Farmington had a full contingent present that carpooled to the NH Dems convention! The group left early and found parking fairly easily. Check in was a long wait, but went smoothly for the most part for everyone in the Farmington group.

This convention was a seven hour, sabre rattling extravaganza, with little substance beyond the in your face spectacle of it all.

Many, many candidates, groups, and organizations had booths set up on two floors. It felt like those on the top tier were a little forgotten. Take a look at the convention center layout photo below to see who was there. We also took many photos of the vendors, so check out the link to the Fbook album for the convention to see those.
 
Once the convention officially opened candidates and professional Party pundits talk and talked and talked and talked. Each candidate had the same ten minutes, but with so many candidates it was laboring, especially toward the end. Candidates spoke in alphabetical order. Every candidate was supported, but Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren obviously had the warmest, most rousing receptions when they entered the convention arena.

All the speeches are a poor use of time and energy, from my perspective, unlike convention business years where delegates actually get to conduct some business and the state party holds an entire afternoon of varied workshops, after a sit down lunch. At those conventions delegates and attendees alike get to work on building something better and the constituency caucuses, listed below, have full meetings to discuss issues at hand. Business years tend to be smaller and not as many people attend them, but in the end you feel connected to a bigger purpose.


Business years also seem much less wasteful and more laid back. The waste from plastic noisemakers alone, by a single candidate, were enough to make my skin crawl. At least they did not drop balloons! For a party of "eco conscious people" very little thought or reflection goes into reducing waste for large conventions and that is a shame, since there isn't a planet B and we are just borrowing time, energy, and resources our children and grandchildren will desperately need in the future.

Most people at the convention seemed to have chosen a candidate to support at the primary and many people enjoyed seeing their chosen candidate and were thrilled to get to hear them again. I saw several people online talk about having not heard a candidate before and being impressed by their speech.

Take a look at the full list of speakers, to the left, from the convention booklet. There is video of the convention speakers; it is almost seven hours long. View it embedded below.

We hope you enjoy the convention video and the photos we took while there. See you next year!

Kyle Leach, former Farmington Dem Town Chair, former SCDC at large member, and Farmington NH delegate