In Manchester this past weekend, the Plymouth State University Republicans were present at the NH Federation of College Republicans 11th annual convention. Members in attendance included Connor Brown, President; Joseph Boisvert, Treasurer; Megan Wirtz, Secretary; Jeffrey Plympton, Christopher Ramsden, James Lawson and Dominic Lebel.
Representatives from UNH, Keene State, New England College, and St. Anselm were also in attendance. During the convention multiple politicians running for office spoke including Scott Brown, Jim Rubens, Marilinda Garcia, Frank Guinta, Andrew Hemingway, and NHGOP Chair Jennifer Horn. Jennifer Horn described the student representatives as “the here and now of the NH political climate.” Chair Horn went on to describe how proud she was of NH College Students.
Plymouth State University was awarded the NH Federations award for “Outstanding Chapter of the Year.” Since the group’s inception, just short of two years ago, the PSU Republicans have gone from a small group to the highest honor within the state. The PSU Republicans have hosted many US Senate candidates, Congressional candidates, and elected members of the NH State Legislator this past school year. Another successful event was their “Obamacare 101″ event with State Senator Andy Sanborn. A crowd of roughly 45 was in attendance.
The marquis moment of the year was their involvement with Joe Kenney (GOP-Wakefield) campaign for the NH Executive Council in District 1. The group helped manage social media accounts, his website, and signage, along with hosting an event on campus. The group also exemplified grassroots organizing by door knocking and phone calls.
PSU Republicans’s main purpose is to host political candidates, participate in political races, hold events, and work hand-in-hand with state and local politicians. Adding to intellectual diversity on campus is important to the group. The group has a relationship with the NH GOP members and will be attending an event this Friday with US Senator Rand Paul (GOP-KY).
Connor Brown, Sophomore, President of the PSU Republicans, was elected to the Area 2 Vice-Chair position within the state federation. This is the first time that a PSU student has held this honor. This position is to help the Republican candidates within the second congressional district get elected.
“I am more than proud of our success this year,” said Brown. “We put in the hard work, put ourselves out there, and came out as a better organization and a stronger knit group of friends. We had a great trip to Washington D.C this March for CPAC and a meeting with US Senator Kelly Ayotte (GOP-NH). All of this inspires me to keep going and continuing our involvement with politics and putting PSU on the map.”
James Pindell, head political correspondent from WMUR, mentioned PSU and the convention in a portion of his online political commentary this week. The PSU Republicans will be hosting Andrew Hemingway, GOP candidate for NH Governor, at their next Wednesday meeting and State Senator Jeanie Forrester on May 23 for a NH State Budget event.