VALDOSTA — A young man from Valdosta was among the delegates who formally selected Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate at the organization’s national convention last week.

Blake Robinson was a part of Georgia’s 123-member delegation to the convention, held from Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

Robinson, born in North Carolina but having grown up in Valdosta, recently moved to Atlanta to pursue a master’s degree at Georgia State University in public administration with a focus in urban planning and economic development. Before that, he earned a pair of bachelor’s degrees at Georgia Southern University in political science and criminal justice.

His day job is with the Fair Election Center’s election vote project.

Aside from nominating Vice President Harris and Minn. Gov. Tim Walz for the Democratic ticket in the November elections — which was pretty much a foregone conclusion — many important functions and duties remained for delegates, Robinson said.

“There were receptions, parties and official business,” he said. “We would hold meetings in the morning and hear from the speakers at the actual convention on stage in the evenings.”

Robinson attended caucus meetings, including those involving black voters and rural interests.

“Walz attended some of those same meetings and spoke; unfortunately I didn’t get to meet him (or Harris),” he said.

Among the issues debated that were of interest to the Georgia delegation were voting rights and infrastructure. Younger delegates wanted to hear about the Harris-Walz plans for the economy “and how it would help young people,” Robinson said.

Perhaps South Georgia’s biggest takeaway from the convention, he said, was the region being put on display, he said. With the Republicans recently sending their VP candidate J.D. Vance to Valdosta and the Democrats planning to send Harris and Walz on a bus tour through the region, it was important to “show the nation how important Georgia is going to be in the election cycle,” Robinson said.