Clarksville native serves as roll call delegate for Tennessee in Democratic National Convention – The Leaf-Chronicle
Keely Sage is a 2017 graduate of Montgomery Central High School, where she first started getting involved in politics. But her interest in politics was sparked years earlier.
“The earliest experience I remember is voting for (Barack) Obama at our elementary school mock presidential elections,” said Sage with a laugh, days after getting to showcase her passion for politics on the national stage as the roll call delegate for Tennessee at this years’ virtual Democratic National Convention.
In a phone interview after the convention’s conclusion, the 21-year old University of Tennessee Knoxville engineering student said it was an amazing experience.
“It was really overwhelming,” said Sage, who serves as at at-large delegate for the Democratic party and is the president of the Tennessee College Democrats, positions she believes are the reason she was selected.
“I got an email asking me if I wanted to do it. At the time, I kind of knew what the roll call was, but not the significance of it,” she said.
Sage said they did a rehearsal the night before the roll call was broadcast live on national television, even filming a back-up clip in case something went wrong. She said thankfully, she decided to memorize her speech despite having a teleprompter.
“I was really nervous beforehand,” she said. “The teleprompter actually got ahead of me and went away, so I had to end up doing the rest from memory. I’m really surprised it ended up turning out well. That definitely could have gone worse.”
Sage’s short speech focused on Tennessee’s pivotal role in the ratification of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote a century ago.
“The theme of it was to honor women’s suffrage, and the movement … with it being in Nashville at The Hermitage, where the original suffragists stayed,” she said.
She said while it was difficult not getting to go to the convention in person to meet the rest of the Tennessee delegation, she did see an advantage to doing the convention virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Looking back on the experience, I actually really ended up enjoying it because I think it really brought the convention experience to every American. It wasn’t really different for anyone. Even for people who were delegates, our experience at the convention wasn’t any different from the regular person who’s interested in politics and was just watching it on TV. I think that was really unique, and allowed us to gather our message and present Joe Biden as an amazing candidate to everyone in the United States,” said Sage. “I think it ended up being really rewarding because of that.”
She admitted she was surprised not all delegates showed the same level of energy.
“I was really surprised that a lot other people didn’t share the same enthusiasm that I have,” laughed Sage, whose roll call vote included cheering and cow bells. “It was a blast. I had so much fun.”
But she wishes she’d been properly introduced to counter the social media backlash.
“The downside is that I wish they would have listed my full title, instead of just college student, because there were a lot of people on Twitter saying who is this party girl, this sorority girl? I’m neither of those. It might have just given it a little more context,” she said with a laugh.
Sage said the convention left a big impression on her.
“Honestly, it made me cry a few times. It was just really empowering to me, especially Joe Biden’s speech … it really just spoke to me,” she said.
“I think it’s really encouraging to hear leadership at the national level … and to restore our national presence and to have respect on the world stage again,” Sage said. “I think that’s going to bring back the America we all love. There’s a lot of pain and suffering going on right now, with the worst economic crisis, the climate crisis, a nationwide reckoning with race … so many people are hurting right now. We need something different.”
She said no matter how people decide to vote, it’s important for them to make their voices heard this election season.
“I just think it’s really important to vote early if you can, and vote like your life depends on it,” she said. “This election affects everyone.”
The engineering major said one day, she hopes to hold a political office herself.
“I do plan to work in (engineering) for a while, but I definitely plan to stay politically active and then run for office at some point,” she said.
In the meantime, she’s happy to have had this convention experience.
“It was the best experience ever,” said Sage.
Reach Jennifer Babich at 931-245-0742 or by email at jbabich@gannett.com.
Published 9:00 AM EDT Aug 22, 2020
