January 15th, 2016
While my classmates were eating breakfast and getting ready for the day, something interesting happened. As we were eating, a woman that we were all familiar with entered the hotel. This woman was none other than presidential candidate and former CEO of HP Carly Fiorina. We could not get pictures with her because she was getting breakfast and preparing for a meeting with her staffers, but the fact that she was in our hotel and in our presence made the decision between the Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina rallies even easier. We decided as a class that we wanted to see Carly speak and we would head to her rally later in the day, which I will get to later in my entry.
My day began when I attended a lecture by Dr. Dante J. Scala, a professor at the University of New Hampshire. He spoke about topics like establishment candidates, outsider candidates, and the school of thought of the nomination process, all of which Dr. Fullmer has already taught us in the classroom the week before we left for this trip. However, the main focus of his lecture was explaining the four factions of the Republican Party, which were moderates and liberals, "somewhat conservatives", very conservative evangelicals, and very conservative seculars. He explains what each factions brings to the table in lieu of candidate qualities, party identification, Tea Party support, and issues that matter. He also tells us that candidates must first win their faction "bracket", then build their coalition around the factions they are not as strong in. Even though a lot of the lecture was a review of earlier material and previous knowledge, I thought the lecture was useful because it reinforced important points and built upon those points.
After the lecture and our lunch break, I was sent to the Ted Cruz Campaign office to make more calls. Instead of using the previous script regarding Common Core, our mission for today was to call potential voters and notify them about a future Ted Cruz event that would occur on Monday night in Whitefield, NH. Some of the voters who answered the phone were interested in the event and would try to come, but most of the voters that answered said that they would not be able to come. I believe that these calls were useful because most of the voters that couldn't go to the event said that they were interested in Ted Cruz as a candidate, so it was still an effective way to contact voters overall. I made about 300 calls in about three-and-a-half hours, which was a good number considering I took some of that time to eat some snacks that the campaign provided us.
Hours later, when we arrived at the town hall, we were welcomed by volunteers who gave us Carly Fiorina stickers, literature, and rally signs. Before the town hall began, another student found an article about Carly Fiorina's campaign organization, Carly for President, and her possible communications with her SuperPAC, Carly for America. In class, we learned that candidate organizations are not allowed to communicate with SuperPACs in any way. If this story was true, it would mean that her campaign could get in serious trouble for doing this. After we read the story, we noticed that all of the free Carly things that we got were actually from her SuperPAC, minus the one piece of literature that explained her blueprint for fixing America. The rally itself was very good; Carly Fiorina is a great speaker. She provided many interesting ways to start a "citizen government", which included the people voting on what President Fiorina should do on certain issues, and she answered questions clearly and concisely, including one from a little girl who called Donald Trump a "moron". After the rally, we got the chance to take pictures and get autographs from her. She remembered us from the hotel and welcomed us, and she even signed my rally sign, which was ironically from her SuperPAC and not her campaign.
When we got back from Carly's town hall, we ate dinner at the hotel. We saw Carly Fiorina come back in the hotel from her rally, which was really cool. During dinner, we talked and joked about the possibility of Jeb Bush coming into the hotel; earlier in the day, the shuttle bus driver had told me that Bush had been in the hotel, too, and that he liked to talk to voters when he stayed there. About an hour after we joked about it, something interesting happens. Much to our complete shock, Jeb Bush actually comes into the hotel. He seemed to be a little tired from campaigning all day, but he was willing to take a few pictures with us. The picture with Jeb Bush and I was rushed, but it was better than not having a picture at all!
I did not wake up today thinking that two presidential candidates would be in our hotel, and I certainly did not wake up thinking that I would be able to meet both of them! The big decision of whether to go to Bush's rally or Fiorina's town hall was solved quickly with an extra bonus! Tomorrow, I am supposed to go to a Rand Paul rally, which I am really excited for since he was my former first-choice candidate and now my second choice.
In Liberty,
Jacob Stech '18
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