Democrats Abroad

Democrats Abroad
Basic facts
Location:	Washington, D.C.
Type:	Political party
Affiliation:	Democratic
Top official:	Candice Kerestan, International chair
Year founded:	1964
Website:	Official website

Democrats Abroad is the Democratic political party affiliate for American citizens living outside of the United States. The group functions as a state-level political party within the Democratic National Committee. The organization operates a support office in Washington, D.C.

Background

Democrats Abroad was founded in 1964 in order to support Democratic Party initiatives among overseas Americans. In addition to campaigning for Democratic candidates, Democrats Abroad aims to advocate for absentee voting rights for Americans living outside of the United States. The group's efforts played a part in the passage of The Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act of 1975 and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) of 1986, which removed voting barriers for overseas Americans.

Democrats Abroad maintains eight voting members on the Democratic National Committee. As of July 2016, the organization's membership hails from 196 countries.

Former 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders won 69 percent of the vote during the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary, which was held from March 1 to March 8, 2016.

Platform

The party's 2016 platform was composed of five main issues:

• Issues facing Americans abroad
  "As Americans abroad, we are proud of our citizenship and vigilant in guarding our right to help elect our President and members of Congress. Our right to vote in federal elections is the primary means available to us to participate in the American democratic process. In close elections, our absentee votes from abroad can make, and have made, the difference between Democratic victory and defeat.
• American foreign and defense policy
  "We applaud our President for reopening America to the world and the world to America and celebrate the sharp improvement of the world’s opinion of the U.S. under the leadership of President Barack Obama and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry."
• American domestic issues
  "We applaud the Obama administration’s accomplishments and encourage greater efforts to ensure equality of opportunity through support for public education."
• Civil and human rights
  "About half of the world’s population is female, with issues that transcend nationality, race, ethnicity, economic status and sexual orientation. Democrats Abroad affirms the promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women around the world, including the right to education, healthcare, legal protection and legal standing before the law, physical and psychological safety, reproductive self-determination and equality of opportunity and of remuneration."
• Environment and climate change
  "Democrats demand spirited international cooperation and bold action from our government to achieve mission-critical goals of environmental protection and sustainable development. The economy and the environment should work together in harmony, each strengthening the other. The crisis posed by climate change is an opportunity for America’s ‘can do’ spirit to take hold, and to innovate."

Rules and bylaws

Candidate ballot access
Find detailed information on ballot access requirements in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

See also: Rules of Democrats Abroad

The party is governed by a set of rules and bylaws. Typically, these give structure to the different levels of organization—local, county, and state committees—and establish protocol for electing committee members. The bylaws also typically give details on the party's process for nominating and sending delegates to the national party convention during presidential elections. The following is a summary of the rules for Democrats Abroad. This summary focuses on the structure and governance of the party:

• The Democratic Party Committee Abroad (DPCA) is the governing body of Democrats Abroad and is responsible for party operations.
• The DPCA is composed of the chair, vice chair, country committee voting representatives, elected members of the Democratic National Committee, international chair, international vice chair, international secretary, international treasurer, international counsel, regional vice chairs, and other elected officers.
• Democrats Abroad recognizes country committees as local chapters of the organization. As of July 2016, Democrats Abroad maintains 53 country committees.

Convention

The Democrats Abroad 2016 Global Convention, when the party selected its delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, took place on May 14, 2016, in Berlin, Germany.

Leadership

The following individuals held leadership positions with Democrats Abroad as of July 29, 2024:

• Martha McDevitt-Pugh, International chair
• Steve Nardi, International vice chair
• Daniela Salvioni, International treasurer
• Karen Frankenstein, International secretary
• Anne Brady, International counsel
• Suma Shamanna, Regional vice chair, Asia Pacific
• Jennifer Rakow-Stepper, Regional vice chair, Europe, Middle East, and Africa

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Democrats Abroad. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Democrats Abroad - Google News

See also

• Democratic Party
• Democratic National Committee
• State Democratic parties
• Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 2016

External links

• Democrats Abroad homepage
• Democrats Abroad on Twitter
• Democrats Abroad on Facebook
• Vote from Abroad homepage