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Seth Rich: Young DNC Staffer Who Was Murdered In D.C. Was Voter Expansion Data Director, Progressive, And Voters’ Rights Advocate

Published on: July 12, 2016 at 3:19 PM
By Dawn Papple

Seth Rich was a 27-year-old progressive Democrat, who worked for the Democratic National Committee before he was murdered walking home early Sunday morning in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Northwest Washington D.C. Rich was murdered three blocks east of Howard University Hospital, police said. Mary Rich, Seth’s mother, told reporters that police told her family that her son was probably the victim of an attempted robbery , according to NBC Washington .

Police have no witnesses to the shooting of Seth Rich and acting D.C. Police Capt. Anthony Haythe told NBC that he could not comment on whether the murder was related to the recent robberies in the area.

“If it was a robbery-it failed because he still has his watch, he still has his money-he still has his credit cards, still had his phone so it was a wasted effort except we lost a life,” Joel I. Rich, the young progressive’s father , said, according to Daily Mail .

“They took his life for literally no reason. They didn’t finish robbing him, they just took his life,” Mary Rich said. “They hurt the community, and they hurt the long-term possibility of what he could have done.”

Seth Rich was the Voter Expansion Data Director for the DNC. According to the DNC, Rich fought extensively for voters’ rights.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in an official statement Monday that Seth Rich “was a dedicated, selfless public servant who worked tirelessly to protect the most sacred right we share as Americans – the right to vote.”

Democrats in Nebraska have taken to social media to express their grief over the loss of one of their own. The young progressive Democrat was native to Nebraska. Rich graduated from Creighton University in Omaha and had previously worked on Democratic campaigns within the state, including the campaigns of Scott Kleeb and Heath Mello, according to Jane Fleming Kleeb , Nebraska’s leading progressive and founder of Bold Nebraska .

Jane Fleming Kleeb, who was called “Nebraska’s Most Controversial Woman” by Omaha Magazine and is the current Nebraska Democratic Party Chair-Elect, said Rich’s smile would “never be forgotten by anyone in his home state of Nebraska.”

“Our Democratic family grieves the loss of a young Nebraskan who worked on campaigns and stood up on progressive issues.”

The Nebraska Democratic Party, which recently voted against Superdelegates and asserted that the current system is undemocratic, also tweeted multiple times about Seth’s murder. The NDP said that Rich could be counted on to stand up for progressive issues.

Rich moved to the nation’s capital, where he first worked as a research data associate for Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a polling firm, before starting his work at the DNC. Rich described himself as an “experienced and impassioned data analyst.” At the DNC, Rich worked on the development of a computer program that lets people quickly find their polling location. The program required data culled from every voter precinct in the entire country.

James Green, who was the field director for Scott Kleeb’s Senate campaign and friends with Seth Rich, said the young progressive who was murdered over the weekend “was going to be a rising star” and called the murder a tragedy.

Fellow Nebraskan and Creighton graduate Peter Casey worked closely with Rich at the DNC. Casey said that during the 2014 election, Seth worked almost round-the-clock operating a program that identified and recorded incidents of people being prevented from voting. Casey said that Rich was very committed to protecting voters’ rights.

“That was what he believed in and what he kept fighting for,” Casey told The Washington Post of the young progressive DNC staffer.

Friend Miles Mawby, who visited with Seth Friday, told his deceased friend in an open Facebook post, “You really were one of the most honest and dependable people I ever knew.”

“He was truly out, I think, to try to save the world,” Seth Rich’s brother, Aaron Rich, 33, told The World-Herald . “He was committed to whatever cause he thought was right.”

Aaron Rich also called his brother “an amazing guy who really did believe he could make a difference,” according to Omaha World-Herald .

“Unfortunately, whoever did this took away that chance,” Aaron said.

Seth Rich’s murder comes just before the Democratic National Convention, and just days before Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton after Sanders negotiated the most progressive party platform in the history of the Democratic party following a contentious primary season where thousands have purported voter suppression and election fraud.

The Metropolitan Police Department have asked for assistance in figuring out who murdered Seth Rich.

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