1980 Mock Convention
Barry Goldwater was a five-term U.S. Senator that represented the Republican Party from Arizona. He was considered a conservative republican. Additionally, he ran for president in the 1964 election. William E miller would have been his vice president. He lost the race to Lyndon B. Johnson. Goldwater opposed high taxes and government spending. Goldwater today is one of the biggest names Mock Convention has ever had. The fact Barry Goldwater ran for president only 16 years before speaking to W&L is amazing. Hearing about the road to try and win the white house live is something many Mock Conventions dream about having. His political experiences and personal stories would have been rivetting to hear.
The 1980 Mock Convention correctly nominated Ronald Reagan as the next presidential candidate. Reagan even went on to become president a few months after W&L believed he would be the republican nominee. Before the Mock Convention officially begins, a parade takes place with all states represented on different floats. The parade down Main street is an ongoing tradition that has been going for decades. In the parade during the 1980 convention, a firework went off that set a fire off on the Iowa float. There even was an elephant featured in the parade as well. This wasn't the first-time animals had been in the convention. On top of elephants, llamas, goats, dogs, and horses have been featured in the parades throughout the years. The Parade initiates the Mock Convention activities for the weekend. The big-name speakers at the actual convention in 1980 included the 1964 republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater as well as South Carolina representative Les Cotter.
The 1980 Parade featured elephants and Clydesdale horses. Many hours of preparation goes into making the parade as successful as it is. The parade is a way to bring the community of Lexington together. Students at W&L spend countless hours creating the floats that go down Main Street that celebrate the kick-off of Mock Convention. These floats are extremely elaborate and represent all of the states perfectly. Not only do the students look forward to the parade, but the community of Lexington looks forward to the parade every four years as well. Elementary schools in Lexington get to take a field trip to the parade whenever it is occurring! The Mock Convention parade begins the weekend festivities on a playful and fun note before diving into the more serious poltiical discussions regarding which candidate they will nominate as the next presidential candidate.
The 1980 research team for the convention had to choose from only three candidates running for the Republican presidential nomination. They chose from Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and John Anderson. Ultimately, the team followed newspaper reports consistently to determine which candidate they believed would pull through to win the nomination and were right. Additionally, investigative work applied to figuring out who the 1980 presidential candidate would be. Students would speak with alumni or politicians that they had connections to in order to see if they could get any background information on some of the candidates running. It would be interesting to see if they would have been right if they had such few resources in 1980 and had to choose from over 20 candidates.