Tuesday was going to be a historic day and California Democrats weren’t taking any chances.They didn’t want Hillary Clinton’s moment spoiled. So the early delegates — Clinton supporters — surrounded the microphone to crowd out the boisterous supporters of Bernie Sanders.
On Monday in Philadelphia, the delegation’s Sanders contingent was loud and rowdy and hanging to a small glimmer of hope. Grouped throughout the California section of the arena, some of the loudest delegates had sat directly behind Sen. Barbara Boxer. They disrupted the proceedings all evening and it got to the point that a frustrated Sarah Silverman – comic and ardent Sanders supporter- turned to them and essentially told them to shut up from the stage.
On the second day on the convention, the Clinton supporters in the delegation were more prepared. They made sure that they arrived early to the Wells Fargo Center, filling up the first ten rows. It wasn’t just that they were now pushed up further from the floor, the Bernie supporters also looked tired as the reality of the day began to set in. Tuesday’s roll call, in which Clinton officially became Democrats’ nominee, was the last gasp of the Sanders presidential campaign, although he and his supporters have said their revolution will go on. California delegates and actors Rosario Dawson and Shailene Woodley sat together quietly watching the clock count down.
Sanders delegate Martha Medrano summed up the groups feelings, “So there’s the kid in all of us right? You know, we all believe in magic. But at the end of the day we’re realistic.”
When Sanders finally threw in the towel at the end of the roll call, some Sanders supporters walked out of the arena in protest. Others from California sat in the arena like fans of the Golden State Warriors at the end of game 7 — stunned and a little angry, but mostly just sad. For them it wasn’t a basketball season the ended, it was part of their revolution.
