Amanda Jo Greep and Hope Zawaski of Homewood are hoping they get the chance to be at the Democratic National Convention in July as delegates for presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.
They are excited that their names are on the Democratic ballot for the March 17 primary election as two of seven Warren delegates from the 2nd Congressional District.
They have been volunteers for Warren since July 2019. As they took on more work, they became regional volunteer organizers to the Warren campaign. And when the campaign put out a call for delegates, they jumped at the chance.
“That’s important to us because Congressional District 2 and the Southland often get forgotten,” Zawaski said.
Each presidential candidate has a slate of delegate candidates on the ballot. Voters will get to vote for seven delegates.
Giving volunteer hours to the Warren campaign comes in addition to Greep and Zawaski working full time, and meeting the needs of their families, “so we thought if we took on Homewood and Flossmoor together that would be affective, so that we weren’t running by a thread. Together it’s a nice team,” Greep explained.
Over the months, the women have held informational sessions in the Homewood-Flossmoor area. They liken them to book clubs, and said the meetings gave them a chance to sit with others and analyze Warren’s positions.
“There’s so much to love about her,” Greep said, pointing to Warren’s work in developing plans for major issues facing the country. Greep finds Warren “incredibly capable with a solid track record and plans to get things done.”
“I also think she has the right temperament for all the difficult, difficult diplomatic work, both domestically and internationally, that we’re going to need after the Trump administration ends,” Greep stressed.
Zawaski said, “One of the things that attracted me, (Warren) matches my values in every single sense of it. The other political party touts family values, but her values match my family values. I see that through every single plan she’s put out.
“She’s warm, she’s caring, she’s genuine, has integrity, but every single one of her strategies lies where my values lie,” she added.
This is the third national campaign Greep have volunteered in. She worked for Barack Obama’s 2008 race, and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 race.
As a child, Zawaski went canvassing with her mother who worked local elections in Darien. Her parents never ran for office, but she remembers they always helped in campaigns.
“Now my daughter’s canvassing with me,” she said. “I want to make certain I did everything I could (this election) to make change.”
“It was an exciting thing to see my name on the nominating petitions, and then on a ballot. In other states (delegates) aren’t an elected position,” Zawaski explained.
She tells voters, “I’d love for you to vote for me, but what I’d also love more is a capable president in office, so please vote for Elizabeth Warren, and if I get to go to the convention and be a part of that history, so be it, but more than anything I want a capable president in office and I would love for it to be my candidate.”
Flossmoor’s Reggie Greenwood will also be on the ballot as an Andrew Yang delegate, although Yang dropped out as a presidential candidate after the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 11.