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Our Connecticut delegation had another full day in Cleveland on Tuesday. We begin every day with a group breakfast, and Tuesday brought a very special guest: Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort.
Manafort, originally from New Britain, has several close friends in our delegation who are diligently working on the campaign. He was an adviser to the presidential campaigns of Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush, and John McCain and is an excellent choice to run the Trump campaign.
His message was simple and direct: The campaign has turned the electoral map on its ear and Donald Trump has put states in play that are historically blue states. Connecticut, with seven electoral votes, is one of those states.
Recent polls show the race in our state to be within single digits, so we will likely see more activity from the candidates than usual during a presidential race. This was thrilling news to our entire delegation.
After breakfast, most of our delegation attended a private tour at the Western Reserve History Center. My wife and I also joined delegates from around the country at a special screening of the documentary, "Clinton Cash," by Breitbart senior editor Milo Yiannopoulos.
The documentary is based on a New York Times bestseller by author Peter Schweizer, who was on hand to answer questions after the film. The documentary provides a litany of the history revolving around the Clinton Global Initiative and the hundreds of millions of dollars raised from international business partners of foreign governments during Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State. (It will be released online late this week.)
After the screening, we met up with our delegation for a private reception at Morton Steakhouse before the evening's activities at the convention. Our special guest was none other than Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who addressed our delegation. Walker's comments focused on bringing unity to the party and rallying around Trump as the nominee.
Our delegation then headed over to the floor of the convention. Only 28 delegates are allowed on the floor at one time from Connecticut, but we are able to switch off with others so that all of our alternate delegates and guests get to spend some time on the convention floor.
We are VERY fortunate to have a place on the front several rows at the convention, which gives us an amazing viewpoint of the activity on the floor.
Tuesday night was the official Roll Call vote of the delegates, which was the most exciting political spectacle that I have ever personally witnessed. Each delegation's leader addressed the chair with an intro about their state and cast the votes from their respective primary or caucus.
Connecticut GOP Chairman J.R. Romano proudly cast all 28 Connecticut votes for Trump. While it was clear that Trump had the nomination locked up, several states passed in the roll call vote so that Trump's home state delegation from New York could cast the votes to put him over the top. (Read more about the roll call vote here at the Daily Voice.)
His son Donald Trump Jr. is part of the New York delegation and made an emotional speech that officially made his father the nominee of the party for the presidential race.
I was fortunate to be on the second row with our delegation at the time to watch the next First Family enter the convention floor. I won't forget that experience!
After the votes were cast amid much fanfare, the delegates settled in to hear from other senior Republican leaders. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Dr. Ben Carson all gave rousing speeches that will help unify the party.
Trump’s youngest daughter Tiffany and his oldest son Don Jr. also gave emotional speeches about their father. People may have a wide range of views about Trump as a candidate but it is clear that he has raised an amazing and accomplished family.
— Bob Ferguson
Weston RTC Chairman
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