Young democrats across the Tar Heel state will be migrating to Chapel Hill for their annual convention this year.

The teen, college, and young democrats announced, earlier this week, they would hold their 2015 convention in Chapel Hill.

Chapel Hill Town Council Member Lee Storrow says this event is an opportunity to lay a path for the Democratic Party’s movement going forward.

“It’s a great opportunity to bring folks together from across the state,” he says, “to think strategically, plan, and network about the work that needs to be done to move our state forward.”

Storrow represents the Town of Chapel Hill on the Board of the Orange County Visitor’s Bureau, and he says the convention will afford the town an opportunity to prove it has the resources and capability to host an event this size.

“I’m really excited, as a community, about the work that the visitor’s bureau is doing,” he says. “Tourism is a clean form of economic development: people come to the community, spend a lot of money, and then they leave.”

Storrow says he expects the meeting to bring a couple of hundred visitors to Chapel Hill – adding if the town successfully houses this convention, it will be very helpful in recruiting another mid-size event in the years to come.

He says the convention will serve as a chance for democrats to define the message they want to send voters, especially in light of the 2014 elections that saw many democrats lose to their conservative counterparts across the state and nation.

Storrow was quick to point out that, as elections nationally didn’t go the democrat’s way, many local elections did fall in their favor, including races for Wake County Commissioner.
While taking full control of the County Commissioner positions in Orange, Durham, and Wake Counties, democrats still struggled to hit the mark with their message in rural North Carolina. Storrow says this is an area where his fellow democrats need to improve.

“The Democratic Party has always stood for public investment: an investment in working families, investment in education, investment in a transportation system that can bring people closer together,” he says.

“I think that’s a message that’s relevant across the state.”

The young democrat’s convention will be held March 27 through 29 and will be based out of the Sheraton Chapel Hill on Europa Drive.

A full schedule of events for the convention and registration is available on the convention’s website.

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