Charleston blogger to chronicle Democratic National Convention in Charlotte

Brady Quirk-Garvan of Charleston will attend his first national political convention next month in Charlotte, but he won’t be keeping his thoughts to himself.

The 25-year-old investment adviser will serve as the official blogger for South Carolina’s delegation, the person most responsible for giving outsiders a sense of what it’s like to attend.

He was chosen because he’s a delegate attending his first convention — and because he didn’t mind the extra work, said Amanda Loveday, executive director of the S.C. Democratic Party.

“We just wanted to make sure people are able to experience it even if they’re not able to be here,” she said, adding that conventions are especially exciting for those attending for the first time.

Quirk-Garvan, who grew up outside Boston and in Upstate New York, is no stranger to politics. He got a political science degree from the College of Charleston and has worked with several local candidates. Four years ago, he spent six months working for Barack Obama’s campaign in the swing state of Ohio.

“To me, I think the Democratic Party is about looking forward,” he said. “I think the Republicans particularly cling to the position of older days and forget some of their realities as well.”

Quirk-Garvan said he’ll try to describe through his words, videos and social media what it’s like to be one of South Carolina’s 75 convention delegates — a peek behind a curtain often unavailable to those without credentials.

His anticipated highlights — besides the arrival of his fiancee, Angie Rogers, toward the convention’s end — include Obama’s acceptance speech and any South Carolina Democrat who might get a speaking slot.

“That would be a very cool and unique thing,” he said. “I don’t often think of South Carolina Democrats having a national stage.”

He’s also anticipating a sense political cohesion among delegates from the different states and an early glimpse of rising stars in the party, adding that it was Barack Obama’s speech at the party’s 2004 convention that catapulted him into the national limelight..