KVPTexas

Hello y’all!

We are on the buses on our way to the session tonight, so thought I’d update you on some of what happened yesterday during sessions 1 and 2. I apologize for not getting a fully detailed post out – our bus did not deliver us to the hotel until 3:45 am, I stayed up until 4:40 or so finishing up some work, and then I was up at 6:30 am for a breakfast with Congressman Neugebauer. I fully expected to spend my afternoon writing Tuesday’s full update, but just had to take an hour’s cat nap instead, so I would be half-way functional while at Convention tonight. I’ll do my best to give you the highlights, and thank you for understanding.

Lt Gov Dewhurst spoke to us at the delegation meeting yesterday, and reiterated his full support for Ted Cruz and for seeing him elected. In a show of utmost integrity, in my opinion, Gov Dewhurst showed up on the Convention floor last night during Ted’s speech and cheered right along with the rest of the Texas delegation. Thank you, Gov Dewhurst – for your character in putting Texas first.

We also were pleased to have Tagg Romney speak to us yesterday morning. Much like his mother, Tagg does a great job representing his father, and shared many personal stories – a behind the scenes look at the SLC Olympics, how and why Romney started Bain Capital, and things we should do to convince voters back home to vote Romney/Ryan. Ann Romney did very much the same slam-dunk – performing in a wonderful fashion at last night’s session. She painted Gov Romney as Conservative, compassionate, and humble, and I think she really got it across. When Gov Christie complimented Gov Romney later that night (he was sitting in the audience after Mrs Romney’s speech) – Gov Romney was the only person in the audience who didn’t stand. His humilty is a welcome change to the arrogance of the current administration.

Our delegation meetings have hosted a ton of speakers – we’ve had Frank Lutz, Gen Abbott, Bill Flores, Aaron Pena, Susan Combs, and, today, Sen Rick Santorum. I’d love to talk about all of them individually, but because of time – I’ll focus on Sen Santorum’s speech this morning. There are almost not words to describe what a powerful speaker he is to a smaller crowd. I listened to his speech on the floor last night, and though it was great, it paled in comparison to his speech this morning. With quiet sincerity, he told us in no uncertain terms how much he appreciated the support, and how it was essential that we now unite as a Party behind Gov Romney and Rep Ryan. He had me in tears as he described his love for the Constitution and Declaration, having all of us close our eyes and think “American Dream” – denouncing the Democrats’ use of the “race card,” saying indignantly, “If I’m not mistaken, we fought a Revolution to get rid of ‘classes’!” I was proud to have a chance to chat with him for a few minutes, about Godly leadership and how I was home educated, and to thank him for all he’s done to eloquently express Conservative values in a real way.

I was fortunate to have an at-large delegate hand me her credentials last night, so I spent the entire night session on the floor as a delegate. My delegate chose not to give up his credentials last night, so thanks Tammi Sturm! You were so generous to do that! We’ve struck a deal and the CD-19 alternates will be sat as delegates for at least the first hour tonight.

Similarly to the Texas Delegation, the speakers yesterday at Convention are to numerous to specify, but the ones besides those I’ve mentioned that stood out to me were: the performance of the Oak Ridge Boys (their acapella rendition of “Amazing Grace” set a tone for the night), Artur West, fmr Dem Rep from AL (who spoke vehemently to those Democrats who are dis-satisfied with Obama – I felt like he was very persuasive), our very own Ted Cruz (of course), who gave a masterful performance – having the podium drop down and not using the teleprompter. Those of us who have heard him in Texas knows he gives a wonderful speech, but now the nation knows what a gem is heading to the U.S. Senate! Lastly, there was Gov Chris Christie – wow – he was the absolute BEST choice for keynote speaker. He seemed to speak in “quotable phrases” last night, but the one I’ve heard repeated again and again was his line: “A real leader doesn’t follow polls – a real leader CHANGES polls!” Well, well done, Gov Christie.

