Hastings College student among Democratic delegates

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By DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

Logan Dobbs thought he “didn’t have a shot” when he headed to Fremont.

Dobbs knew he’d be competing with “the movers and the shakers in the Democratic Party” for a limited number of coveted prizes.

But he stood up at the 3rd Congressional District caucus and told state convention delegates why he wanted to go to Denver to cast a vote for Barack Obama.

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Logan Dobbs, a Hastings College student, will travel this summer to the Democratic National Convention as a delegate. (Courtesy photo)

Logan Dobbs, a Hastings College student, will travel this summer to the Democratic National Convention as a delegate. (Courtesy photo)

And how he wanted the opportunity to represent the state that is “raising me to be the man I’m becoming” after moving here from Brooklyn.

When it was over, the list of Nebraska delegates to the Democratic national convention included the names of Sen. Ben Nelson, Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, Lincoln Mayor Chris Beutler, former Lt. Gov. Kim Robak — and Logan Dobbs, a 21-year-old student at Hastings College.

“I had no expectations,” says Dobbs, one of 25 delegates selected at the state party gathering last month.

“I am touched and overwhelmed.”

Dobbs had zero interest in the 2004 presidential election.

“It felt like more of the same. I didn’t feel it had any real effect on me personally.”

In 2006, Dobbs began to take notice of Obama. Sometime last October, he decided “this is the man I want to support” in 2008.

“I think he’s our best hope. He inspires youth and I believe his impact could go far beyond his own presidency. He has this amazing ability to inspire.”

So Dobbs decided to participate in a presidential caucus in Hastings on Feb. 9, the first step on his journey to Denver.

It was Obama’s speech on the night he lost the New Hampshire primary to Hillary Clinton that has most inspired Dobbs.

Even more so, he says, than Obama’s later address in Philadelphia confronting the issue of race.

“In New Hampshire, he spoke to the nation about our hopes and dreams, and how we can have an effect in our towns and our times and in our lives,” Dobbs says.

“Because of him and because of the feeling he is inspiring in the nation, I feel emboldened to step out into the forefront and be active in my community.”

For three years, that community has been Hastings, Neb., rather than Brooklyn, N.Y.

Born in Brooklyn, raised in Michigan, Dobbs went to high school at Brooklyn Tech, where at “almost 6-5” he played basketball against the likes of perennial borough powerhouse Lincoln High School.

On a visit to Nebraska with a friend, he discovered opportunity, he says.

“I’m majoring in media production with an emphasis on broadcast journalism. Coming to Nebraska gives me a lot more opportunity do what I think I’m good at in a smaller setting rather than being a small fish in a big pond.”

Dobbs has played basketball at Hastings and in 2007 helped refound a multicultural fraternity on the campus. He’s engaged in TV reporting and production at the college and works as a radio disc jockey and programming director.

When he graduates, he says, he expects to stay in Nebraska “for at least a few years, recognizing this is a very good place to start out to learn the lessons you need to know.”

If, or when, he leaves, Dobbs says, he anticipates “coming back when I’m ready to settle down.”

Dobbs says he’s most attracted to Obama as a young person rather than as an African American.

But he’s also excited about the opportunity to support an African American for the presidency.

“As young African Americans, we have heard our parents and grandparents speak of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the Kennedys, luminaries who helped us get where we are now.

“They speak of that with reverence and a longing look.”

Now, he says, a younger generation can experience the same emotions with Obama.

Classes at Hastings begin the week Democrats meet in Denver.

Dobbs will speak to his professors and college administrators about missing the first week of school to “make sure they understand I’m doing something important.”

It won’t be a total academic loss, he says. He’ll use the experience to devise a senior thesis.

What he expects to encounter, Dobbs says, is “noisy chaos with a purpose.”

And he can’t wait to dive in.

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.