State party organizer to speak at Democratic luncheon
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Sun, 01/08/2023 - 12:14am
Event Date:
January 9, 2023 - 1:00pm The speaker at Monday's Democratic luncheon will be Devan Doan, Rural Engagement Coordinator for the Nevada State Democratic Party (NSDP). His presentation will lay out plans in the works for the upcoming legislative session, and ways in which Carson City's Democrats may be able to assist with those efforts.
Having taken an interest in progressive advocacy from an early age, in 2012 Devan helped organize a successful effort to pass a Colorado ballot initiative to eliminate dark money from political campaigns. Most of his subsequent career has been spent working to secure incentive funding for large scale commercial utility projects of companies like SolarCity, Tesla, NVEnergy and Sunrun.
Devan has lived in Nevada since the age of 4, spending much of his time enjoying the state's rural areas riding ATVs with his grandfather when he wasn't at home building computers. In 2014 he completed a degree in Political Science and Government at the University of Nevada-Reno.
Having fallen in love with Northern Nevada during his university years, Devan stayed on the lookout for a reason to return. The opening of the position of Rural Engagement Coordinator with the state Democratic Party during the 2020 election provided the impetus for his move back north. He reports directly to Matthew Fonken, the Nevada State Democratic Party's Executive Director.
Devan's job with the NSDP is to help organize Northern Nevada's Democrats, with special focus on the rural counties. The goal is to build up the state party's organizational capacity in a way that will allow it to operate in areas that have previously seen very little activity on the Democratic side.
The aim of these efforts is to continue to engage rural Democrats into the 2024 election cycle, so that electoral operations are in place well before the cycle begins, allowing campaigns to elect Democrats throughout the state to hit the ground running.
Devan believes the potential power of Nevada's rural voters has been a Democratic blind spot for too long, and all it will take to realize that potential is a coordinated outreach effort to Democratic voters, educating them on how they can empower people in their communities to find their voice.
For now Devan is focused on engaging Democrats for the upcoming 82nd session of the state legislature, helping them make their voices heard by organizing roundtables, town halls, and other events to discuss what issues the party of the people should focus on. Volunteers will be trained to lobby the legislature as citizens on the targeted issues, working closely with advocacy groups to help make these efforts a success.
Sponsored by the Democratic Men's Committee, this event is scheduled for 1:00 PM on Monday, January 9th, and can be attended either in person at Black Bear Diner, inside Max Casino, or online via Zoom. Doan's presentation will begin after all the lunch orders have been taken, around 1:30. Those wishing to be on distribution for luncheon Zoom links should contact Rich Dunn at richdunn@aol.com.
- Carson City
- 82nd session
- Announcements
- Black Bear Diner
- Colorado
- dark money
- Democratic luncheon
- Democratic Men's Committee
- Devan Doan
- Initiative
- January 2nd
- Matthew Fonken
- Max Casino
- Men's Committee
- Monday
- Nevada State Democratic Party
- NSDP
- NVEnergy
- political science
- Rich Dunn
- Rural Engagement Coordinator
- SolarCity
- State Legislature
- Sunrun
- Tesla
- University of Nevada-Reno
- UNR
- Zoom
