Presidential election memories

[DKrol]

2004: The first election I have a memory of. I was in 2nd grade and we held a mock election, as all kids do, and we voted overwhelmingly for John Kerry, because he was from Massachusetts and we thought we had to vote for the candidate from our state. I don't remember much else from 2004.

2008: I was in 6th grade and much more politically aware. My mom took me with her to vote in the MA primary for Clinton but when Obama when the nomination I became a McCain supporter (as much as a 6th grader could be). I remember being the only kid in my civics class who a) was engaged and excited about the election process and b) who said they supported McCain. On Election Day, I wore a "John Olver for Congress" pin to school, because he had given it to me during a campaign stop in town. My school was a polling place so when I walked into the lunch room wearing the pin, I was told I was too close to the polling booths while wearing the pin and had to take it off. I thought this was the greatest tragedy.

2012: I was a strong Romney supporter from the start of the primaries. I loved the idea of a moderate businessman swooping in to fix the country's problems. I hosted a mock political talk show for my school's morning news/announcements program, and even interviewed a former Governor (and family friend) for the program. This was the first election I tried to predict and had Romney winning CO, FL, IN, MI, NC, NH, OH, PA, VA and the election, handily. I ate quite a bit of crow the morning after.

2016: As a college freshman during the primaries in New Hampshire, I bounced around between various moderate Republicans. I started out as a Bush supporter, then Christie, and then settled on Kasich, volunteering to some extent on all three campaigns. My roommate and I were at Kasich's New Hampshire Primary night rally. After Trump steamrolled to the nomination, I held out hope that the "Free the Delegates" movement would win at the Convention and Romney, Kasich, Rubio, or Cruz would emerge as a compromise nominee. When that failed, I flipped between Clinton and Johnson. Because I continued to vote in MA, despite being legally able to in NH, I knew it didn't matter who I voted for in the end, so I was fairly strongly settled for Johnson. And then "What is Aleppo." So I was back to being torn, until I attended a lunch with Donna Brazile, whose passion and spark cemented me in the Clinton camp despite working for other Republican candidates and being a College Republican.