By Xhorxhina Zyka
Staff Writer
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile typical high school students focus on the next test, senior Jordan Hennessy’s focus was on the 2012 Presidential Election. The experience he gained from campaigning, led him to form the FFHS Republican Party.
Hennessy became involved with Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign after receiving a phone call from Jay Godfrey, the regional manager for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign of 2012 and the regional manager for North Carolina Republican Party (N.C. GOP). After reviewing Hennessy’s resume and his involvements in the community, such as volunteer activities, freelancing for the Outer Banks Sentinel and public relations, he asked Hennessy if he would be interested to help in Romney’s campaign.
“He called me and wanted to see if I would be willing to get organization of the Romney campaign here in Dare County and I said sure,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy then proceeded to fill out paperwork and went through the interview and orientation process. Godfrey then began informing Hennessy of his job requirements, including everything from campaign organization to party meetings.
“I had to organize findings and show campaign material, however for me to be effective, I had to go to other local events, like Dare County Republican Party meetings, Outer Banks Tea Party meetings and talk to people that were more involved than I was at that time,” Hennessy said. “I went there and claimed that we need change in our government and we should invest our time to help Romney get elected as our next president and try to advertise this message.”
Jordan then met with Dare County Republican party chair, Browny Douglas and the OBX Tea Party leader, Lisa Marley, and discussed ideas about finding a place to establish headquarters. After a moment of hesitation considering budget issues, they agreed to temporarily rent a house in Kill Devil Hills to hold meetings. The Dare County Republican Party then moved to Manteo to get participation from different people.
“We started doing it in a house in Kill Devil Hills, someone’s house who was involved. Then, we had to find another place to do it,” Hennessy said. “We found a resort in Manteo because we didn’t want to do it in KDH.”
Once the Dare County Republican Party found headquarters, it needed immediate help from volunteers because the doors were flooded with many visitors.
“We even had someone from 35 states, coming for headquarters bringing in hundreds and sometimes even thousands of dollars a day volunteering,” Hennessy said.
During the campaign, Hennessy travelled to Chapel Hill, Raleigh, areas of Eastern North Carolina and Norfolk, where he witnessed Romney announce Paul Ryan as his Vice President candidate.
Not only did Hennessy help by answering phone calls the Republican Party received and convincing people to vote for Romney, but he also helped with campaign advertising.
“We advertised in the Coastal Times, the Sentinel, on the radio and also the Weather Channel,” Hennessy said.
Hennessy believes this experience helped him with his communication as well as his leadership skills and gave him a new perspective of the U.S. government.
“This experience has helped me grow and has made me realize how thankful I am for what I have,” Hennessy said. “Talking to people that are struggling really touches you and the tax burdens they are having with the federal government is just too much.”
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