The Countdown to Election Day Tour

And We're Off

At 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday night I was doing Spanish homework and checking my email. By 5:30 I was going on an adventure. A friend of mine, Diane Hubbard, had emailed me asking if I would like to join Richard Mourdock (R-IN), the Indiana State Treasurer, and herself on a two day van tour of northern Indiana. I had previously had the privilege to work with Mr. Mourdock on multiple occasions before hand so I immediately accepted. This one email set off a chain reaction that has since whisked me out of Bloomington, Indiana; through central and northeastern Indiana finally landing me in a beautiful bed-and-breakfast called the Oliver Inn, located in South Bend, Indiana. But I am getting ahead of myself, the end of Day 1 is not important; rather what is important is the journey we all took to get here.


11 Cities in Two Days

Diane and I met up with Richard Mourdock, Mike 'Sully" Sullivan, Paul Kilpatrick, and Jinni Schneider at 8:30 on the north side of Indianapolis where we piled into an all white, fifteen person passenger van that had magnetic Mourdock signs stuck to the sides. We hit the road already trying to stick to the schedule as we made our way to our first stop. At 9:00 a.m. we rolled into Tipton, Indiana and met with the local GOP officials and greeted some die hard Mourdock supporters. I was still a little groggy after barely sleeping the night before, but the good people of Tipton provided an excellent spread of brownies, donuts, orange juice, and coffee that soon revived me. Richard talked to the crowd and we all had a great time talking about elections, the most recent poll numbers, and basically just hanging out. While there, Richard's county coordinator, Tarin joined up with us and would travel with us for the rest of the trip. As we left, the Tipton GOP won my heart when they sent a package of brownies and snacks for us to have for the long ride. (Sadly these snacks didn't even make it out of Tipton County.)

As we made our way to our second campaign event of the day in Logansport, Indiana, we began to run late. Unfortunately we had begun to run late due to a time mix up. However, when we finally did arrive, the Logansport GOP had a great crowd gathered to hear Richard give a speech. The crowd was so enthusiastic and supportive that our apologies for being late seemed to go unnoticed, they only cared about one thing, getting to hear Richard speak. After much hand shaking and talking, we were soon ushered back into the van so that we would be on time for our next event. I want to take this moment to sincerely thank the people of Logansport, Indiana for giving us such a warm and gracious welcome even after we were late. You were great!

The day continued much along this same pace, stopping in different counties and meeting with different GOP officials and concerned citizens. The Tour made stops in Plymouth, Warsaw, Goshen, and finally ending our night in South Bend.

At the Warsaw campaign stop, I was fortunate enough for Richard to have asked me to speak with him, in a sense, to the county GOP. During his speech he introduced me without any notice and then began to ask me some political questions that he knew i would be able to answer. The ab lib question and response speaking was fun and the crowd seemed really into it. Warsaw was a great stop and I absolutely love its beautiful lake front. Simply astounding.

The next day was just as crazy as the first with campaign stops in South Bend, Laporte, Valparaiso, Crown Point, and Lafayette. The Laporte stop was fun and the crowd was great. These people truly seemed to love Richard and all the great work he has done. It was a blustery day in Laporte, and yet the Laporte County GOP headquarters was full and people really seemed to enjoy themselves.

My favorite stop of the trip though had to be the Crown Point stop. This is my home town and these are my politics. I spent the entire summer learning from the bottom up Lake County politics. And now here I was, three months later returning home on a van tour with the Indiana State Treasurer, I was in heaven. Things were made even better by my mom, grand father, uncle, aunt, and my political mentor Suzy Barnhart all showing up to the event. Even more exciting was that after Richard spoke, I got to give a speech in front of the entire Lake County GOP, as well as my family and friends. I talked about Richard and how great he is at bringing everyone into the fold and how he represents the future of Republican politics, all of which is true and all of which I felt in my heart.

11 cities and almost 38 hours after it began, the van pulled back into the Indianapolis Target parking lot where we had all met the day before. The ride had been draining and hectic to say the least, but it had been more rewarding than I could have possibly imagined. I met true friends along the way, and I developed and even greater love for Indiana and all of my fellow Hoosiers I met along the way. Thank you to all of the people who came out and saw us and thanks for all the hard work you've been doing all election cycle.

Later,
Cody

p.s. We stayed overnight at a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Oliver Inn located in South Bend, Indiana. South Bend also happens to be the city where Richard's Democratic opponent Pete Buttigeig claims he resides. In what I call a 'fit of campaign shenanigans,' some of the tour members including myself took a picture in front of Pete's home as we were doing some last minute door to door campaigning to shore up Richard's support in this area. And in keeping with the great Traditions of Notre Dame University, touch down Jesus became touch down Mourdock.

(You get the idea)

(Photo Credit: All photos courtesy of Paul Kilpatrick)