Primary Journal | Student bleeds blue since birth

By: Rick Rojas

Posted: 3/4/08

Kyndra Reed was nervous, excited, proud. She was a bundle of emotions as she paced the floor and talked to her friends on Sunday afternoon.

Former President Bill Clinton was coming to College Station, Texas, to speak at a campaign rally in support of his wife before the Tuesday primary. Reed was tasked with introducing him to the crowd.

Reed, an officer in the Texas Aggie Democrats, has volunteered for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign since it first made its way to Texas. She's been at rallies, worked phone banks and done everything else she could to convince voters in College Station that Hillary is the most experienced candidate for the job.

And when Clinton added College Station to one of his stops in his last-minute statewide tour, it fell to Reed, the publicity director for the Aggie Democrats, to welcome the former president of the United States to Texas A&M.

"I'm excited and honored to be given this opportunity," Reed said. "It's exciting to have someone like that here."

This opportunity may have been a highlight in her political life, but junior business administration major Reed says she's already an old hand when it comes to political campaigning.

As a 4-year-old in Cameron, Texas, before she even started school, Reed started receiving her education in Democratic Party politics. It was 1992 when Clinton was in the middle of his own presidential campaign. Like now, he could count on Reed as one of the supporters in the field.

"I grew up in politics," said Reed, whose family's history with the Democrats runs so deep that her blood might as well be as blue as California on an electoral map.

Her mother served as the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Milam County for two terms. Her 90-year-old grandfather had the job before her. A teacher, he led the party there for 25 teacher, he led the party there for 25 years, and worked on his first presidential campaign volunteering for President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.

Then came Reed's mother, Melanie, who has volunteered and supported Democratic candidates on the local, state and national level before becoming a candidate herself for justice of the peace in Milam County. Reed was at her side.

Melanie Reed said she's the immensely proud mother standing by her daughter's side. "It's kind of like when I became the Democratic chair[woman] and Kyndra was asked the same question. She answered, 'It must be in my blood,'?" Melanie said.

This campaign is the one that means the most to Reed. It's the first presidential race in which she can vote, and the first where she made an effort to become involved on her own. "It has a different feel," she said. "I'm doing this because I want to." This doesn't mean, Reed said, that the she didn't want to take part in the previous ones.

Her life, her family has brought Reed to be enamored with politics. "It definitely takes a hold of you," she said. However, Reed said she doesn't know if a career in politics is what her future holds.

I asked her mother what she thought: Did she hope for Reed to return home to Milam County and lead the Democratic Party, staying in the family business? "I have more aspirations for her than that!" Melanie replied. "I could see her doing that and so much more. She's a mover and shaker."

Clinton's plane finally landed at Easterwood Airport and he made his way to Reed Arena. The crowd filed in from the drizzle outside and Reed's nerves settled down as she made her way to the podium. She started her speech, and the microphone didn't work, but she persevered, raising her voice loud enough to speak over the crowd.

"The greatest president in the…" she said as the roar of the crowd drowned her out as a speck of gray hair made its way through the crowd and Clinton appeared next to her behind the podium.

Well, Mrs. Reed, it seems the moving and shaking has begun.