USF RTWH2024 Tyler Williams

COLUMBIA SUNDAY MARKET AND MAJORIE TAYLOR GREENE     We headed to the Columbia Sunday market, where there was a lot of media there interviewing voters and the like, me and my peers were walking around looking at all of the booths and seeing what people were selling. We just happened to run into CFO Jimmy Patronis and the Treasurer of South Carolina again, where I held a pretty lengthy conversation with them about my experience moving to Florida and their positions.     After the market, we headed to a polling location to watch the sign wavers, media, and voters. As we were observing, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) showed up. Like her or not, she's a very well-known national figure for, well, maybe questionable reasons. Anyway, we took a photo with her and I had a short conversation with her. Interesting woman. She took questions from the Media there and then left to sign wave at the next polling location for Trump.

LIZARDS THICKET     Originally, we expected to meet Lindsey Grahm at Lizards Thicket for Fox and Friends with Ainsley Earhardt. However, we ended up meeting so many more interesting people. We got breakfast there, but we saw  Ainsley Earhardt walk in and start interviewing South Carolina Voters. She eventually got to our table and asked us questions. We got to be on National Television! This was a really cool experience. Sean Hannity - Right after the interview had concluded, Sean Hannity (who no one was expecting to show up) showed up and walked in the back door. Now, think what you want about Sean Hannity, he is still a very popular national news anchor. We waited in line and got to take a photo with him which was a cool experience.  Jimmy Patronis -   Probably the coolest of all of the surprises during our breakfast was that we were just happening to sit next to the Chief Financial Officer of the State of Florida. He was having breakfast with the Treasurer of South Carolina. He spok

\ BEFORE ELECTION DAY NIKKI HALEY EVENT      Before we left Charleston, we had to attend a final Nikki Haley event, this event was her final event before the primary election the next day. She spoke so confidently and wore an American flag weave crewneck. I had mentioned to some of my peers that we admired her outfits and at this point, we would speculate what she would wear to the next event. This was the most dramatic of events of all of them, as she had entrance music and was met by a huge round of applause. We were in the audience and had signs and we were  all so hyped for the election. We ended up being the most hyped people in the audience, which was surprising considering a large part of us were left-leaning and not Republicans. We once again recognized her stump speech, murmuring what her rhetoric before she said it. Something we all thought was very interesting and funny. But our hype would fade as a wave of tiredness fell over us. Many of us left the event early due to this,

CHARLESTON     We headed out early to do the about an hour drive from Columbia to Charleston, where we would go to the College of Charleston, where we would meet Knots and Regusa, the authors of one of the books we read for this class. We got the opportunity when we arrived to look at the campus, which was so well integrated into the city layout if you were to look on a map you would not be able to point out where the college was. This was a really interesting aspect of the college.     After we completed the lecture from Knots and Regusa, we all went to their dining hall, ate lunch, and were allowed about two hours to check out downtown Charleston. I was with some of my friends and we immediately knew where we wanted to go, King Street. King Street had a lot of outlets and shops for us to shop at. I ended up picking up a crewneck which I begrudgingly spent $40 on. It was worth it, as it will be something I always remember this trip with. But I couldn't help but appreciate how narr

THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE CAPITOL     On our sixth day, we toured the South Carolina state capitol. This was such a beautiful building, having been completed in 1903. Having of course classical architecture, it still maintained southern charm and unique southern architecture on the inside of the building. We met many interesting people in this building and had the opportunity to go where the lawmakers go and be where the lawmakers work and discuss legislation and current events.     We heard from  State Reps Mike Neese and Micah Caskey, who spoke about their positions and their roles and took questions from the students. Some of these were pretty tough questions, and I felt like they did a good job of answering them. The South Carolina legislature is a Republican Super Majority, like Florida, and they expressed their frustration with what they called the crazy caucus, the extreme conservative Trump-supporting caucus of the Republican majority.    

