Steve --
It's been a whirlwind tour promoting the effort to draft Dr. Benjamin Carson for President over the last 30 days. I've been to St Louis, MO, Annaheim, CA, Washington, DC, Manchester, NH, and Des Moines, IA.
• St. Louis, MO, Sep 25: The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). CPAC was great. I got lots of petitions signed, met the leadership and activists of many mid-western conservative groups and laid the ground work that is paying off with an emerging draft Carson organization in Missouri.
• Annaheim, CA, Oct 4-5: The California Republican Party State Convention. I met lots of Carson supporters among republican and tea party attendees, recruited volunteers and realized how important the republican women's clubs were to our draft effort. In fact, a cadre of volunteers I met attended the California Federation of Republican Women convention in Stockton two weeks later and signed up even more draft Carson supporters.
• Washington, DC, Oct 11-13: The Values Voter Summit (VVS). We signed up supporters from conservative attendees from across the country. Run Ben Run placards we're raised with enthusiasm while Dr. Carson was speaking. Chairman of National Draft Ben Carson, John Philip Sousa IV spoke with Dr. Carson briefly after the speech to let him know that we had raised over $300,000 in 50 days and had collected over 200,000 petitions. The best part of VVS was the straw poll for President where Dr. Carson finished 2nd to Sen. Ted Cruz in a field of 22 potential candidates.
• Manchester and Seabrook NH, Oct 17-18: The 5th Annual NH Young Republicans Lobster Bake and Straw Poll. I met with party leaders, alumni of Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich's presidential campaigns in 2012 and GOP elected officials to get a political feel for New Hampshire. Dr. Carson won an upset victory in the straw poll with 43% of the vote over Sen. Rand Paul and the rest of potential field. Of course, we also got lots of petitions signed during our time in New Hampshire.
• Des Moines, IA, Oct 25: The Iowa State GOP Reagan Dinner. I got a chance to meet with party leaders, get more petitions signed, and Jim Zeiler - the Iowa field director for Cain's 2012 campaign - drove 12 hours round trip to introduce me around. We had four great volunteers manning the booth at the dinner. At the same time, volunteers in CA and AL were working tables at statewide GOP events. Internal polling of Iowa Caucus goers showed Cruz at 17% and Carson at 13%.
Sincerely,
Vernon Robinson
National Campaign Director
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