Jennifer Rakow-Stepper - Candidate for Chair (incumbent)

Jennifer, a longtime DAA member, served as the organizer for DAA’s 2016 Rockin’ the Vote fundraiser concert and as DAA contact for the first Women’s March on Washington/Vienna. Since becoming DAA Chair in 2017 she has worked to activate and strengthen DA Austria’s caucuses; instigated and organized the DAATalks lecture series that’s hosted Timothy Snyder, Melissa Fleming, and others; represented DAA in the press including interviews on FM4 and Falter Podcast; organized multiple demonstrations; recruited and trained registration volunteers and phone-bankers; revised DAA bylaws to better reflect our organization; and represented Austria at regional and international DA meetings.

Jennifer is proud that under her leadership, DAA ranked as one of the top five DA country committees in phone banking and membership outreach during the 2018 elections. She hopes to continue the work of activating DAA members while finding and registering U.S. voters in Austria and electing Democrats in the 2020 elections. She’s passionate about women’s rights, fair election processes, and the necessity for citizen action. Jennifer lives in Vienna and votes in California.

Keith Jacomine - Candidate for Vice-Chair (incumbent)

Keith M Jacomine is currently vice chairman of Democrats Abroad Austria and is running for a second term. Prior to serving as vice chair, he served for four years as chairman.

Keith is a native New Orleanian who has had the good fortune to have lived in several cities across the US and Europe. He spent his professional career primarily in financial services.

Keith has actively campaigned for numerous Democratic candidates in his hometown and counts several local Louisiana Democratic politicians in his family. In 2008, he was a volunteer for the Obama campaign in New York and he continued that work from Vienna in 2012. If elected to a second term, he pledges to continue his efforts to register overseas Americans, work to get Democratic candidates elected and built camaraderie within the American community in Austria.

Brett Carnito - Candidate for Secretary (incumbent)

Brett moved to Vienna from the USA as a 25-year-old in 1998 and never found the will to leave. While he always voted and maintained a passive interest in politics, it took the election of 2016 to push him to look for a way to contribute more actively. Volunteering with DA Global IT was a start, and in 2017 Brett was appointed to the office of secretary after the departure of the previous officeholder - a role that he looks forward to continuing for another term. Outside of DAA Brett works as an IT consultant, practices taiji and aikido, and maintains a busy travel schedule.

Marcy Fowler - Candidate for Treasurer (incumbent) and DCPA Voting Representative

Marcy has been active with DA-AT since 2017, serving as Treasurer, head of the IT Transition Committee, and IT Coordinator. Marcy was active in phone banking and in-person voter registration as part of the 2018 get out the vote effort. She has also assisted in the planning and running of several DA-AT events, and participated in the 2018 bylaws review.

Marcy’s education and experience have focused on nuclear non-proliferation and political, security, and technical research and analysis. She also has experience in web development and design, project management, internet marketing, bookkeeping, and financial reporting.

Bruce Murray - Candidate for Counsel (incumbent) and DCPA Voting Representative

Bruce Murray is a semi-retired university professor who has been an active DA-AT member for over a decade. Bruce currently serves as DA-AT Counsel. He is a founding member of the DA Progressive Caucus and regular participant in our Solidarity Sunday events. (Some of you may also have heard about his Midwest Midterm Progressive Bikeathon to get out the vote in 2018.)

Bruce would be honored to represent DA-AT as DPCA Voting Representative, contributing to the impressive DPCA campaigns to mobilize US voters abroad and engage its members in support of our platform, promoting progressive political action globally. He is especially eager to serve as we prepare for one of the most important presidential elections in our history. Bruce's guiding principle is strength in diversity!

David Heckenberg - Candidate for Member-at-Large (incumbent)

David has been an active member of Democrats Abroad Austria since 2017. He has served as the Youth Caucus Leader since Spring 2018 and has been a member of the Executive Committee since Summer 2018. He helped coordinate the Women’s March and organized the March for our Lives together with Raina Saul and Jennifer Rakow-Stepper in 2018. In 2019 he presented and led a discussion on Gerrymandering for the DAA’s monthly Solidarity Sunday.
In 2019 David is hoping to attract more young people to join Democrats Abroad by reaching out to Universities and addressing bipartisan issues that concern all Americans living in Austria. His goal is to register as many members as possible for the 2020 elections. As an American with an additional Austrian citizenship, David hopes to continue to act as an ambassador and confidant to people of both cultural backgrounds. With his academic background in Political Science he is hoping to improve the lives of Americans in Vienna by providing useful insights to a new and perhaps foreign culture. David lives in the third district and votes for Illinois.

Faith Hall Herbold - Candidate for Member-at-Large (incumbent)

Faith Hall Herbold is a native Californian and has been living in Austria for five years. Faith has been an active member of Democrats Abroad Austria for the past two years where she currently serves as a Member at large and coordinator of the Global Black Caucus (GBC). The GBC holds monthly book clubs to discuss the intersection between gender, race and class and will soon be hosting social events ranging from museum visits to open mic nights. Faith believes firmly in the Democratic principles of freedom and social, economic and environmental justice for all! One of her favorite quotes is from Angela Davis: "You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time." She asks for your vote so that she can continue to be a voice at the table and a force for change in DA Austria and beyond!

Caitlin Ahern - Candidate for Member-at-Large (incumbent)

Caitlin joined Democrats Abroad as Member-at-Large in 2013 and has been responsible for editing the newsletter and organizing events in Graz. In 2017 she became membership database manager, achieving the 3rd-cleanest database globally and, with our volunteers' help, the 2nd-highest success rate for member outreach in the 2018 midterms for all country committees. She would love to continue this role.

Tanya Lolonis - Candidate for Member-at-Large (incumbent)

Tanya has been active with DAA since the fall of 2016 when she co-founded Solidarity Sundays Vienna with two other DA members. In 2018 she hosted phonebanking parties and a DAA fundraiser, attended the DA European Regional meeting in Madrid, and helped register voters around Vienna. Tanya has served on the DAA Executive Committee as a Member-At-Large since 2018.

Before her DAA activity, Tanya hosted fundraisers for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Her activism began when she joined canvassing teams for Obama in 2008 (Nevada) and 2012 (Virginia).

Looking ahead to 2020, Tanya plans to continue promoting civic education and activism via Solidarity Sundays, and to help find and register American voters in Austria and abroad. Tanya lives in Vienna and votes in California.

Fred Robinson - Candidate for Member-at-Large

Fred has been living in Austria since August 2010. He is an architect in Vienna. He has been involved with DAA since 2012 having served as past treasurer of DAA and volunteering for voter registration, phone banking, meetings and fundraisers. He would like to continue helping DAA as one of the Members- at- Large with continuing and up coming projects and activities such as the newsletter, primary debate watching events and coordinating DAA voter registration and fundraising activities with external events such as visiting performers, speakers and politicians that share the progressive views of Democrats Abroad Austria.