California is in the spotlight this election season with Vice President Kamala Harris of Oakland, California chosen as the Democratic Party’s nominee.
Rusty Hicks has been the chairperson of the California Democratic Party since 2019 and currently resides in Arcata.
“The California delegation is the largest delegation in the country, with nearly 600 delegates that will travel to Chicago,” Hicks said.
Hicks will also be keeping the rural voice in mind as he heads to the Democratic National Convention.
“As the first chair from a rural part of the state, I feel an outsized responsibility to make sure that the issues of rural California, in many ways rural America, are carried into those important, important spaces,” Hicks said.
But what exactly does the chairperson of a state’s democratic party do?
“The chair of the California Democratic Party is the chief spokesperson for 10 million democrats here in California,” Hicks said. “Ultimately, the chief organizer, the chief cheerleader, helping to mobilize and activate grassroots volunteers and activists to get out and do the hard work to help to elect democrats up and down the ballot.”
Before being a part of Humboldt County, Hicks was the political director and president of the Los Angeles Federation of Labor.
Outside of politics, hicks also is an associate professor teaching at the College of the Redwoods and those incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison.
That aspect of his life related to his father who had been incarcerated when hicks was younger.
“I met him for the first time when I was 11. And 3 or 4 years later, I got the opportunity to go back to that very same prison and attend my father’s ged high school graduation. And some 30 years later, I get the opportunity to step into the same kind of a classroom, and share my work and my experience.”
As for looking toward November, Hicks is reminding new voters that this is time for them to have their voices heard on the ballot.
“Voter turnout is naturally a bit higher, but certainly for those voters that are, you know, younger voters, voters of color, voters in, you know, historically disadvantaged or underinvested communities,” Hicks said. “This is their opportunity to have their voices heard.”
The Democratic National Convention will be held in Chicago from August 19 to August 22.
