It's fair to ask why am I bucking my demographic group’s trend- and Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius’ lead - by backing Hillary, but it isn't a hard one for me to answer. Honestly, on February 5, there wasn’t any question as to who I would support: Hillary Clinton is the only candidate left in the race for the Democratic Party nomination that has the experience I want in the next President of the United States.

My own experience as an elected official paints my rational pretty clearly. When I first ran for the city council in Osage City, I had a plate full of reforms and projects I wanted to see done. But, having been active in politics for nearly a decade at that point, I knew perfectly well my sweeping progressive platform couldn’t just happen because I willed it so. No, it had to be implemented through the existing structures and the existing systems in place. I might want to re-invent the wheel - and, sure, sometimes that’s exactly what needs to happen- but in order to do the most good for my constituents as quickly as I could, I knew I had to use the system that was already in place and just bend it to my will.

That same kind of experience with small-town politics taught me you can't throw the whole status quo out with the bathwater just because parts of it have been abused in the past, and you can't begin to fix the things that are broken unless you've got a pretty good handle on how it was supposed to work in the first place.

It is nearly impossible to make huge, earth-moving changes to a system you don’t already know inside and out, top to bottom, and it's that fact that makes me believe Hillary Clinton will have the easiest time initiating the sweeping changes we all want to see in our nation- everything from a draw-down of our troops in Iraq to a system approaching universal health care. I'm sure a President Obama would represent my values perfectly well, too, but I think Hillary's experience within the system as it exists will make her a more powerful president from the first day of her presidency on.

So, that's why I support my candidate - why do I think I’m fit to represent Kansas and Hillary Clinton at the Democratic National Convention?

Interestingly enough, for very similar reasons as to why I support Hillary: I represent common sense Kansas progressive values and I have the right experience to make me an effective representative of the thousands of Kansans who voted for Hillary on Super Tuesday.

Perhaps, though, the one thing that makes me more appealing as a delegate than the other men running (we'll elect one man and one woman in my congressional district, so I'm not running against the ladies) is the fact I'm one of only three candidates from places you could call rural - and I am the only candidate running who can claim to represent the 2nd District of Kansas outside of the larger cities within it.

As an elected official in one of those little rural towns, I can tell you firsthand we don't often get our voices heard on the national stage (heck, even at the state stage sometime), so my perspective should, hopefully, bring something extra-Midwestern to the composition of the Kansas delegation.

I will tell you, however, given the fact I am running to be a delegate for the candidate in second place in a state that didn’t vote for her, and from a demographic group who, for the most part, supports the other guy, I certainly wasn’t convinced I’d get the depth and breadth of support I wanted behind my run. I shouldn’t have been concerned, though, because over the course of the last two weeks I've had almost 160 people show their support for my campaign on both Facebook and MySpace.

I’d love to call that a “mandate” for my election to a delegate spot, but I’m not sure that’d really be appropriate. It is, however, most definitely evidence that 160 people think my experience and my priorities make me right for the Kansas delegation to the Democratic National Convention.

81% of people in the country today feels our nation is on the wrong track, and I am most certainly one of them. After eight years of the worst president since Warren Harding, we simply must have competence back in the Oval Office.

Democrats are lucky, we have two candidates who will make thousand-fold improvements over what we have now and what we could have if John McCain wins.

Like nearly every other Democrat in the country, I think one of our two candidates is better than the other, and I still believe today Hillary Clinton is the best possible choice for the next President of the United States. I look forward to having the chance to vote for her on the floor of the convention in Denver, and then again on Election Day.

If for some reason Hillary Clinton is not my party's nominee, however, I promise to all of you reading this I will do whatever I can to make sure a Democrat wins the White House in November.

We simply cannot afford anything else.