Democracy

Inspired by the principles of justice and democracy, Kelleigh McKenzie began channeling her energy and skills into the political sphere in 2011, when she joined her local Democratic committee and started volunteering to help people of integrity get elected to public office. In the decade that followed, she served as a Delegate for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention, was elected to the New York State (NYS) Democratic Committee (and it’s Executive Committee), and in 2020 she became the first woman to lead the Ulster County Democratic Committee as County Chair. In 2021, Ulster Democrats won a historic supermajority in the county legislature, swept the countywide races, and passed all five democracy reform ballot proposals—one of only three counties north of NYC to do so. That year also saw the launch of the “Ulster Votes!” project, a new committee initiative under Kelleigh’s leadership, created to help educate voters about the democratic process and civic responsibility.

Kelleigh continually works to reform the way the Democratic Party operates to make it more (small d) democratic. Her 2017 "Change the Rules!” campaign led to several small but consequential changes to the NYS Democratic Party bylaws, resulting in more transparency, fairness and inclusivity in party processes. In 2019, she and a team of State Committee members organized the “Let All Democrats Vote!” campaign with a clever strategy to amend the NYS Democratic Party’s 2020 Delegate Selection Plan, forcing the NYS legislature to make it easier for voters to change party enrollment. In 2020, just prior to her election as County Chair, she led a county bylaws review that delivered a brand new set of county party rules, designed to bring more voices to the table and empower the committee to operate with a collaborative approach.

In addition to her political party work, Kelleigh served as Campaign Manager/Chief Strategist for Jen Metzger’s successful run for NY State Senate in District 42 (2018), and she stepped in to design and implement a last-minute GOTV and Absentee Count strategy that helped get Dave Clegg’s close race for Ulster County District Attorney across the finish line in 2019.