The Saint Anselm College Republicans held their second annual convention on Saturday, January 19 at the NHIOP Auditorium. The event, which was open to the Anselmian community, aimed to emphasize the College Republican’s new motto: “New Year. New Leadership. New Opportunity.”

CR member Kristen Van Uden ’16 served as the Master of Ceremonies for the convention. After leading the Pledge of Allegiance, Van Uden introduced Jake Wagner ‘14, Chairman of the New Hampshire Federation of College Republicans. Even with the outcome of the Presidential Election, Wagner believed the Republican Party had a strong election season. According to Wagner, the CR’s alone logged over 2,000 volunteer hours.

Before the commencement of the election, Chairman Wayne MacDonald of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee took the stage to discuss the new direction of the Republican Party. MacDonald, a SAC graduate from the class of ’76, overviewed the strengths of the Democratic Party in this past Presidential Election. While the race between Obama and Romney was close, MacDonald recognized that the Democrats had strong support from younger voters, women, and minorities. Also, the Democrats had greater ease in communicating with their voters because of advanced technology. As the Republican Party moves forward, MacDonald says it will need to reach out to these particular demographics and “modernize” their means of communication.

Following MacDonald’s speech, the election portion of the convention began. College Republicans nominated their fellow members for the positions of Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary. After each individual nomination, the motion had to be seconded by another CR member in order for the nominee to be placed on the ballot. Once the nominees had been selected, each ascended to the podium to deliver a short speech.

Although the nine nominees were running for one of the four positions, their speeches all had the same central idea. Each member touched upon the College Republican’s new image.

As nominee for Vice-Chair, Kendra Schnip ’15 said, “I want to make sure that our image is not tarnished in any way.”

The College Republicans hope that such innovation, including the rewritten constitution, will encourage new members to join and allow the other political parties on campus to see them in a positive light.

“Think of today as a stepping forward point,” said nominee for Chair, Tara Sennick ’14.

Faculty Advisor Jennifer Lucas and Chief of Elections Paul Spencer ’15 counted the ballots. The newly elected officials of the College Republicans include Tara Sennick ’14 as Chair of the club and Eric Hook ’16 as First Vice-Chair. Sophomore Kendra Schnip serves as Second Vice-Chair, while freshman Brian O’Connor and sophomore Kelsey Fair were elected Treasurer and Secretary, respectively.

The convention concluded with a presentation from guest speaker, Patrick Sweeney. Sweeney is a political consultant, as well as the former Rhode Island GOP Executive Director. Sweeney’s presentation, much like Chairman MacDonald’s speech, focused on the weaknesses of the Romney Campaign that contributed to Obama’s re-election.

Sweeney reiterated the fact that the Obama Campaign had support from minority groups – a demographic that both the Romney Campaign and the Republican Party in general need to attract. Also, the Romney Campaign suffered a great loss from Romney’s 47% comment. While, according to Sweeney, the Democrats took this comment out of context, the Romney Campaign failed to respond to these negative campaign ads. An immediate response to such advertisements would have been necessary to salvage Romney’s reputation.

In addition to these areas, Sweeney says that the Republican Party needs to make improvements in technology. During this past election, the Obama Campaign succeeded in communication with its supports precisely because the campaign hired people from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites.

With such innovations in mind, both the Saint Anselm College Republicans and the entire Republican Party are eager to move forward in a new direction.