My life as a superdelegate: Jason Rae is a junior at Marquette University. So why is he hanging out with Hillary and Barack, eating breakfast with Chelsea, and taking calls from Bill?

• Author: Rae, Jason
• Position: NATIONAL

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Four years ago, while most of my high school classmates were focused on getting their senior pictures taken and planning their summer vacations, I did something no 17-year-old had ever done before: I ran for a seat on the Democratic National Committee (D.N.C.)--and won.

That puts me in another unique position this year: At 21, I'm probably going to be the youngest delegate to the Democratic National Convention this summer in Denver. And as one of almost 800 "superdelegates," I may wind up helping to decide whether Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination to run against the presumptive Republican nominee, John McCain, in November.

I've always been interested in politics. At 15, I started riding my bike to local Democratic Party meetings and volunteering for local candidates.

Two years later, I ran a statewide campaign to be one of Wisconsin's representatives to the D.N.C. (The rules for getting elected vary by state. In Wisconsin, you have to be a dues-paying member of the Party--which you can be as young as 14--and the election is held at the state party's annual convention.)

No one expected me to win since I was running against a state legislator and the president of a statewide union. But I campaigned hard and won a four-year term.

The D.N.C. is the national governing body of the Democratic Party. Membership is made up of representatives from each state, as well as elected officials. As a D.N.C. member, it's my responsibility to campaign for Democrats at all levels of office. I'm also trying to make sure that the party is doing everything possible to reach out to my generation.

One of the privileges of my position is that all D.N.C. members are superdelegates to the Convention in August. Unlike regular delegates--who are selected by voters in state caucuses or primaries, based on their pledges to support a particular candidate for President--superdelegates can back whichever candidate they like.

In order to win the Democratic nomination, a candidate needs a majority (2,025) of 4,049 delegates, which includes 794 superdelegates. In most years, no one pays much attention to the superdelegates, but because the race between Clinton and Obama is so tight, who the superdelegates support could determine who finally gets the nomination.

PRESIDENTIAL CALL

That's put me in an extraordinary position to interact with the candidates and their campaigns on a very personal level. Over the last few months...