Lastly, as we have just arrived, I’m sorry to say the committee reports all passed, despite strenuous opposition. Chairman Priebus ignored some points of order – which the entire Texas delegation was yelling for, until they cut the mic. Maine’s replaced delegation was sat, and Rule 12 passed. We did a roll call of the states, and Gov Romney received the overwhelming majority – 2061 delegate votes in all. Rep Paul Ryan was nominated by acclamation. I know everyone is disappointed by the actions of the Chair yesterday, as was I. I feel that a simple call for a roll call vote or a standing vote would have eliminated much of the distrust in leadership, as it would have stopped the rumors that the “no” votes were actually louder than the “yea” votes to pass reports. I will say this, however, where I was sitting in the alternates section, there was a lot of “voting” during those times from alternates and guests throughout the Forum (Convention Center), so that, in theory, could be why it sounded like the “no’s” had it. It’s important that we follow the rules at all times, so that we are without reproof when the situation is decided.

I spoke too early – we are now circling downtown Tampa, as we did yesterday. The accommodations in transportation have been lacking. Our bus drivers don’t have the right directions, or they don’t send enough buses to pick us up…it’s been a bit nightmarish.

So, I’ll wrap up with this: I have been continuing my interviews with Peter Slen of C-SPAN. They are available on this website: http://www.cspan.org/campaign2012. Scroll down the “hangout’ section of that page and all of the interviews are there. I’m also told Nick with KAMC will interview me at the Convention tonight, and that plus my interview with him last week will air together tonight. I’ll let y’all know for sure that it does, and if you see it – let me know how it looks!

I think we *might* be heading in the right direction now, so I’ll sign off.

Until next time I remain,
Yours,
KVPTexas

Hey y’all-

We have only just now left the Convention Center, we still have to be delivered to our hotel buses, board, and ride the 1.5 back to the hotel. That will make it about 2am or later before we even get to the hotel. Congressman Neugebauer is having us to a breakfast first thing in the morning, so I will post only a short post tonight, and leave the long detailed post for in the morning, after our TX delegation meeting.

Suffice to say, it has been a long but WONDERFUL day. I can’t wait to update y’all on it! I hope you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, because I post *a lot* of pictures throughout the day!

I hope all of you were watching throughout the night, and I want to hear your thoughts as well, so comment and tell me what your favorite part(s) was, okay?

I remain yours,
KVPTexas

We are in the middle of our Texas Delegation meeting, but wanted to update y’all – there will NOT be a Minority Report on the Rules Committee Report today on the floor. With the deletion of Rule 16a2, members have “unsigned” the Minority Report, so we do not have the necessary 29 members for a MR to be presented on the floor.

Additionally, people have submitted, in writing, in advance, a call for the question on the Committee Report, so the only vote will be an up/down vote. It is my estimation that this report WILL pass on the floor, despite objections by many delegations, including Texas. With this decision, we will have to stay on top of our RNC, in order to ensure that they do not change the rules in a way that would infringe on our liberties as citizens and members of this Grand Ole Party.

I’ll keep updating from the Convention floor, but I am about to go interview with CSPAN again – so remember to go to: http://www.cspan.org/campaign2012 – you can watch our “hangouts” on that page, and watch my tweets on the “featured delegates” tab. Scroll down slightly and you’ll see both section.

For Texas,
KVPTexas

Hey y’all – 

I have been receiving a good many emails throughout last night and all day today, concerned with the RNC Rules and what is happening with those. I believe I have answered all of the emails and returned the voicemails…the resort internet and phone services were down for a period of time today though, so if I missed you – call/email me back and I’ll get with you – I promise! I was up until 4:30 am this morning doing delegate business, and back up at 7 in order to start the day again, so I’m not ignoring you – I promise!

Today was not a scheduled Convention day, but A LOT happened. I will do my best to update all of you as to the goings on.

