2020 Mock Convention
This year, the students of W&L got to experience and take part in their very own Mock Convention. While students on the convention’s executive committee had been working to put together the convention for the past three years, the majority of students only began to get involved within the past year. Students worked tirelessly figuring out logistics, working with the University faculty and staff as well as Lexington officials, while also staying on top of political research. The leaders of Mock Convention were organized into several departments:
Steering Committee
General Department
Financial Department
Political Department
Operations Department
Communications Department
Student contribution at all levels was invaluable to Mock Convention 2020 running smoothly. Most student become involved in the fall prior to the convention when the Delegates Fair is hosted on Caanan Green. The leaders of each state and U.S. territory table and help students sign up to be delegates. Within each state there are different committees such as research, finance and float. The research team is responsible for putting out several reports leading up to the convention, predicting how they believe the state or territory will vote.
The convention began the evening of February 13, 2020 with a Politics & Media Panel. The panel consisted of Jim Acosta, Tara McGowan, Errin Haines, Mike Allen, and Bill Roberts. Jim Acosta is CNN’s chief White House correspondent and an experienced journalist. Tara McGowan is a progressive leader and considered an intrepid political communicator. Errin Haines is an award-winning journalist and respected political commentator. Mike Allen is not only a political journalist and the co-founder of Axios, but also an alumnus of Washington and Lee University. Bill Robers is a senior producer for Al Jazeera as well as an alumnus.
Following the friday morning parade down mainstreet, the first session of the 2020 Mock Convention opened with the call to order, followed by a speech by Symone Sanders, a senior advisor for Joe Biden in addition to being a lauded author. Former US Senator and Representative Joe Donnelly. After a brief break, crowds reconvened for the convention’s second session. Nadine Strossen, the first female president of the American Civil LIberties Union, spoke first, followed by Patti Solis-Doyle, a former Senior Advisor to President Obama.
Session three began Saturday morning with Donna Brazile, the former Chair of the DNC, followed by Cameron Kasky, a 19-year-old who co-founded March of Our Lives. To round out the session, comedian and host of “The Daily Show” Trevor Noah answered questions and had a conversation with Victoria Morgan ‘20 and Kyle Perel ‘20.
The final session opened with a speech from Andrew Gilllum. Gillum was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Governor of Florida. Mock Convention student leaders then led the delegations through the roll call vote and final candidate prediction.
In order to win the nomination, a candidate had to receive 1,991 delegates. The first ballot had the following results
Bernie Sanders: 1,642
Joe Biden: 1,237
Mike Bloomberg: 727
Pete Buttigieg: 202
Elizabeth Warren: 97
Amy Klobuchar: 51
Tom Steyer: 23
With no candidate reaching the 1,991 delegate threshold, this was a contested convention. After deliberations and reevaluations, 2020 Mock Convention predicted Bernie Sanders would be the democratic nominee for President of the United States of America. Unfortunately, Sanders was unwilling to phone in to thank the student body for its efforts and prediction, but an aide accepted on his behalf.
Below, please find two interviews conducted with Class of 2020 students who were involved in this year's Mock Convention.
