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Delegates get creative in raising cash to attend DNC


PHILADELPHIA — A second job. Selling tamales. Designing and marketing a deck of "woman cards."

The path to the Democratic National Convention took some creative turns for delegates facing expensive hotel rooms and travel costs. In a sign of the times, GoFundMe and other online fundraising sites also played a big role.

Iowa delegate Zach Wahls, 25, of Iowa City, has not only paid for his trip to Philadelphia but made a dent in the cost of going to grad school at Princeton with “The Woman Cards.” He created the deck of playing cards, each featuring a famous woman, with his younger sister, Zebby.

“Back in late April, Donald Trump accused Hillary Clinton of playing the woman card,” Zach Wahls said. “My little sister and I wanted to figure out a way to take that negative comment and make it a positive.”

The two created an online fundraiser via Kickstarter, hoping to raise $5,000 to make a couple of decks. Zebby Wahls created all the original artwork, including portraits of Clinton on the ace and Ellen DeGeneres on one of the jokers. To date, they have raised just over $150,000.

Zach Wahls is selling the decks out of his backpack during the convention. People can also order them atthewomancards.com. “It feels really good to have created something with my sister that has turned out positive,” he said.

Here’s something Wahls' fellow Iowa’s delegation didn’t think about when they began this journey way back on caucus night: $600-a-night hotel rooms.

Iowa’s 51 delegates, six committee members, four alternates, two pages and sundry hangers-on are staying at the downtown Marriott hotel in the center of Philadelphia, just a few miles from the arena where Hillary Clinton will accept the party's presidential nomination Thursday night.

That’s marquee real-estate and poses big logistical advantages over other locations. But the cost — ranging, according to one delegate, between $569 and $629 per night for five nights — has put a strain on many delegates.

At least two dozen members of the Iowa delegation set up accounts with the online personal fundraising service GoFundMe to seek donations to subsidize their trips. One prominent Iowan is hopping mad at the Democratic National Committee.

“That’s just criminal,” former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin said. “I can afford it, but how about some of these other people that are just delegates from Iowa — how the hell do they afford something like that?”

Well, many are turning to friends and neighbors.

Cindy Pollard, a delegate from Newton, said the hotel was by far the biggest burden on making the trip, but said it’s been offset by an outpouring of donations through GoFundMe and other sources. Jasper County Democrats sent her off last Thursday with a party and a $1,000 check. Altogether she raised $4,000, and expects to spend about $3,000 of it on the Marriott.

Minnesota delegate Liz De La Torre has tamales to thank for getting her to the convention.

The 30-year-old Hillary Clinton delegate from St. Paul didn’t have much time to raise money after she survived the competitive process of being chosen for her first national convention — and her first trip to the East Coast. De La Torre thought about how well her tamales went over when she brought them to potluck dinners.

“Mexican restaurants sell them, but they never taste as good as my grandma’s,” she said.

Fortunately, De La Torre’s grandmother and great aunt visited from Mexico for a family event around the Fourth of July and she enlisted their help, along with her mother’s and sister’s.

They made and sold about 800 tamales in four days, enough to meet her $2,000 fundraising goal.

Rachelle Norberg wanted to go to the Democratic National Convention because she’s always looked up to Hillary Clinton.

“She was the first female political activist I was able to see growing up,” said the 23-year-old from Burke, S.D. “It just felt like something I had to do.”

Norberg, already working for a local attorney this summer after her first year of law school, took a second job bartending and set up a GoFundMe page.

Although South Dakota isn’t exactly Clinton territory, Norberg made her fundraising goal.

“South Dakota is a pretty conservative state. I’ve definitely had some people say that they’re not interested in Secretary Clinton,” Norberg said. “But I don’t think that had any effect on me being able to afford to come. My regulars are very good to me and want to see me succeed.”

Family and friends also helped Kit Andrews, an alternate Bernie Sanders delegate from Burlington, Vt., raise $900 to ride the delegation bus to Philadelphia and to cover her hotel stay. "I did it the old-fashioned way by calling and emailing friends and family," Andrews said. She gathered $1,050 in pledges.

Elizabeth Maratea, 31, a first time delegate, from Clementon, N.J., also backs Bernie Sanders. The stay-at-home mom raised $3,000 via GoFundMe and social media with donations ranging from $5 to $785. New Jersey’s delegation hotel in Tinicum, Pa., is $469 a night for five nights.

“It’s insane,” said Maratea, as she smuggled out a bagel and muffin from the delegation breakfast for her daughter and husband. “It’s just another way from keeping us from having a voice.

“They need to make this more accessible for everyone, basically the people who had no problem getting here were the wealthier side of the delegation.

"Some people didn’t make it here, that’s votes for Bernie that’s aren't going to happen because they don't have the money, they can’t afford to be here to speak their voice.”

Nineteen-year-old De’Vante Montgomery doesn't come from a wealthy family either. Any money he earns at his job at P.F. Chang’s helps pay tuition at Ohio's Miami University, where he is a sophomore studying political science with an eye on law school.

But when the Kenwood, Ohio, teen was chosen as an at-large delegate for the swing state that will be crucial to Clinton, he used GoFundMe to raise $3,190.

He thinks the cash will be enough to get him through the week, but he's being frugal. He made the 10-hour drive with Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach, he's sharing a $425-a-night room with two other Ohio delegates and on day one he ate enough of the provided buffet breakfast to last through the day. And, with a smile, he added he might pluck a banana from the buffet for later.

De La Torre, the tamale maker, is also stretching her cash, bunking with two others — another Clinton delegate and a Sanders delegate.

“We all are coming from the same place,” she said. “We want to engage these new people who are coming into this process. How do we meet each other half way? That’s what we’re all trying to figure out.”

Contributing: April Burbank, Burlington Free Press; Karen Yi, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press; Sharon Coolidge, The Cincinnati Enquirer; Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, The Arizona Republic; Kathie Obradovich, The Des Moines Register; and Maureen Groppe and Shannon Green, Paste BN. Jason Noble writes for the The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter: @jasonnobleDNR