It has been a rollercoaster few weeks, travelling from branch to branch, drumming up bits of support here and there. And there are 3 weeks left to go, during which I still have a lot of votes to make up. But I wanted to pause for a moment, to thank the party sections which have given me their complete backing.
My first nomination, which got me formally in the race, came from the Artane/Beaumont branch in Dublin North-Central. It was great to know that I had another constituency branch on board, and the endorsement of the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr. Paddy Bourke, was central to this. This was then followed by the support of my own Fairview & District branch, and a week later, the nomination and support of Dublin North-Central constituency. Most NEC candidates are supported by large home constituencies – I can’t compete on that basis, as we have quite a tight constituency organisation, with just one councillor, and no TD or Senator to represent the constituency. Nevertheless, I was very pleased to get the support of my home constituency, to give me a base on which to build momentum.
Labour Youth have endorsed myself and Paul Dillon as candidates for the NEC. It’s terrific to see two Labour Youth members in the race for the NEC, and having served as Vice-Chair and Campaigns Officer of Labour Youth for the last two years, I was delighted to be endorsed by that party section.
Finally, Labour LGBT voted unanimously to endorse me for NEC. I’m in my third year as Treasurer of Labour LGBT, so I was delighted to receive such an enthusiastic endorsement from them.
In terms of official endorsements, that’s it so far. There are branches and constituencies where I’m hoping to pick up more votes along the way, but the campaign trail is a long road!!
