Dr. Brian Clardy, Associate Professor in Murray State’s Department of History, served as a delegate representing Kentucky’s First Congressional District at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. This year’s DNC was completely virtual, with a mix of live events and pre-recorded speeches and features.
Clardy was included in a video montage of delegates reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during the second evening of the convention. His recitation was pre-recorded, and Murray community members will recognize Pogue Library in the background of his video.
One of a convention delegate’s duties includes voting for the party’s nominees for president and vice-president, which Clardy was especially excited to do this year. “I first met Joe Biden in Memphis when I was 21 years old,” Clardy said, “and it was an honor to vote for him directly as the nominee of our party. And seeing my mother’s Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sister, Senator Kamala Harris, receive our nomination as Vice President was the thrill of a lifetime.”
Above: Dr. Clardy in front of his “DNC Wall” in his home office, and standing in front of Pogue Library for the Pledge of Allegiance.
Another 2020 convention highlight for Clardy was the camaraderie he experienced during Zoom events with other Kentucky delegates. The Kentucky delegation “held a breakfast meeting during which Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Lt. Governor Jacqueline Coleman, and State Party Chair Ben Self gave remarks,” said Clardy. “On the last night of the Convention, we had a Zoom cocktail hour where we heard speeches by Senate candidate Amy McGrath and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.”
Clardy has long been interested in party conventions. “I had watched Democratic and Republican Conventions since the 1970s, and I ran for a Bill Clinton delegate spot in 1992 in Tennessee and lost,” he said. “But when I went to Philadelphia in 2016, I was like a kid in a candy shop. I got to meet all types of political ‘bigwigs’: Lynn Sweet, who writes for the Chicago Sun Times; political analyst Cornell Belcher; former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley; and Congressman James Clyburn. I even got to meet singer Carole King.”
Attending the 2016 convention was as humbling as it was exciting, Clardy adds. “I felt humbled because the moment I walked onto that convention floor, I took my ancestors with me. I remembered all of my family who had helped me on my journey. I remembered my late political mentor, Dr. Richard Chesteen, whose campaign I worked in when he ran for Governor of Tennessee in 1994. I remembered my ancestors who were denied the right to vote. I remembered my political heroes who had passed on: Mario Cuomo, William F. Buckley, Jr., and Barbara Jordan.”
Clockwise from top: Clardy at the 2016 DNC Convention Hall in Philadelphia, with actor Danny Glover, with South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn, and with Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes.
Clardy says his interest in history and politics goes back to his childhood. “I was a child of the 1970s, and I watched various events unfold like the Watergate Scandal and President Nixon’s resignation. I also was interested in the 1976 Presidential election between President Gerald Ford and former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. The late 1970s and early 80s were a very interesting time as the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union began to deteriorate after the Soviets went into Afghanistan, followed by the Iranian Hostage crisis. That happened when I was in the seventh grade. It was a very exciting time to be a nerdy child.”
Clardy’s family also influenced his love of history. He recalls “listening to my grandparents talk about Franklin Roosevelt, the Great Depression, and the New Deal. My mother once bought me a book when I was eight called The Pop Up Book of the American Revolution; this was around the time of the Bicentennial. And my dad made sure that I had a copy of Alex Haley’s novel, Roots.”
His love of history eventually took him to UT-Martin, where he received an undergraduate degree from the Department of History and Political Science, followed by a Master of Public Administration degree from Murray State in 1991. “The MPA program was tough and demanding, and I had some outstanding professors who challenged me to grow up,” Clardy said. “When I entered the PhD program in historical studies at Southern Illinois, I was well prepared with the historical and political science background necessary to specialize in American Diplomatic History and American Political History.”
Now more than ever, Clardy believes history majors play crucial roles in public governance, and that candidates and office-holders at every level should employ history majors because of the views they bring to the table. “Nations and individuals have to have a historical perspective if they want to make sound public policy decisions,” he said. “A history major gives us the research, analytical, and critical thinking skills to raise the right issues during campaigns, elections, and the process of serving people. If we don’t know where we’ve been, we certainly are clueless about our futures.”
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