No Access To Milwaukee 2020 DNC? No Problem For Nevada Delegate

MILWAUKEE, WI — Try as he might, there was simply no way Forrest Darby was going to find his way into the Wisconsin Center for the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Darby is one of Nevada's three alternate delegates to the 2020 DNC, and he spent about a half-hour Monday pressing one of the DNC's information specialists on how he could get in.

"I asked her, 'What are the chances that you will sometime later in the week let someone in?' and she said zero," Darby told Patch. "They're not going to change their mind."

For Darby, buying his plane ticket and making a reservation at a local bed-and-breakfast in advance was a calculated risk: he could commit to attending the convention, but there might not be anything left for him to do in Milwaukee by the time he finally arrived.

During a normal convention, an alternate delegate such as Darby would attend the convention but would not vote unless a pledged delegate was unable to attend. In June, convention organizers told state delegates to stay home due to the coronavirus pandemic. With an all-virtual convention, Darby said it's doubtful he's going to get the phone call that would promote him to full delegate.

And yet, Darby's trip had a silver lining.

The Bucket List

On Monday morning, Darby stood outside the Enterprise Rent-a-Car lining up a rental, so he could crisscross the Metro Milwaukee area for four carefree — and uninhibited — days.

"Even when Biden bailed out, I thought, 'OK, they are going to have something going on, I already have my plane reservation and I have my place to stay. Even if they don't have it'll be a fun time to see a city I've never been,'" he told Patch.

A drive up and down the Lake Michigan's shore is in order, and so is an Edelweiss river cruise down the Milwaukee River.

'For Whom The Bell Tolls'

Darby fashions himself as an avid political thinker and one who has studied Wisconsin's 2020 election cycle from afar.

When conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Daniel Kelly was defeated by liberal justice Jill Karofsky in April, Darby took special notice of the outcome.

"This was the first indicator this year of how strong Trump's hold was in Wisconsin," Darby told Patch. "He did everything humanly possible to have his incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court justice win."

Karofsky defeated Kelly by a margin of 55.3 percent to 44.7 percent — Darby says the margin of Karofsky's victory was a surprise, and possibly a harbinger of things to come.

"She ended up beating him by close to 10 percent. No one saw that coming. The most optimistic Democratic analyst had it at 2-3 percent," Darby told Patch. "To me, when it hit on 10 percent, that was Trump's 'for whom the bell tolls' moment. In that election, Wisconsin was telling Trump, 'this is what is going to happen to you.'"

Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated Darby was from Arizona. Patch regrets the error.