Over the summer of 2020, Democratic Party of Orange County leaders, grassroots clubs, and community advocates held months of meetings to update new bylaws that would give clubs that are chartered by the Democratic Party of Orange County a formal seat at the table on endorsements.
Under these changes, clubs are among the first voices to weigh in on endorsements because they have a seat at endorsement interviews with candidates, and can provide recommendations for endorsement. Additionally, clubs have final voting power at Central Committee meetings on those endorsement recommendations.
These reforms were passed in time for clubs to participate in DPOC’s 2020 endorsements, so that clubs could have a direct impact on local candidates’ endorsements. In those same elections, Democrats flipped 20 local seats from red to blue, and for the first time in history, there will be more Democrats on Orange County’s school boards than Republicans or independents.
The bylaws changes were built from more than six months of discussion at the Democratic Party of Orange County’s Council of Clubs — a standing monthly roundtable of leaders from all Clubs chartered by the Democratic Party of Orange County — along with community advisors and Party leaders.