Missouri delegate, 17, will be among youngest for Democrats

An incoming high school senior from the Kansas City area will be one of the youngest delegates at the Democratic National Convention.

Seventeen-year-old Rachel Gonzalez will be attending the convention that starts Monday in Philadelphia as a Missouri delegate for likely presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

Missouri Democratic Party guidelines say delegates must be at least 18 years old and have voted in the March 15 Democratic presidential primary. Gonzalez doesn’t turn the legal voting age until Oct. 16.

But Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Roy Temple said she was allowed to run as a delegate anyway, because she will be 18 in time for the November general election.

She already has campaigned for Clinton at numerous events in Iowa, Kansas and Missouri.

Gonzalez attends William Chrisman High School in Independence.