VIVEK SPEAKS     We had an opportunity to watch Vivek speak at a local brewery near Lexington, this was something that I was excited about, despite the fact that I very much did not like him or his policies. He was being interviewed in a talk show style by a conservative talk show host in a small event room, so we were pretty close to him. The entire time it was very interesting to hear him use very interesting rhetoric, which made many people in our group very uncomfortable and we were uncomfortable with the very aggressive rhetoric.  There were some very interesting things he said in his speech. He said that Nationalism doesn't have to be a bad word and multiple times he discussed abolishing our federal law enforcement, FBI, and CIA. Trust me, I have my fair share of quarrels with both organizations for the way they handled things in the past, but never would it ever make any sense to abolish these organizations that play such an important role in stopping crime of so many kinds.

THE GOVERNORS MANSION     On the fourth day, we woke up and immediately hopped on the bus to go see the Governor's Mansion. As we entered the main gates, I was taken aback by how beautiful the building was and how well-kept the grounds appeared. Beautiful manicured lawns and ferns. A beautiful fountain complimented the front of the building. A big beautiful style portico opened up to a  black painted door. Inside this door, was a beautiful grand staircase leading up to the residence section of the mansion, we could only be on the bottom floor but we ended up meeting Mack, the first dog! Which was really exciting and he followed us around while we  toured the mansion. The walls in the state dining room were a beautiful satin blue fabric embroidered with the state tree which is on their flag, the palmetto. We learned more about the history of this building, which was originally a military academy. The entire place was such a beautiful historical building and so interesting.    

SOUTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATIC PARTY       On our second day we headed over to the South Carolina Democratic Party, where we were going to meet with the Democratic Leadership for the state. We got to meet with some very interesting and wise political folk. We learned about some very interesting political statistics about the demographics and voting patterns of South Carolina. This data proved to be very useful throughout the trip as it helped us contextualize state politics and help us understand why things are the way they are.    

FOX NEWS TOWNHALL     We began our second day by hopping into our busses to go to what ended up being one of the collect events from the trip, the Fox News Townhall with Nikki Haley. We drove into downtown Columbia to attend this, we waited in line for an hour, and when we were finally allowed in I couldn't help but notice how interesting the venue they selected was, and how they had designed the set was very interesting. I ended up sitting below this huge camera boom thing that would swivel up and down and it was also interesting.     As the production began and the anchor and producers were communicating for the start of the show, It struck me how complex these operations truly are. During the event, I noticed a distinct difference in Nikki Haley on and off camera. Off camera, she was kinder and seemingly more relaxed and off-guard. On camera, she was strong and well-spoken. This is something the entire class discussed after every event. One thing that became a recurring and inte

NIKKI HALEY EVENT     After Aiken we headed out to Nikki Haley's event, this was part of her "bus tour". We arrived about half an hour early to make sure we got the best seats, which we did. We were directly in the front row so close to her. As I watched her exit the bus I realized that this was the first time I'd ever seen a presidential candidate in person before, and the first governor I had ever seen. She took the stage and immediately began hitting her talking points. I was very impressed at her speaking style, and her ability to capture her audience's attention.      After her speech, we all lined up to meet her. It was surreal to shake hands with a presidential candidate. During her speech, I had been thinking up something to say to her something that she would remember. I wanted to make sure that whatever I said to her stuck with her. As I walked up to shake her hand and take my photo, I said, "I just wanted you to know during the debates, thank you f

AIKEN     The first day we spent having a lot of fun learning about county politics at the Aiken County Democratic Party headquarters in downtown Aiken. We learned a little bit about the demographics of the county and the region and learned a little bit more about how the county party manages their GOTV operations, candidate selection process, and other important things that is critical to the success at the county level. After our meeting with the party, we walked around Downtown aikan which is such a beautiful and historic town. Downtown Aiken - We explored the downtown a little more, strolling into shops and getting a good taste for the local culture. We unanimously agreed that this little town was the most beautiful town in the south. It had this very interesting and unique street grid that allowed for so much green space, trees, and tree cover. The most touching feature was the little shops and restaurants along its main boulevard. Now aiken is a small town which is just across th