Meet 5 Democratic Delegates Headed to Philadelphia

There are still some Sanders supporters in the bunch.

ByABC News
July 24, 2016, 8:01 AM

— -- Clinton the dog can’t vote, but his owner, Donna West, will do that and more as a Philadelphia-bound Democratic Party delegate hoping to make history at this week's political convention.

While super delegates are made up of influential members of the party, including government officials, there are thousands of less-famous names who make up the rest of the delegate pool.

Here are five are those who are headed to Philadelphia for the four-day convention starting tomorrow:

Donna West, a Grandmother With a Dog Named Clinton

PHOTO: Donna West is seen here with Hillary Clinton.
Donna West is seen here with Hillary Clinton.

Politics can be a dog-eat-dog world for some, but Nevadan Donna West has always connected the two in a positive way.

West, 59, is an active Twitter user who tweeted from the handle “DogLovers4Hillary” throughout this election cycle. But she first came up with the idea during the last presidential election. Right after then-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney was criticized for transporting his family’s pet dog in a crate on their car roof, she created the Twitter account “DogLovers4Obama.”

That later morphed into “DogLovers4Dems” after Obama was elected to the White House and then to Clinton when it became clear she would run, West told ABC.

“Now it’s for Hillary,” she said. “I will be for the next eight years, I hope.”

PHOTO: Donna West is seen here with her dog Clinton.
Donna West is seen here with her dog Clinton.

In real life, politics and pups have another connection for West. She and her husband now have three rescue dogs, one of whom she adopted after he started following a volunteer around as that person canvassed a few months ago.

After checking for owners or a microchip, West ended up giving the border terrier a “forever home,” and a new name: Clinton.

“What else are you going to call him. He was found canvassing for Clinton?” she said with a laugh.

West met the real Clinton in question twice during this campaign, and while she has been a Clinton fan since the former secretary of state initially ran in 2008, she feels a stronger connection to her now that they are both grandmothers.

“I said, ‘We grandmas have to stick together,’” West said she told Clinton at an event in Nevada earlier this year. “She pulled me back into a hug and she said, ‘Yes we do.’”

Hawah Ahmad, a Young Democrat for Bernie

PHOTO: Hawah Safa Ahmad is seen here.
Hawah Safa Ahmad is seen here.

Sanders appealed to many young Democrats and Hawah Ahmad was one of them.

Though she graduated from college in 2015, Ahmad has been actively involved in politics for several years, and the Reno native served as the president of the Nevada state chapter of Young Democrats.

She was barred from outwardly supporting a candidate prior to the state caucuses, but she subsequently was appointed a pledged party delegate for Sanders, to her great excitement.

“It was one of those things that I was already leaning towards Bernie,” she told ABC News.

“We saw this really big rise of young people who would have never participated in the caucus. ... It was something that at that moment my faith in Bernie Sanders increased because he was actually able to have a conversation about what the future is going to be,” Ahmad said.

PHOTO: Hawah Safa Ahmad is seen here.
Hawah Safa Ahmad is seen here.

For 23-year-old Ahmad, her family’s Muslim identity is a big part of that future.

“This election is a turning point with how I will be able to raise my children, whether they'll be able to be proud of who they are and where their culture is from and what their religion is,” she said.

Ahmad is the only Muslim member of the Nevada state delegation, and is excited about attending her first convention later this month, but is mentally preparing for what could happen.

“I’m going to be very close to my delegation the whole time,” she said. “I’m not going to put myself in a situation where I’m by myself.

“I was joking around about bringing a gas mask just for the sake of [it]. You don’t know how much like 1968 it will be.”

Rene Saenz, a HS Government Teacher With a Fondness for the Clinton Legacy

Rene Saenz, center, is seen here.
Rene Saenz, center, is seen here.

Though he teaches government and political science now at a high school in Corpus Christi, Texas, presidential politics has seemed much more personal to Rene Saenz for quite some time.

His first national vote came when he was 19 and Bill Clinton was making his first bid for the White House.

“During those eight years, I graduated from college, got married, had kids and bought a home so by the time he exited [the White House] … it [had been] a big change time for me,” Saenz told ABC.

His affinity for the Clintons extended to Hillary during that same time period because he was able to enroll some of his then-young children in the Children’s Health Insurance Program that was part of so-called Hillarycare, the health insurance initiative that she headed up during her husband’s administration.

Rene Saenz, far left, is seen here.
Rene Saenz, far left, is seen here.

Saenz, 43, said “to see her involvement through time” is part of the reason that he is a supporter of Clinton now.

Also, he believes that the prospect of a President Trump will help drive Hispanic voters to the polls in higher numbers than previous elections.

“He’s going to do enough for voter turnout that we could not do for ourselves,” Saenz said, specifically referencing Trump’s attacks on the credibility of a U.S. judge of Mexican descent.

Freddy and Artie Blanco, a Father-Daughter Delegate Duo

PHOTO: Freddy Blanco and Artie Blanco are seen here.
Freddy Blanco and Artie Blanco are seen here.

Artie Blanco has been following in her father’s footsteps with her interest in politics, but she now seems to have caught up with him.

Artie Blanco, 42, is headed to Philadelphia as a Clinton delegate from Nevada while her father, Freddy Blanco, 64, is going to be casting his Clinton vote from the Texas delegation.

Freddy Blanco said he first came to the United States in 1968 as an undocumented Mexican immigrant but became a resident and then a citizen nearly two decades later. Since then, he hasn’t missed one opportunity to vote.

“For me, it’s the only equal right we have in the United States. This is available for everyone to participate,” he told ABC News.

PHOTO: Artie Blanco, left, and Freddy Blanco, center are seen here in this undated file photo.
Artie Blanco, left, and Freddy Blanco, center are seen here in this undated file photo.

He passed that sense of civic duty on to daughter Artie, who “started working in politics when I was young because of my father,” she said.

From her high school work with the local congressman, Artie Blanco went on to work in and out of Washington, D.C., with stints at Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, among others.

She now works for the AFL-CIO.

“Honestly, for me, it’s actually really cool to share this because I know this is something that my dad has always wanted to do,” she said.

“For me, it brings it full circle. I wouldn’t be in politics if it wasn’t for him.”

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