How Two Democrats Jumped Into Politics and Ended Up as Delegates

Ten years ago, Janet Diaz and Tameko Patterson were not particularly engaged in politics. This week, they are rooming together in Chicago as delegates to the Democratic National Convention: some of the most powerful yet little-known people in the party.

Both started dipping their toes into the waters of local politics in Pennsylvania around 2015, about 100 miles from each other and far from the battlefields of national politics.

Ms. Patterson’s journey began with the closing of an elementary school in Stroudsburg, Pa., where she was raising her two children. District officials, she recalled, said the school didn’t have enough enrollment and transferred its students to the district’s other schools, increasing class sizes. A couple of years after that, local teachers went on strike.

“I said, ‘OK, enough is enough — I need to find out why they’re making these decisions.’ So I ran for school board,” Ms. Patterson said. She won, in 2017 becoming the first person of color elected to the Stroudsburg school board.

“Little did I know when I was complaining about a school being closed that I would end up in the position that I’m in now,” she said.

Right around the time that the school closing was pushing Ms. Patterson into politics, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign was doing the same for Ms. Diaz. Excited by the prospect of electing the first woman as president, Ms. Diaz started making phone calls and knocking on doors for the campaign.