Clarissa Cooper

ccooper@newsleader.com

When Staunton native Barbara Lee was 15 years old, she got on a bus, went to Washington and marched with Martin Luther King Jr.

On August 28, 2008, 45 years to the day after she saw King speak, Lee was at the Democratic National Convention in Denver and watched President Barack Obama’s candidate acceptance speech. Now, she is campaigning to try to get the first woman president in the White House.

A proud political activist who hosts birthday parties for the president and once met Bill Clinton, Lee has been an admirer of Hillary Clinton’s since the 2008 campaign race.

“I’m just so excited,” Lee said. “Come on November!”

Lee, along with fellow Staunton resident Phyllis Duncan, is a driving force in local Clinton campaigning. Both women said they prefer to stay out of the political limelight, taking on duties such as organizing phone banks, preparing talking points and hosting parties to support candidates.

“I’ve been following politics since I was probably 10 years old and she is by far the most qualified candidate, male or female, that I have seen in those 50 years,” Duncan said. She has been a supporter of Clinton since Bill Clinton’s campaign, when she admired Clinton’s willingness to be outspoken.

“From the moment she announced she was going to run, I’ve been there,” Duncan said.

After the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 25-28, local campaigning will gain more momentum. In 2008, Staunton had a storefront for Obama where volunteers distributed signs, bumper stickers and other materials. Lee said they won’t know if Staunton or anywhere in the area will get a Clinton storefront until after the convention.

In the meantime, Lee has already hosted two phone banks and will host another one on Monday evening. Lee and other supporters call people in the area and ask a simple question- are you for Hillary Clinton?

She said she has also been on a conference call with celebrities such as Kerry Washington and Viola Davis to discuss strategies for the Clinton campaign with the group Black Women for Hillary.

“This is exciting to see the first woman get into the White House,” Lee said. “We need to learn that we can do just as good of a job as a man can do, or even better. When women make up their minds to do something, it gets done.”

Duncan said if Clinton makes it into the White House, she will be setting an example for young women throughout the country.

“If she’s elected president, that’s a revolutionary event in and of itself,” Duncan said.

Duncan was a Clinton delegate to the Sixth District Democratic Convention earlier this year, and Lee was given the Martin Luther King Jr. award from Mary Baldwin College for her continued activism and community involvement.

As election time closes in, Duncan, Lee and other Clinton supporters will increase their campaigning efforts and community outreach.

“I think she’s going to pull it off in this area, I really do, because I’m going to make sure she does,” Lee said.

As mothers and grandmothers, Lee and Duncan said electing Clinton as president is the best way to ensure a successful future for their children.

“It’s not about me, it’s about the future of our children,” Lee said.

Duncan said she wants her granddaughter to grow up knowing she could accomplish any job, even becoming president.

Describing Staunton as “a diverse and open-minded drop of blue in a sea of red”, Duncan couldn’t campaign for Clinton in 2008 because she was a federal employee working for the Federal Aviation Administration. Now that she has retired, Duncan is pouring her time and energy into the Clinton campaign.

“I was team Hillary in 2008,” Duncan said. “We’ve had 44 presidents who were men and it’s time we had a woman president.”

For Duncan and Lee, campaigning for causes they believe in such as healthcare, voting rights and the well-being of children is a passion that impacts their entire lives.



“My work is never done,” Lee said of her campaigning. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I am not giving up.”