Sonoma's delegate on the floor as Clinton accepts Democrats' nomination

North Bay delegates, including Sonoma's Mark Malouf, describe 'electric' atmosphere as Hillary Clinton accepts historic role.|

On a historic Thursday night, Santa Rosa's Chris Snyder was in the audience at the Democratic National Convention as a delegate when Hillary Clinton became the first woman to accept a major party's presidential nomination.

So was Mark Malouf, 20, of Sonoma, but as a Bernie Sanders delegate.

“The scene was absolutely electric,” Snyder, 42, said afterward from his Philadelphia hotel room. “It was very emotional, and I mean, thinking about my daughter, it's just - it was very inspiring.” Snyder has an 8-year-old daughter, Madeleine.

Snyder said he choked up a number of times through the night, but one moment in particular struck him: when Katy Perry performed “Roar.”

“My daughter's played that YouTube video to me a million times, so having them play it, and then having Hillary come in, it was just like -,” he said, trailing off, laughing.

Snyder, assistant political director for Operating Engineers Local 3, and Madeline have talked about Clinton before. She knows about the gender wage gap, and she knows America has never had a woman president.

“It's history,” Synder said. “It's like anybody can do anything now. Women have had the right to vote for 100 years, but we've had 44 male presidents in a row.”

Aside from the speeches, Snyder spent a large portion of his time talking with Bernie Sanders supporters.

In fact, he watched Clinton deliver her acceptance speech Friday night in the midst of a crowd of California “Berners.”

“I think they just need a little time, but they were there, too,” he said. “Probably 95 percent of them are going to be there for Hillary Clinton in November, and we're going to elect the first woman president. This is the most important election of our lives.”

Sonoma's Malouf is studying political science at Santa Rosa Junior College, and was president of the college's chapter of Students for Bernie Sanders.

But instead of hanging out with other Sanders supporters at the convention, Malouf spent his time with Clinton supporters.

“To be very honest, the behavior of the other Bernie delegates spoils the work that I've been doing, that we've been doing,” he said.

But he added that defeating Donald Trump in November is too important to remain part of a divided party.

“I could tell that Hillary really had us Bernie Sanders supporters in her mind during the speech,” he said. “I'm excited to get out and vote for her.”

Malouf spoke of the charged emotions inside the Wells Fargo Center, and said when the balloons fell and the fireworks exploded he got “this deeper feeling.”

“This is a very historically significant moment, not only in my life, but in the history of the United States,” he said. “This is an amazing moment for the history of the United States, and a massive achievement for the feminist movement.”

This was Rachel Binah's eighth Democratic National Convention, and her seventh serving as a superdelegate. The 73-year-old from Little River in Mendocino County went to the DNC unpledged, and only made up her mind Tuesday to vote for Clinton.

She brought two Fort Bragg women along with her to the convention, women she's known since they were girls, one 18, and on her way to college in the fall, and the other 25. They met through the Partnership Scholars Program in Mendocino County, which works with academically motivated but economically disadvantaged students to provide them with experiences they might not otherwise have.

“As a woman who understands and went through the whole feminist revolution, this was a profound moment in history,” Binah said. “And it was astonishing to me that there could be that much dissent about it. She's so qualified, she's so experienced and her ability to relate to the rest of the world is astounding.”

Across the continent, Helen Rudee, 98, the first woman ever elected to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, watched the historic moment unfold from her home in Santa Rosa.

Rudee was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1976.

“It's wonderful, it's wonderful,” Rudee said. “There are other countries that have women leaders at the top, and it's time for us to do it, too. It's absolutely time for us to have a woman president. She knows the United States perhaps better than any other woman who could apply for the job.”

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