So you may wonder who exactly comes to these conventions. At least I did when I started trying to figure out how candidates got on the ballot. But the non-scientific answer is that the people who come here are the super motivated sorts. Sure, for some people it is there jobs to come to the GOP convention, shake hands, network, etc. But the vast majority of people here do something else for a living other than collecting votes. For many, the only skin in the game that they have is their core ambition to make the state better (and thus put forward the best candidate). But who makes up the demographics of those highly motivated group of people? Well from one kid’s perspective, they’re all old people.
Of course there are a plethora of folks my age here and active at the Republican convention, but for the most part they are all campaign side. My circumstance of being a 22 year old delegate is rare…in fact I have trouble finding ANY others. Luckily I have friends in a few campaigns back from my days interning in Washington D.C. for former Congressman Chris Shays, but now that the “sexy” races are over, most of the campaign staff has cleared out. Even then, talking to kids my age would inevitably bring up some talking point or another and make the conversation less friendly and more professional (i.e. annoying), but at least there was SOMETHING I could relate to beyond ideology.
But I must say, to the credit of all the old timers here, they are the ones who are staying. They are the ones sticking it out. It seems to me that they are the ones with the political stamina. And thus they are the ones who ultimately influence who is on the ballot. Now if I’m one of them at age 22, I’m kinda worried about what I might become when I’m the older gentleman. Whatever may happen, though, I wouldn’t have it any other way.