OPINION: Democrats, there’s an election coming up that you’ve never heard of

On January 27, Democrats will assemble at Santa Monica College to elect 14 of the 2,900 members of the California Democratic Central Committee representing nearly 8.7 million registered California Democrats.

Interested in joining this group of “in-the-know” electors? Well, all you need to do is show up.

Assembly District 50, stretching from Agoura Hills to Beverly Hills, Bel Air to Brentwood, Hollywood to Mid-Wilshire, Pacific Palisades to Malibu, Santa Monica to Topanga to West Hollywood, has approximately 172,000 registered Democrats. But come Sunday, less than 1% will participate.

Among the forty candidates running this year, only one slate of activists, organizers, and civic leaders is truly representative of our community. Coming from every corner of the district, the members of the Grassroots Slate are an intersectional group dedicated and passionate about affordable housing, LGBTQ equality, a Green New Deal, single-payer healthcare, criminal justice reform, gun violence prevention, comprehensive immigration reform, organized labor, women's rights, tuition-free college, and net neutrality. They are actually doing the work on the ground and in the Party to create real and true change.

Over the next two years, these delegates will be empowered to choose the next Chair of the California Democratic Party and transform the state organization – ensuring that sexual harassment has no place in its leadership. This group will be integral in efforts to retake the US Senate, maintain a majority in the US House of Representatives, and ultimately win back the White House in 2020.

Tomorrow, we can all have a voice in the future of the nation's largest Democratic Party charting a path for the rest of the country.

WHEN: Sunday, January 27, 2017 (10:00am — 1:00pm)

WHERE: Santa Monica College Humanities & Social Science Building (1900 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90405)

Learn more at: https://www.grassrootsslate.com/

Brandon Millan is a startup advisor, teacher, author, and Vice-Chair of the West Hollywood Public Facilities Commission. In 2018, he chaired Stonewall Democratic Club’s 42nd Annual Stoney Awards.

Amanda Smash Hyde is a pansexual West Hollywood small business owner, Chair of the West Hollywood Women’s Advisory Board, Community Vice President of Stonewall Democratic Club, and founder of the West Hollywood Renters Alliance.