It was standing room only at the Town and County convention center Monday night (May 9) where the Republican Party members of San Diego held their monthly meeting.
Local officials in attendance included Gina Roberts, Valley Center’s honorary mayor, Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn and Escondido Mayor Sam Abed who is also running for Board of Supervisors Seat in District 3 now held by Dave Roberts.
The crowd, which contained over 300 people, was there in support of Donald Trump. Michelle Neuenswander of Escondido is a Trump supporter and is “angry that local party leaders won’t get behind Trump.” She also said, “that if the leadership doesn’t get behind Trump soon then Hillary Clinton will win the election in November.”
The GOP’s special guest for the evening was Tim Clark, California director for Donald Trump for President. He spoke about the national debt, government corruption in Washington D.C. and praised local 78th District Central Committee Member Woody Woodrum for his help in getting a volunteer force of 94,000 plus ready for the upcoming election in November against whomever wins the Democratic presidential race later this summer.
But things really got interesting when the Q&A session started. A young college student, Alan Dotson from San Diego asked Clark, “What is the Trump campaign going to do to help thirty to 20 year old college students.” Clark seemed stunned by Dotson’s question and tried to dodge it but
thought twice when he noticed that the local press was in the audience.Clark then pointed to an unnamed person in the back who supposedly was in charge of getting college kids out to vote. Clark then said Dotson ought to go to college campuses to encourage people his age to get out to vote.
Dotson replied that he was “not satisfied with the answer.”
I interviewed Tim Clark following the conclusion of the meeting and pressed him regarding Dotson’s question. He referred me to “higher leaders of the Trump campaign who know more about that particular issue.”
Clark gave the same answer when asked how the Trump campaign was trying to reach former Ted Cruz supporters in San Diego to come out and vote for Trump in the June 7 California primary.
Asked to name three counties in California that Trump needs to win the state, Clark said, “We don’t need three counties, we need the whole state of California, whether it is the Bay Area up in Northern California or the City of Los Angeles down here in Southern California.”
So while there was plenty energy and excitement for Trump at this meeting; the people operating Donald Trump’s campaign in California appeared unorganized.
It’s too early to tell if this will have an effect on the general elections in November. Stay tuned to The Escondido Times-Advocate for continuing coverage of the 2016 elections here in North County.
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