Our day started with our daily delegation briefing, where we heard from Senator John Cornyn and soon-to-be Senator Ted Cruz. Both were fantastic (as always) but, in my opinion, Senator Cornyn really hit a homerun. He reminded us of a certain Texan named Travis who, when surrounded and no where left to turn wrote this: “The enemy has demanded a surrender, and we have responded with a cannon shot!” He said he believes that we are answering the demand for surrender from the Obama administration and liberal Democrats with a cannon shot of our own – Romney/Ryan 2012!

Ted Crus spoke and energized the entire delegation. I mentioned this last night, but he will speak primetime tomorrow (Tuesday) night at approximately 8:10 TEXAS time. That’s just after 9 pm our time. I’m sure ALL of you will be watching the entire Convention, and will not miss any of it. Ted ended his energetic speech with words we all hope and pray as well – if we work hard, and don’t lose faith – “we’re going to make November 2012 look a lot like November 2010.” 

Rep. Louis Gohmert spoke briefly as well – just pumping up the crowd and touching on individual liberties and their importance – which leads me into the RNC Credentials and Rules reports.

Our RNC Credentials Committee members, Eric Opiela and Mandy Tschoepe served on the permanent RNC Credentials Committee, which oversaw three major protests, regarding the delegations of Maine, Oklahoma, and Oregon. Eric has been blogging about the entire process, which I will just briefly state here, so if you’re interested in the entire credentialing process, visit Eric’s blog here. Mandy did mention that there were more protests this year than the RNC has dealt with since the 1952 election. Some notable names from that year? Dewey…for one.

The three protests were quite different – Oklahoma was fairly straight-forward: their state party rules state a roll call vote was required, but they conducted a voice and then a standing vote. The results were overwhelming and no party was disputing the outcome, so the Committee voted to seat that delegation. 

Oregon was strange to everyone. Apparently, Oregon’s 5 Congressional Districts conduct their state convention in 5 locations simultaneously. There were, shockingly, a few problems this year. Their party rules state that the convention is to adjourn at 5 pm, and if, at that time, not all of the alt/del slots are filled, those positions will be filled by appointment of their State Executive Board. The Convention was not finished at 5pm, but, in following Party rules, 4 of the 5 CDs adjourned. One CD, however, went ahead and finished voting in their at-large alternates. They were protesting the alternates that had been appointed by the Executive Board, but the RNC Credentials Committee found that Party rules were followed and seated the delegation that included the appointed alternates. 

Lastly, Mains, which you may have been hearing about in the news. According to Mandy, this Convention was chaotic, with votes being taken before proper credentialing having taken place, the chair not recognizing points of order to remedy this “oversight,” among many other disturbing problems. Mandy reiterated how blessed Texas is to have such a talented and capable leader like steve Munisteri, because that is something Maine obviously did not have. Ultimately, because of all of the chaos, the RNC Committee on Contests chose the remaining delegates, and the RNC Credentials Committee voted to approve that, though Eric and Mandy voted against it, because they felt the Contests Committee should not have made that decision.

Now……for the rules. Last night I reported on Rule 12 and Rule 16a2. Click here for that blog post. I have a few updates that have happened throughout the day, so bear with me and I’ll try to give the details to you chronologically. Melinda Fredricks and Butch Davis, our Committee members to the RNC Rules Committee, came before our delegation this morning and read us a letter they wrote to the rest of the Rules Committee which stated our focus and unity as a state not to accept the rules presented – especially the changes to Rule 16. I’m very proud of Melinda and Butch for their leadership – they have been utterly trashed in the media over the past couple of days, and their stance on the minority reports on these two issues has been called divisive and mutiny, but they and the other 27 committee members on the Minority Report have stood firm.

RPT Chairman Steve Munisteri officially asked the Texas delegation if we were okay with him signing on to a letter with 5 other states, demanding a floor vote on these rule changes. That would mean, basically, that they would have to present these amendments to the body as a whole, and read the minority report, which would have given it a much less chance of passing.

