Tuesday: State Party Conventions

It was an interesting day of conventions. Today was the party primaries for all state elected officials, including Governor and Attorney General.  Both parties believe that they have the power and ability to sweep the opposing party in all these State level positions. From attending the Nationalist State convention, I saw that the newly elected State Party Chair, Andrew Stewart, was able to get his party to pay attention to every speech of every candidate in order for their party to put up the best candidate for the election. Stewart was able to do this by repeatedly reminding his party the word “sweep” and by reminding them of their ultimate goal. From covering this convention, I noticed many unique differences between the Nationalist Party and the Federalist Party. The Nationalist Party appeared to be organized and this was very evident on Monday when the Nationalist Party was able to elect all the necessary officials for the party and the Federalist Party showed their strong will through the long, detailed discussions they had with the candidates. It is going to be very interesting to see what party is going to come out on top while we head into the State Elections.

After attending the Federalist State Party Convention, I was given a better understanding of the “cogs and gears” of the parties. Even though the Federalist State Party Chair has quite a grasp on his party, boisterous comments made their way onto the stage during campaign speeches for whip elections. Taking into consideration that the whip election was supposed to take place during Monday's State Convention, I would say the Federalist Party is very energetic and both parties should not underestimate each other.. Aside from delays, the Federalist Party did have some great key points on topics anywhere from abortion to seceding from the United States of America. Overall, I would say that the the race for leadership in the Texas Boys State government is quite close.

The Nationalists and Federalists are bound to put up good candidates heading into the final elections. It is going to be very interesting to see which party comes out on top. Both have vowed to sweep the other party in the state elections so we will truly see which party is superior. The two parties are also mostly equal when it comes to leadership. However, people running for the State Elections will have to pursue people from both parties to win. This may be hard for some candidates because the gallery of each party may only vote for people in their party, even if they don't agree with their policies. This may be caused by the party promises of sweeping every state office. Whichever side ends up taking the most top spots will most likely control the government. Each side has some extremely persuasive and talented speakers and we are expecting a very heated and tense election this year at Texas Boys State.

By Brooks Brickley, Henry Batt, & Angel Eufracio