She's Running for President Because That's What Girls Do: Day 3: Climate Town Hall, NHDP, Meeting the Candidates?!

Today we had the opportunity to attend the New Hampshire Youth Climate Town Hall because my professor is a queen and hooked us up! This is where the different candidates or their surrogates spoke about their plans to combat climate change. The first candidate we heard speak was Senator Amy Klobuchar, she was excellent and getting to see her in real life made me like her even more. While she may be a little too moderate for me I can definitely appreciate what she brings to the table.

After seeing Amy we scurried to the State House, the same one we visited yesterday because we had a meeting with the Secretary of State, William Gardner! He is the longest running SoS in the nation which is crazy and typical New Hampshire. He is on his 22nd term and has served for more than four decades, wowza!

Next was a meeting with the Govna' of NH, us USFSP students are basically royalty in New Hampshire, don't ya' know? Chris Sununu is his name and he is a very cool guy despite his tendency to veto literally every bill and being a Republican. ;) He was very welcoming and personable. We got to see the Governor's meeting take place where they go over the bill agenda with the Executive Council. It was very interesting to see, NH does things very differently than Florida. Before the meeting even began we were read a psalm and played some folk music. This state is seriously bizarre but in the best way possible and I am here for it.

Also sometime in between our meeting with the governor, we were able to meet with some members of the Executive Council of NH. Deb Pignatelli (D), Russell Prescott (R), & Andru Valinsky (D). Fun fact (!), Mr. Prescott is actually USF Alumni which was very cool to learn. Also, we LOVE Ms. Pignatelli, she gave us gals some very encouraging advice about running for office. A very lovely, amazing lady. We even got to have lunch with her which was awesome because we got to know her more.

BUT! There's more! After lunch we did a skip, a hop, and a jump to the New Hampshire Democratic Party Headquarters. It smelled like fresh baked cookies and Yankee Candle, I knew I was home. We had the opportunity to meet with the chair of the party, Raymond Buckley. A humorous man who had really good stories to tell us. I most enjoyed his story about his granddaughter meeting President Barack Obama and how he surprised her with the meet and greet, to which she flipped out. Same, girl, same. I also enjoyed his stories about dealing with the GOP, what a saint, lol. (Raymond if you read this, I really need an internship this summer, hit me up!!!)

You thought I was done, didn't you? Nope! Next we went back to the Climate Town hall and we got to catch the last few minutes of Andrew Yang speak. I really enjoy his perspective on things and it is very refreshing. We stan #YangGang. We had a little bit of a break between the next candidate who was speaking which was Tom Steyer. So we were just chilling in the street outside the forum and my classmate says, "Is that Tom Steyer?!" Sure as chiz, it was him! He was actually walking toward us and he even came up to us to talk to us. He was explaining how he is the best candidate to combat climate change and we even got to snap a few pics. He smelled like money and he is definitely the richest person I have ever shaken hands with. Going back inside we got to hear him speak about his climate platform and he was super passionate which I respected. He even got me real fired up! After that we my classmate Erica and I were interviewed by his camera team which was super cool. We were just standing outside, chillin', and this lady comes up to us and says, "You wanna be on camera?" Of course! Lol.

After all of this we made our way to our campaigns for a night of phone banking. We even got to meet Elizabeth Warren's surrogate that was representing her at the town hall! Dr. Johnson, a very intelligent woman who is a marine biologist and policy expert. She was telling us about EW's green and blue new deal! We even snapped a pic with her! (See below)

After this big day I am ready to catch some z's, will report back about tomorrow's adventure!

Something I observed here in New Hampshire is how drastically your perspective on the candidates changes because of how up close you can observe them. My perspective was much different than when I was in Florida just a couple days ago. I do have to say everyone should do the first in the nation primary once because it truly is a world of its own.