Shorewood High School senior Sam Nelson has always liked politics. So much so that he’s aiming to be elected as a delegate for the Republican National Convention in September.
But before he can serve as a national delegate, he must be elected as one at the Washington State Republican Party Convention May 29-31 in Spokane. Nelson, 18, hopes his political experience and desire to represent his generation will set him apart from others.
“I’m going there knowing there’s a good chance I probably won’t win,” Nelson said from the King County Republican Party phone bank on May 23.
As one of the top vote receivers at his legislative convention earlier in the year, Nelson earned the delegate position at this weekend’s convention. At 18, he’ll be one of the youngest delegates at the convention according to executive director of the King County Republican Party, Nathan Johnson.
“Sam is an energetic, ambitious, driven, young person who has really proven himself,” Johnson said. “He has put an impressive resume together.”
Nelson met Johnson last year after he took a volunteer position as a greeter when former presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited Washington state.
“Mitt Romney came in (the room) and it was like when you’re nine years old going down a roller coaster times ten,” Nelson said. “I liked him and I liked everything he stood for.”
After Romney’s visit, Nelson said he racked up hundreds of hours as a volunteer at the King County Republican Party headquarters in Bellevue. When the future of the party’s one–room phone bank on North 85th Street in Seattle was questionable, Nelson volunteered to run it once a week.
“I had assumed that all of the kids at my school would be as excited about it as I was,” he said. “But finding cold callers for anything is tough. Finding volunteer cold callers is tougher and finding them for a county prosecutor’s race is even tougher especially when you know he’s a Republican in King County.
But after a few weeks, Nelson said more and more people volunteered to make calls. And when Dino Rossi announced his campaign for governor, Nelson was offered a position as the phone bank’s director.
He was happy to accept.
Today, he and roughly 20 volunteers manage to make 1,000 calls per week asking registered voters in King County to vote for Rossi.
“The people that I work with everyday do the least pleasant work imaginable and they’re putting their time and energy into it,” Nelson said.
At the state Republican Convention Nelson will get the opportunity to introduce himself and express his willingness to serve as a national delegate for Sen. John McCain. If elected, he plans to make the trip to the national convention in St. Paul, Minn. from Brigham Young University where he will be studying economics.
“I’m just going to say that I’d like to represent the young people in our party,” he said. “Not very many (people) have been as involved as I am and I think that makes me stand out.”
If there is one downside to serving as a delegate this time around, it’s missing his high school prom but Nelson said he’s attended the dance as an underclassman and both he and his girlfriend believe the opportunity to serve as a delegate is more important.
“I feel a responsibility to say we do have young people on our side and I associate with them everyday and they believe in traditional American values — in the free market and the entrepreneurial spirit and in the American dream — I want to represent that,” Nelson said.
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