As Melinda and Butch said in their letter, and members of our delegation have said to the media and others who are accusing us of not being in unity – it’s not that we want a floor fight about this…but this is about liberty and an “unacceptable infringement on our right!” (Munisteri). That is always worth fighting for.

AT&T hosted a party this evening for the members of the Texas and Colorado delegations, and while we were on our way home from that, we were informed that a compromise has been reached. The amendment to Rule 16a2 has been voluntarily removed, with the blessing of the RNC and the Romney campaign. Now, instead, delegates will be completely chosen by their individual states, under their state party rules. They will be bound on the first vote, and will lose their delegate privileges if they break their bound vote and choose someone else. This is a VICTORY!!! It is my understanding that the Minority Report on Rule 16 has been withdrawn, since the objection no longer applies.

HOWEVER – Rule 12 hasn’t been touched. Under the Rules up for consideration by the body tomorrow- the RNC can still change the rules between conventions, so we will have to watch that carefully. As I posted yesterday, I understand the need for a bit of leeway, but I am wary to give the RNC an inch…they can tend to grab a mile while they’re at it. I will let you know how the voting goes from the Convention tomorrow. We gavel in at 2 pm.

I conducted two TV interviews today – one with KCBD in Lubbock, which will be shown in the morning sometime, and one with C-SPAN (finally!), which will be posted to their website at some point and used as clips during their broadcasts all week. Peter Slen, one of C-SPAN’s producers, was great in the interview, and invited me to come visit him on Media Row when I get to the Convention Hall tomorrow. I’ll try to post a picture or two if I get a chance to do so. I still have 6 more interviews to do with him, so watch for those. I’m a featured”delegate” on their Convention site, so look for my tweets to show up there as well.

The Scavenger Hunt got off to a great start today, so I hope you are following along on Twitter, as our participants are having a blast with it.

My dad and I slipped out of the resort after all of the meetings and drove to a local Steak ‘n Shake for a Steak Burger and fries. To my intense delight, they had Dr Pepper! I might be able to live now! 🙂 While there, we had several people stop us and ask us what we were doing there, what was the Convention like, how did we like Tampa, etc. The most interesting and rewarding conversation, however, was an almost 30 minute conversation with Kevin Williams, a local small business owner here in Tampa, who owns a distributing business for snack foods. We talked about everything Conservative under the sun, which was great. Kevin was even so kind as to go out and make us up a “goody box” of snacks that he distributes to enjoy as a “thanks” for all the work we’re doing. We sampled a bit and then shared the rest with Chris Elam and the rest of the hard-working RPT staff. Kevin – if you’re reading this – thanks for the conversation and especially the gift box…and you were right…the sugared nuts are addicting…we’ll be calling you! 🙂 Tampa-area folks who might be reading this – please give this small business owner your business. His company is Williams Distributing here in Tampa, and I’ll share his info with you if you want to message me privately.

Lastly, the Texas delegation had a real treat. Brad Bailey, who has already been incredibly generous to the Texas delegation thus far, worked to get us a special surprise. He brought in Doug Sain, who produced the new blockbuster Obama’s America: 2016. We got a chance to hear from Doug, hear his vision, and then we were able to watch the entire movie as a delegation! It was such a rare privilege, and we appreciate Doug, Brad, and the ladies of TFRW for making it possible. Folks – if you haven’t gotten a chance to watch 2016 – DO IT! It’s the perfect way to grab those folks who don’t think we can beat President Obama and give them the needed tools to do just that. I had the opportunity to speak with Doug at length after the film, and he is so passionate about this election and our country – he encouraged me in all that I’m doing as a student leader and beyond, and I’m proud to have gotten a chance to meet and visit with him.

