Sheila Faske went to the National Republican Convention last week as a Donald Trump delegate and discovered her hardest job was explaining gumbo to a German news crew. Faske is the chair of the Orange County Republican Party and has been active in local and state politics for years. This year as a delegate to the convention in Cleveland, she experienced politics on the national level.
While at the convention, she dressed in the Texas flag shirt and cowboy hat. Sponsors buy the outfits each year for delegates from the state. The outfit makes the Texas contingent stand out from thousands of others. Faske and David Covey were the delegates from Orange County and two of three from Texas Congressional District 36.
As the last numbered district in the state, they sat in the back of the delegation. Faske said their seats were near the CNN booth and other news media groups. She ended up being interviewed a number of times and that’s where the gumbo comes in. She told a reporter from New York that she comes “from the Cajun side” of Texas and offered to make him gumbo if he visits. That led to other reporters wanting to talk to her about gumbo. Americans love Cajun food and know gumbo. Germans don’t. “The best I could come up with was ‘soup,’” she said.
The convention was exhausting. “I had no idea I could go so long with so little sleep,” she said. The delegation would meet at 8 a.m. in the morning and then begin the work for the day. That work ended late and they would get back to the hotel at 1:30 the next morning. She said they’d eat and then get to bed about 2:30 a.m.
The delegation had a continental breakfast for the 8 a.m. meeting. But the first day, Faske got there right on time and the breakfast was gone. So was her meal for the day. She learned she better get there by 7:30 a.m. The rest of the day it was “grabbing peanuts and Cokes. It’s not for the faint at heart,” she said.
The Texas delegation was next to the Colorado delegation. Colorado was protesting Trump being the presidential nominee and the first day the delegation walked out. Faske said the Texas delegation was seated by the Colorado group and Colorado encouraged them to walk out, too. A Texan yelled to Colorado “Remember the Alamo. Texans don’t run.”
Police, National Guard members, state police and even special snipers were all out around the convention center and the city. “We were so safe,” Faske said.
She loved seeing Trump and his children, especially Ivanka.
Delegates have to pay for their way to the convention. Faske said before she ran to become a delegate, the party let them know it would run at least $2,000. She said hotel rooms in Cleveland were running $350 a night.
She and two friends drove there and back. On the way back, they took in sights along the way, including the newly-opened Noah’s Ark, built to the biblical dimensions, in Kentucky. “It’s awesome. It’s just huge,” she said. They also stopped to see where the Louisville Slugger baseball bats are made. They arrived back in Orange County Sunday.
As county Republican chair, Faske isn’t worried about him winning Orange County and the state. In recent years, a large majority of the county has voted Republican. Instead, she has a goal of getting voters to turn out for the November election. Orange County’s record number of voters came in 2008. She hopes to surpass that number of more than 32,000 people.
Social Media