Courtesy of Amy Marx

Three New Haveners of different generations arrived as delegates at last week’s Democratic National Convention, bringing varied opinions on the late-stage change in their party’s presidential ticket.

They came home both invigorated by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and drained from four days of nonstop activity at the quadrennial partisan extravaganza.

The Democrats representing Connecticut in Chicago included the convention’s youngest delegate, Jacob Schonberger, who is entering his senior year of high school in New Haven and will turn 18 in October.

“The energy was just so high, it felt more like a party than it did a political event,” Schonberger, the son of Ward 26 Alder Amy Marx, told the News. “It was a little bit insane to be in the room with these figures that have been the face of the Democratic Party as I’ve grown up.”

Days at the convention are long for the nearly 4,700 delegates. The Connecticut delegates met for an early breakfast before attending sessions with constituency groups and elected officials throughout the morning. At night, they packed the United Center to hear speeches from party leaders and others supporting Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Marty Dunleavy, a former alder, returned to Chicago — where he had attended his first Democratic convention as a child in 1968 — for his 14th convention, now as an experienced delegate. Dunleavy, like Schonberger, said he felt exhausted from a schedule that typically lasted from 6 a.m. until past midnight last Monday through Thursday.

“I just slept all weekend,” he added. “I’m energized — energized other than the lack of sleep.”

President Joe Biden won Connecticut’s Democratic primary election in April, largely unopposed except for a campaign promoting the “uncommitted” option as a protest of Biden’s support for Israel in the war in Gaza. “Uncommitted” won 21 percent of the vote in New Haven.

Schonberger, Dunleavy and Democratic Town Committee Vice Chair Audrey Tyson won a contest in May to join the group of eight representing Connecticut’s third congressional district in Chicago. They pledged to vote for Biden’s nomination — but, when Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, the delegates became free to decide whom to support.

“I think he would have won,” Dunleavy said. “I didn’t like the way he was treated in the exit. A lot of people who were close to him over the years, instead of handling things quietly with respect to him, just stabbed him in the back.”

Biden’s pullout also upset Tyson, a part-time social worker who has worked to mobilize voters in Ward 29 for 15 years and was previously a delegate at the 2008 and 2016 conventions. Both veteran Democrats said Biden’s endorsement of Harris played a pivotal role in their decisions to back her.

Schonberger, for his part, had heard doubts about Biden from other young people before he left the race.

“There was a lot of almost depression and fear when it came to a Biden-Trump rematch,” he said. On the convention floor, he recalled, “you could feel this energy of rallying behind this candidate who might not have gotten there in the most conventional way, but was really a signal and sign of hope in a party that I think had really gone through some rough times in the past year.”

All three New Haven delegates voted for Harris and Walz in the virtual voting process that formally nominated the duo in early August. One of Connecticut’s 74 delegates voted “present” to protest Gaza policy.

At the convention, Schonberger said, he saw prominent politicians up close, swarmed by supporters and reporters. Dunleavy observed what he called “the very beginning of jockeying” for potential gubernatorial candidates should Gov. Ned Lamont not seek a third term in 2026. Tyson enjoyed former First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech but disliked the convention’s long lines.

Now, all three are looking to the work that lies ahead before Election Day.

“I want to make sure that we get people out to vote. That’s the big goal,” Tyson said. When she speaks with voters, Tyson said she tends to ask them what new policies they want to see implemented. “And I let them know that this is the person that’s going to definitely make sure that you’re going to get that,” she said, referring to Harris.

Although Connecticut is all but certain to send its seven Electoral College votes to Harris and Walz, the three local delegates told the News that New Haveners can contribute to the national campaign by donating money, traveling to volunteer in battleground states such as Pennsylvania or phone banking from home.

The trio were not the only New Haveners to serve as delegates in Chicago. Representative Rosa DeLauro and state Treasurer Erick Russell were automatic superdelegates by virtue of their positions.