As the Democratic National Convention kicks off, the Democratic Party finds itself in controversy as leaked Democratic National Committee emails suggest direct efforts on the part of the DNC to undercut the Sanders campaign.

The leaked emails show specific discussions by DNC leaders to  undermine Sanders’ campaign, for example discussing the idea of publicly questioning his religious beliefs to shake supporters. 

For the supporters of Bernie Sanders, allegations of party intervention are nothing new. Sanders felt that the party was working against him during the primaries and even called for Democratic Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz to resign months ago.

For Lubbock Bernie Sanders supporter Samantha Fields, these emails are egregious.
“You’re just like oh my gosh we need to do something about this, someone needs to make things right, but at the same time primaries are over, we’re going into conventions,” she said. 

Fields was a delegate for Sanders at the Texas State Democratic Convention where she was able to vote on party platform issues and the delegates representing Texas at the Democratic National Convention.

Sanders said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union regarding the emails: “Well I think it’s outrageous, but it’s not a great shock to me. I think… As I said… It’s what we talked about six months ago. I  mean there are no questions in my mind and no questions in any objective observer’s mind that the DNC was supporting Hilary Clinton and was in opposition to our campaign. “

“I’m upset about it as a lot of the Bernie people are, everybody had their suspicions, ” Fields said.

Another Lubbock Bernie Sanders supporter, PJ Trevino, said he also wasn’t surprised by the emails. He said he’s glad the emails have been brought into a national spotlight.

“Because it sheds light on what happens behind closed doors in politics, and I think that going forward, people are going to be more careful in how they choose their candidates and how they run their campaigns,” Trevino said.

Fields is working to put her support behind Hilary Clinton now that Sanders has endorsed Clinton. But Trevino said that he could never vote for either Clinton or Donald Trump.

“I think young people are gonna be leaning more towards a third party like the Green Party because that party is more open to progressive ideas,” he said.

“There might be the two party system but those third parties, they’re catching up quick, and so voter education is what we need to do,” explained Fields. While Fields personally doesn’t want Donald Trump in the White House, her biggest focus for the rest of the election is making sure that the will of the American people in heard– regardless of who they are voting for. 

So she is working with voter registration in Lubbock County and trying to bring more South Plains residents to fill out their ballots.

“I mean voter turnout for either party is awful,” Fields said. “We have all these kids signing up to do it at Lubbock High and where are they when it’s time to  go out to vote? We really need to work out on figuring out where we are losing them.”

She feels now that the primaries are over, it’s up to those who supported Sander’s goals to carry them out, including reforming state and national politics, as well as getting involved with local politics.

“We need to get going on the work, it’s not even just this presidential election, in 2018 we’re gonna be coming up on governor races and senator races and all the down ticket stuff  that is really important for local politics,” she explained. 

Fields reiterated that Lubbock County residents who want to register to vote should head to the County Elections Office at  1308 Crickets Ave.