The only other thingI have for y’all is the topic of pictures. For some reason, my iPad isn’t thrilled with the idea of posting or taking good pictures right now, but I have been able to take quite a few, so watch myTwitter account for a few pictures, and I’ll figure out what to do with the rest when I get home to a stable internet provider.

Thank you for your patience and your attention. I know this has been a long post, but I think you deserve to know what’s going on…that’s what you sent me here for, and that’s what I intend to do.

I remain ever yours,
KVPTexas
Kristen Vander-Plas

One more note tonight, folks (yes, I’m still up…doing delegate and TFRW work) – I have just learned two important notes:

Sen-to-be Ted Cruz will speak during the 9 o’clock hour on Tuesday night. This will be 8 pm hor for you folks in Texas.

Also, very importantly, the Oak Ridge Boys will sing during prime time Tuesday night. I am a Big ORB fan, so this excites me a lot. 🙂

Hope y’all are sleeping and don’t see this until later this morning!
Always,
KVPTexas

Well, it has been a good but VERY long day. I’m quite tired, but wanted to update all of you faithful readers. My blog “viewers” have greatly increased over the last day or so, so I hope that means that all of you are sharing my posts with your friends and recommending my website to them. Thank you!

We got in safely yesterday evening, only to find out that due to the weather conditions, the RNC and Florida Governor Rick Scott had chosen to cancel Monday’s Convention schedule. I was on a conference call with Bill Harris, CEO of this Convention, and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who assured us that the call had to be made early and they wanted to avoid the possibility of even one accident, and the probability of hundreds of delegates having to stand outside in driving rain.

Now it seems that Isaac won’t hit Florida at all, but will make landfall in New Orleans. Prayers for Louisiana and Gov Jindal. We share the hotel we’re at with the Louisiana delegation, and I’ve gotten to know several of their delegates. They are wonderful people, and we pray the storm lessens significantly before hitting there (or anywhere).

We had dinner in dowtown Tampa last night, where we met the owner of The Colonnade. He is a fantastic Conservative who wanted to welcome us to Tampa and assure that he and his family did indeed build their small business from a small drive-in to one of the most successful seafood dining restaurants in the Tampa Bay area! Here’s a picture of the sign he posted outside the restaurant doors. While we chatted up the owner, the waitress came and told us that someone had paid our entire dinner bill, saying only that they were proud of me making delegate and of the work I was doing for Texas and America and to “keep it up!” Wow! To my mystery benefactor – thank you! The fried gator was delicious!

Even though today (Sunday) wasn’t an “official” convention day, there was a lot to do. Registration is going smoothly, handled by the ever talented and wonderful RPT staff, especially Chairman Munisteri and Deputy Executive Director Chris Elam. They deserve a round of applause – do it now…or whenever you see them next. Or both. 🙂

We are now loaded down with Convention “swag,” 4 shirts, a cowboy hat, ties, scarves, pins, and, of course – CREDENTIALS! (Yay!) I grabbed lunch with my dad and two other amazing people from CD 19 – Lance and Jane Cansino. Many of you will know Jane’s name because she is our SREC Committee woman for SD28 and the chairman of the RPT Candidate Resource Committee, which fundraises and donates money to the campaigns of our “down the ballot” candidates. She does an amazing job and it’s an honor to count her and Lance as dear friends. I’m glad to be in Tampa with them! Ran into all of the CD 19 delegates and alternates at one point or another today. Everyone is excited and ready to get to work!

Some of you probably remember I was supposed to have a CSPAN interview at 3pm today. We were able to make the connection for a couple of minutes, but because of the storms moving in, the website kept shutting down. We are going to try again for tomorrow’s two interviews, and hopefully they will work then! In other “media” news – my interview with KAMC was supposed to air in Lubbock and across the state this evening. If any of you saw it, I’d be very happy to hear from you how it went/looked/sounded!

