Hi everyone,
It feels great to be here today in Burlington, a city that's been so kind to grant us hospitality for such a long convention! As you all know, I placed my name up for nomination to be the next chair of our party. I hope y'all will consider me when you cast your ballots in the next couple days. While I know the chair carries a lot of technical duties, which I would certainly carry out, the reason why I'm running is because of an idea. I've been in Atlasia for almost a year now. I've been in three different parties, and made some great friendships. Through all that, I can't think of anytime I've had more fun than being a member of the Progressive Union, especially when we all came together to support our party's ticket in the presidential election. Probably the closest thing to it for me was when I ran for Mideast Senate. The reason why this has been so much better is because we did it as a team. We built this party up as a team, coming together to vote on pretty much everything from the name to the logo and the platform. We hit the ground running, and barreled right into the presidential election. Even though it was a longshot, we stuck together and kept our spirits high, and I'm convinced that's the reason why we did so well.
We're the biggest third party in Atlasia, but if we want to keep up our success, our unity, excitement, and teamwork is going to be essential. We've had some adversity and taken a lot of heat from the two major parties. We can't count on either of them for support, but we can and should be able to count on each other. As long as we stay united, we have the numbers, the enthusiasm, and the right blend of experience and youth to succeed. It's just up to us to make sure we keep that up.
Enthusiasm is totally critical. We've made it this far as a party, but we shouldn't stop there. The best way to keep getting votes and win elections is to stay vocal! So a few people that are never going to vote for us anyway might cry about it? SO what? Nobody is going to care about the Progressive Union if we don't stay out there with active campaigns and new ideas. That doesn't mean we have to be loony either. A lot of the long timers around here seem to look down on active, idea oriented campaigns. I disagree. Ideas and excitement matter. There's no way I would have done so well in my senate campaign if that wasn't true.
By staying vocal and excited, we'll make sure everyone knows about us, and more people will want to join. This brings me to my last point. We need to keep having fun! I think everyone agrees that the presidential election was a great time. Let's keep that up in future elections and find ways to make the time between elections fun too. I'm not saying we need more conventions, but there's things we can do in between election seasons to keep up morale, and I'm totally open to exploring those ideas.
TLDR: As chair, my priority will be staying excited and enthusiastic, encouraging everyone to stay involved in elections, and to try to make sure being in the Progressive Union is fun.
Wow I wrote way more than I was planning to! Thanks for taking the time to listen to my speech, and I hope no matter what happens, our party will stay what made the last election so much fun.
