First Day - Niki Hailey's event


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 for being a strong voice on the stage." Regardless of political affiliation, this comment recognized something that everyone could recognize as being true. We may disagree on our politics but I did genuinely appreciate her presence on the debate stage. After we left the debate stage, I noticed Alexa Matos and Sasha Hossain talking to her son, Nailin Haley. He was pretty down to earth, I asked about his college and asked how it was being the son of a major political figure. He told me that the most frustrating part is when the media misportrays Nikki, his mom. He told me it is infuriating when they lie about her when he knows those things not to be true. This was very interesting to me.

 

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