We had an official Texas delegation meeting at 3:30pm, where we learned everything Chris Elam knew about Tuesday’s schedule and plans. Because of the new schedule, I will be unable to attend the Right-to-Life luncheon on Tuesday honoring Governor Perry, because there would be no time to get back to the hotel in time to make the bus to the Convention Center. Regardless, I am SO proud of Governor Perry and the others being honored – for their dedication to the rights of the unborn.

We heard today from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (here’s a picture I snapped), and TX Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson. Both of them really fired us up and reminded us to do the work you sent us here to do, but also to cultivate strategies that will make sure we win back the White House and the U.S. Senate this November! Our delegation is strong, and we are a representation of how strong Texas is for Romney/Ryan 2012! In fact, a member of our delegation made this logo for us to show how excited we are! Feel free to use it on Twitter/FB/etc.

I was given the opportunity to address the entire Texas delegation this afternoon, and invite everyone to participate in the Texas Federation of Republican Women Scavenger Hunt. We have a lot of participants, and several of them are already scouring the hotel, securing business cards, taking pictures, and essentially networking with Texas and Louisiana delegates – which is the whole point of the Hunt. Remember to follow them on Twitter at: TFRWTeam1 – TFRWTeam12. I would like to take this second and thank Representative Charles Perry, Representative John Frullo, and Congressman Randy Neugebauer for donating prizes for this Hunt.

Lastly, we heard a report from our members of the RNC Permanent Rules Committee.  I have heard from many of you who are worried about the rules changes that 1) would allow the RNC to change the rules between conventions and 2) would allow presidential nominees to choose the delegates to the National Convention. Here’s what our committee members had to say on those points.

1) Although the original rule change stated that the RNC (entire, not voting/present) would have the ability to change rules in necessary cases between national conventions with only 2/3 support, our own RPT Vice-Chairman Melinda Fredricks proposed an amendment that changed that to 3/4 vote, and not within two years of a national convention. That is to say, the RNC cannot change the rules after September 30, 2014. This gives them a little leeway and flexibility in cases of emergency (where they should be able to come up with the 120+ votes), but not too much leeway so as to take advantage of a situation.

2) This one is VERY disturbing rule change. The original rule change stated that, if accepted, states would only be allowed to choose national delegates from a pool of “acceptable choices,” as determined by the presidential nominee. For incredibly obvious reasons, this is a very bad idea. A compromise was decided on, which I am still incredibly unhappy about, but is better than the first proposal. Both of our committee members signed a minority report, so it will be heard on the convention floor, but only if none of the 29 signers back off. The compromise is this: states will be able to choose their own national delegates, but the presidential nominees will be able to have, for all intents and purposes, veto power over delegates they don’t wish to be a part of the national delegation. From what I have been able to glean, most, if not all, of the entire Texas delegation will be voting against this, and I’ve heard from talking to other states’ delegates that they have been informed as to the change and are against it as well. I don’t know if we have a chance to beat this on the floor, but we sure are going to do our best! I’ll let y’all know how those votes go on Tuesday when we gavel in at 2pm.

I think that’ll do it for tonight – we’ll know more information about Tuesday after our delegation meeting tomorrow. Sen. Cornyn and soon-to-be Sen Ted Cruz will be speaking to us tomorrow – we’re sure to be pumped up by the time we’re done!

Hope all of you have a great night.

Thanks for all YOU’RE doing to further the fight where you are!

Always,

KVPTexas

We were just informed that Gov Rick Scott of Fl has canceled the first day of Convention (Monday) because of the people traveling into Tampa through Tropical Storm Isaac. Don’t know yet if that means Convention will last through Friday or not, but you’ll know when I do!

Best,
KVPTexas

Hey ladies and gents-

About to have my KAMC interview, but thought I’d let y’all know some fun news. I’m excited, and I hope you will be too!

C-SPAN contacted me today and informed me that I’ve been chosen as one of the delegates that they want to interview throughout the Convention! I’m not positive as to all the details, which they promise will be forthcoming, but I do know I’ll be participating in 9 separate interviews over the course of the 5 days (Sunday-Thursday). No word on whether or not they’ll be live, but I doubt it, so stay tuned for broadcast times, if they let me know.

