ABC News calls out Colorado state Rep. Crisanta Duran as one of six Democrats to watch at this year's Democratic National Convention.
Barack Obama's 2004 convention speech famously turned the state senator and U.S. Senate candidate into a viable presidential candidate four years later. Most speakers won't see that kind of boost, but a convention speaking role can serve to raise the national profile of state and local politicians.
Duran has a speaking role on Thursday night. Here's what ABC had to say about her:
The 35-year-old Duran is the first Hispanic woman to serve as a party majority leader in the Colorado legislature, according to the Denver Post. Emily’s List, a Democratic group that supports pro-choice female candidates, awarded her its 2016 Gabrielle Giffords Rising Star Award -- named after the former Arizona congresswoman who survived a shooting in her district in 2011. Along with Gov. John Hickenlooper, she’s one of two Colorado Democrats speaking in Cleveland.
ABC puts Duran in the same company as Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas, whose more well known brother Julian Castro is Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and was vetted as a potential vice presidential pick, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, whose name is often floated as a potential presidential candidate, Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, who is seeking to unseat vulnerable incumbent Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, an early backer of Bernie Sanders and one of only two Muslims in Congress, and Rep. Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts, who is, well, a Kennedy.
Duran is the only person on the list who doesn't already serve in Congress.
