Pennsylvania Delegates Greet Trump Time in Cleveland

by Denise Clay

DONALD TRUMP’S coronation found the Penna. Delegation unified, reports Denise Clay from Cleveland

When Justin Gallagher, a 20-year-old senior at Penn State University, started seeing signs that the citizens of the school district from which he graduated weren’t being properly served, he did what any good citizen would do.

He ran for office.

Gallagher is the youngest elected official in Erie County, serving on the local school board. He’s also going to graduate a year early from Penn State with a degree in finance.

He likes serving his community by sharing his talents and hopes to continue doing it through public service. Gallagher also has a lot of great ideas.

And he looks forward to sharing them with his fellow delegates at this week’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

“I look forward to talking with other leaders and sharing ideas,” he said. “I hope to bring a younger perspective to the issues. I also look forward to hearing the ideas of the powerful people here and taking them back to my district.”

The Pennsylvania Delegation to the Republican National Convention may be only 71 people strong, but it hopes to be mighty enough to help presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in November.

For many of the delegates, like Gallagher, this year is their first time coming to a political convention. But getting these delegates ready to go out and work for their candidate is going to be easy because they believe in Trump, said Rob Gleason, chair of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party.

“Our whole delegation is in support of the nominee. Once the Rules Committee voted not to change the rules, Trump was in,” Gleason affirmed.

Delegates on the Rules Committee, members of the #NeverTrump movement, had tried to get the GOP to get rid of Rule 12, the rule that delegates the authority make rule changes to the RNC instead of allowing individual votes, but they were unsuccessful.

That’s news to the ears of most of the new delegates, people who came in as Trump supporters. Among those supporters is Carolina Harris, an alternate delegate who is also chair of Yeadon’s Republican Party. She’s hoping that with the help of her fellow delegates, people will have a clearer idea of Trump’s message by the time everyone packs up and leaves on Friday.

“What I’m hoping is the platform is made clearer,” Harris said.

WARD LEADER Calvin Tucker

Calvin Tucker of Northwest Philadelphia is the lone African American voting delegate in the Philadelphia Delegation. He believes that a Trump presidency will benefit African Americans in cities because of his background in business, Tucker said.

“He has a record of building in urban communities,” Tucker said of Trump. “Places like Philadelphia need more entrepreneurs and less unemployment. I think he’ll do that.”

The convention kicked into high gear Monday morning for Pennsylvania delegates with an appearance from Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Later that night, they heard a spate of speakers on Trump’s law-and-order policies that included former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and the candidate’s wife, Melania.

Ryan came to the breakfast to fire up the Pennsylvania delegates, a group that includes 13 members of the House that are reliable votes for the Republican cause in Washington.

Part of the reason for this is the strength of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, Ryan said. Currently, Republicans control 13 of the 15 seats in the Commonwealth’s delegation to Washington.

HOUSE SPEAKER Paul Ryan

“I have been running around this country working on our party, working on our agenda, making sure that we elect our team…” Ryan said. “And we’re only as strong as our party is strong and I’ve got to tell you that this is a strong Republican party in Pennsylvania. I think we all owe Rob Gleason a debt of gratitude.”

He also told the gathering that their votes, and the 20 electoral delegates connected to them, could make the difference between a Republican or a Democrat occupying the White House next year.

“You could be the ones who decide this in Pennsylvania,” Ryan said.

State Party Chair Gleason echoed the same sentiments to reporters at a press luncheon on Tuesday, the convention’s second day. He believes that Donald Trump, the party’s presumptive nominee, will do better than 2012 candidate Mitt Romney did in the Commonwealth.

“The momentum is building and I’m feeling pretty positive,” he said. “I believe that Donald Trump will win 60 counties in Pennsylvania. All of the signs look good for a win.”

But will Trump’s presence make minority outreach, something the GOP has had a problem with on both a local and national level, harder? Gleason doesn’t think so.

“I don’t think it’ll complicate things,” he said. “Minorities want jobs, and Donald Trump will get them.”

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