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Day 2, Morning Post

Day 2 started early for the statesmen on Monday, June 9, as they assembled with their cities at 6:30 a.m. and proceeded to breakfast. The schedule is a packed one because the Texas Boys State Senate and House of Representatives are elected early in the week. This means the statesmen got right to work immediately following breakfast.

Before lunch, the statesmen heard speeches from House and Senate candidates before breaking out into individual precinct (city) meetings by party, essentially dividing the precincts in half. At the precinct meetings, statesmen elected a precinct chair and voting delegates to their party's county convention. Also chosen were members of each party's Rules, Platform, and Campaign committees.

The county convention immediately followed as statesmen elected a county convention chair and voting delegates to their party's state convention. The immersion into the election process continued as the state party convention commenced following the county conventions.

If it sounds like a plethora of committees, meetings, and politics, it is! All of these go back to the heart of the Texas Boys State program: learn by doing. The senior and junior counselors understand that their role is to relinquish the operation of the program to the statesmen. The counselor's role is to provide guidance and oversight, not to undertake individual tasks. This puts the statesmen in a prime position to learn by doing.

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