January 19th, 2016
Today was a day filled with campaigning and a lesser-known candidates debate. During my time at the Ted Cruz campaign office, I spent most of my time making calls to voters to figure out if they would support Ted Cruz in the primaries. Once again, I chose the Common Core script over the defunding Planned Parenthood script because I felt more comfortable talking to voters about education over abortion. I had a decent amount of voters cooperate with me to complete the survey, but what I learned yesterday from Dr. Andrew Smith about voters becoming annoyed with the constant phone calls was confirmed with today's call session. About half of those who answered the phone told me either to stop calling them, to take them off their calling list, or to stop calling their work numbers because they needed to work and not waste their time talking about politics. At least these voters were kind enough to not curse me out or hang up in my face like some other callers did. I also noticed that not too many people answered because I was calling in the morning and afternoon on a Tuesday when most people are expected to be at work. I believe that my classmate and I would have been more useful canvassing instead of making phone calls at the time because throughout my trip so far, I have noticed that more people tend to answer doors than answer phone calls.
After my calling session flew by, it was almost time to go to the lesser-known candidates debate, which was basically a forum for those candidates that are only on their party ballot in only a few states and are virtually unknown to the public due to no media coverage. However, one candidate by the name of Vermin Supreme was banned from the event this year because of an incident that took place in the 2011 forum where he sprayed glitter on another candidate in order to "make him gay." Because of this incident, Vermin Supreme decided to campaign outside of the building in the freezing cold in order to meet voters before the event. He talked about mandatory teeth-brushing laws, ponies for everyone, and zombie power. He was a very energetic and funny guy with many ties and a boot on his head, and my classmates got the chance to take pictures and selfies with him, including myself!
Regarding the debate itself, it was filled with candidates with extreme views, wacky views, and views completely out of line with those of the party that they are running for. In the Republican debate, there was one candidate by the name of Stephen Comley who was a conspiracy theorist. After the debate, he was persistent in getting my professor and some of my classmates to support him, but we couldn't because we are Virginia voters and he was only on the ballot in New Hampshire. Other Republican candidates included one man who wanted to throw Hillary Clinton in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and three other men that did not stand out to me in any way. On the Democratic side, there were twenty candidates, including a white supremacist, a man who campaigned on Christmas values, and a man who called himself a pro-life Democrat. Overall, the event was very interesting because it exemplified what we learned in class, which was that the 17 major Republicans and the five major Democratic candidates are not the only candidates actually running for the presidency; there are hundreds of different names registered on the Federal Election Commission's website.
When we got back to the hotel after the debate, some of us hung out in the lobby for a little bit. After an hour or so, we realized that Fox News anchor and moderator of the next Republican Debate Bret Baier was at the bar. We eventually made our way to him, but not until most of the class had already gone to bed. When we met Baier, he was very nice and polite. He also let us ask him a few questions. I got to ask him what the criteria would be in order to qualify for the next debate and he told me that it would be relatively the same as the previous debate. The rest of my class told him questions that he should ask the candidates at the next debate. One student asked him to ask Donald Trump what he would do in his first 100 days in office; I thought it was a good question to ask because I do not believe Trump has explicitly said what he would do in those first important days of his term, and Trump does not dive deep policy-wise in his usual debate answers. Before he left, we took a few pictures with him.
When we got back to the hotel after the debate, some of us hung out in the lobby for a little bit. After an hour or so, we realized that Fox News anchor and moderator of the next Republican Debate Bret Baier was at the bar. We eventually made our way to him, but not until most of the class had already gone to bed. When we met Baier, he was very nice and polite. He also let us ask him a few questions. I got to ask him what the criteria would be in order to qualify for the next debate and he told me that it would be relatively the same as the previous debate. The rest of my class told him questions that he should ask the candidates at the next debate. One student asked him to ask Donald Trump what he would do in his first 100 days in office; I thought it was a good question to ask because I do not believe Trump has explicitly said what he would do in those first important days of his term, and Trump does not dive deep policy-wise in his usual debate answers. Before he left, we took a few pictures with him.
Tomorrow is currently planned to be a busy day. My classmates and I are going to wake up early to go see Marco Rubio and then watch John Kasich speak at the New Hampshire State House. We might also see Bill Clinton at a Hillary Clinton surrogate event, which would be a great experience for all of us to see because he is one of our former presidents and a potential first gentlemen.
In Liberty,
Jacob Stech '18
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