DNC Delegate Councilman Ed Zipprich

At the start of September, Red Bank Councilman Ed Zipprich will attend the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, NC, to throw his support behind the re-election of President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

Zipprich, who recently returned to Red Bank from an executive development and leadership program at Harvard Kennedy School, said his support for Obama isn’t based entirely on his political affiliation, but on the job the president has done thus far in the face of adversity.

Seeking to end wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, developing the Affordable Healthcare Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare, and leading the country through a recession spurred on by previous administrations are a few of the achievements in Obama’s first term, Zipprich said.

“He represents America,” Zipprich said recently. “He’s fighting for the middle class, and he’s done a good trying to stimulate the economy while the republicans have attempted to block him along the way.”

Zipprich said he’s also motivated to support Obama’s re-election bid as the father of a daughter. Obama, he said, has shown a commitment to defending the rights of women through the ACA and his public support of women’s rights. The same, he said, cannot be said about the Republicans.

Obama, on the other hand, has kept his promises, Zipprich said.

“(Prior to his election) he said we needed health-care, he said we needed an end to war and he delivered,” Zipprich said.

The DNC is being held starting on Sept. 3 and is expected to attract more than 35,000 delegates, special guests and media members, according to the official DNC website. Zipprich said one of his goals of attending the convention is to network with other like-minded people, all of whom share the same end goal, to see Obama re-elected.

Obama will face presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election. The Republican National Convention will be held the week earlier in Tampa, Fla., from Aug. 27 to Aug. 30.