University of Richmond grad and local state delegate (71st District) Jennifer McClennlan has been featured in Newsweek this week as a Superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention.  In addition to video from the convention, the article also contains her first person account.

In 1992, I worked as a volunteer for my first presidential campaign. I was president of the University of Richmond Young Democrats, which was hosting the second presidential debate. Bill Clinton had won the mock election at this traditionally conservative school, which made national news, and, as a result, I was invited to sit with Hillary Clinton at the debate. That night, I not only met Bill and Hillary Clinton, but everyone who was anyone in Virginia Democratic politics. And it was the beginning of my own political career.

Fifteen years later, as the youngest woman and youngest African-American member of the Virginia General Assembly, vice chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, a member of the Democratic National Committee and a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, I found myself courted by a stellar field of presidential candidates. For me, it was a choice between Hillary Clinton, who had opened the door that led to where I was today, while providing a role model for a strong woman politician, and Barack Obama, who was appealing to a new generation of Democrats. It was a difficult choice. But in December 2007, after meeting with both candidates and talking to their campaigns for months, I decided to go with Hillary.

After Obama won the Virginia primary and it became clear that superdelegates could decide the nomination, the pressure was on. For the next three months, I was called, e-mailed and stopped in the grocery store, the mall and out to dinner by people asking me to switch to Obama or stick with Hillary. I even received calls from Bill and Hillary directly. It was the most stressful decision of my life, between the candidate I had admired for years and the candidate who excited me in a way I had never been excited politically before. I felt as if I had to choose between my mother and my brother. And I had to do it with the media asking practically every day what I was going to do.

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