Anyway – just wanted to share this little tidbit with y’all! I’m very excited and floored by the honor and grace that’s being bestowed on me on this trip – I am grateful to God for His blessings, and grateful to all of you for placing your trust in me. I won’t let you down.

Always,
KVPTexas

Howdy y’all!

Last evening, I had the opportunity to be on a conference call with the RNC, the Convention administrators and VA Gov Bob McDonnell. The Governor was a fantastic speaker. He was greatly encouraging and informative, not just about the upcoming Convention, but about the Rmney campaign, and how we can go forward winning votes and creating a dialogue when all of us return home, in his words, “utterly exhausted but exhilarated!”

He remarked that we desperately need to get the youth vote out. I concur. We cannot win without it, just as President Obama would not have won without it in 2008. As Gov !cDonnell reminded us though, we have the upper hand in the argument with young people. Jobs are at an all time low for their generation, while tuition and taxes are higher than ever. If they want a job now or when they graduate, young people would be best served by voting Romney-Ryan this November!

We also discussed the Party Platform. 116 members worked on the platform all this week and we will vote on it during the first session on Monday. There have been a lot of concerns about the pro-Life planks, due to Rep Akin’s very unfortunate comments this week. I have been assured that the Platform remains as strong as ever on that plank, along with many others that I know you care about.

When you elected me, I promised I’d hold people’s feet to the fire on pro-Life issues, and I intend to keep that promise. If the planks of our platform have been weakened due to political correctness, I will stand up for our beliefs and, more importantly, the rights of the unborn and lead a charge to strengthen the affected planks until they are as strong as they should be. Some say the parties’ platforms don’t mean anything anymore. I couldn’t disagree more. This is what we’re here for! I’ll keep you updated on this while in Tampa. I should know more pretty early afternoon on Monday. Watch for a post – even a quick one – then.

I know we have a lot of Dr Ron Paul supporters out there who don’t want to vote for Gov Rmney for one reason or another. Believe me, I sympathize. Rarely do Republicans get exactly the person they were hoping for when our nominee is finally chosen. I have been critical of Gov Zromney in the past, and there are still concerns…but I do believe this with all my heart: I believe Gov Romney loves and believes in our country. I believe he has good morals and will try to do what he thinks is right. And I believe our country as we know it will not survive Anton 4 years of the Obama Administration. No…that doesn’t mean I think we are going to have a civil war, but I do believe we will fall so far behind of where we should be a nation that we will be unable to recover within our lifetimes. Please search your heart, if you’re still holding out for Dr Paul and make the choice that’s right for all of America.

I was contacted yesterday by a reporter from KAMC/KLBK. I learned that the stations are sending Nick to Tampa to follow thenLubbock delegates around. So it looks like y’all will have some good video, photos, and interviews! Make sure to watch starting Sunday night. Mick is coming over to my house for an interview at 2:30 later this afternoon (Friday) in order to get some footage of me packing, of all things, and talking about how my journey started. It’s supposed to air Sunday night. Let me know how it looks! I’ll post the link here when it becomes available.

Lastly, I have received several messages and phone calls from many of you worried about me heading into the eye of Hurricane Isaac. I wanted to let you all know that it looks like all Tampa will be getting a good amount of rain on Tuesday – nothing else. The hurricane is projected to make landfall quite a bit west of Tampa, so we will be safe. Thank you for all of the kind concern…you make me very proud to be your friend and representative.

Thank you all for everything. I treasure all of the notes and messages I’ve been getting. You make me, if possible, even happier to be from West Texas. Please share this page with your friends. If you don’t want to do that, then please forward my messages on to your email loop so that people can be informed. This is important, folks. Stay with it!

I remain,
Humbly Yours,
KVPTexas