he was hilarious.

Best joke of the day was his first, a paraphrase here.

"I know you are here celebrating the 80th anniversary of the Young Dems, but the truth is you aren't the oldest … the Young Republicans are older. They had their first convention 84 years ago … John McCain was their first ever keynote speaker."

Awesome. I took video and am trying to get it uploaded now during the lunch.

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I am in Durham, North Carolina right now at their 80th state convention. Yup, you've heard that right their 80th.

YDNC was the first YD chapter in the nation … in fact they pretty much INVENTED the YDs - so you can only imagine how cool it is to be here (for a dorky YD guy like myself).

Attendance at this convention is very good as the YDs in this Dem trending state fight to continue Democratic gains in the state legislature, fight to pick up a US Senate seat for our Party, fight to keep the Governor a Democrat, and fight to give their 15 electoral votes to whoever our nominee is come November.

With the North Carolina primary only a few weeks away - there is a lot of activity at this convention around the various Democratic candidates vying for state, local, and national office (you might have heard there is a dem prez primary still happening) … but the focus is clearly on doing whatever it takes to win in November.

I'll update you all soon with more info and some photos (and maybe video).

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A couple of blog posts and articles have hit my inbox this morning about the CYD state convention that is taking place in San Jose this weekend.

First, Kat Lillibridge, an 18 year old YD has a post up on the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin blog about the convention and how awesome it was to meet other Dems from around the state … and especially our State Executive Director in CA Stacy Berger:

"This is a truly amazing experience. I am walking around the floor of the convention center and every person I meet, I shake hands and exchange business cards, only find out that I am meeting a congressional aid, a campaign manager and even the Executive Director of California Young Democrats; the people who are taking part in the future of this country in a big way. I never imagined that a girl like me from a small town would be so suddenly a part of the political arena and already meeting some of the most powerful party members."
read the full blog post

Next up, Rocky Fernandez the current YDA National Committeeman from California and the Chair of the YDA Campaign Committe has a post up on California Progress Report about the state of the YDs in the Golden State:

"There's never been a better time to be a Young Democrat.

The Presidential Candidates are taking the youth vote seriously and investing resources to talking to young voters about our issues. Due to this and a lot of hard work by the California Young Democrats, the California College Democrats, and the Young Democrats of America, young voter turnout is rising.

In the February primary, youth turnout doubled from the 2000 and 2004 elections. Most of the turnout was for the Democratic candidates. Young Decline-to-State voters picked up Democratic ballots and took their first step towards becoming lifetime Democrats.

[...]

We're making that commitment and intend to make 2008 the "Year of the Young Voter."

Find anything else … post it here! 

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There are state young dem conventions in North Carolina, Washington, and Virginia this weekend.  If you are at one of those conventions, please use this thread to tell us how things are going!

I am currently in North Carolina and will be doing some live blogging and posting a bunch of photos from here in the next few hours.

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