Jan Roller

On Wednesday night at the Convention, there was some time to kill after the Roll Call Vote and before Bill Clinton’s big speech. I wandered over to the Ohio delegation and found an old family friend.

Jan Roller is delegate from Cleveland and one of Ohio’s leading Democratic Women. She seemed like perfect person for an interview about what’s happening in Ohio. As we all know, they’re a battleground state. Ohio also has some striking similarities to North Carolina. Ohio has three major metropolitan areas and lots of rural land. For the most part statewide democratic victories rely on strong turnout from a relatively small number of the state’s 88 counties, especially those with a heavy African-American population. Sound familiar?

Jan told me about what’s happening in Ohio to organize a democratic victory, how Democratic women are organizing, how work is being done across urban-suburban-rural divides , and why she hopes an Obama presidency will positively impact American race relations.

Jan asked me about the role that race is playing in the election in North Carolina, what I enjoyed about the convention, and how tough the race is going to be in North Carolina.

Here’s part 1: