Leora Levy, one of two Republican delegates from Connecticut in Charlotte for President Donald Trump’s nomination, cast “28 spicy votes” for the president Monday during the national roll call.
However, Levy, a Cuban-American businesswoman who has been nominated by Trump to be the United States Ambassador to Chile, wasn’t always a Trump fan.
Levy is a convert. In 2016, she supported Jeb Bush.
“He is vulgar, ill-mannered and disparages those whom he cannot intimidate,” she wrote of Trump in an editorial in the Greenwich Time.
Connecticut Republican Party Chairman JR Romano, who didn’t make the trip to North Carolina, said that Republicans are united “in the fact that if Democrats take the White House they will stand idle anywhere there’s a protest.”
Romano was referring to the controversial federal law enforcement efforts in Portland, Oregon to address protests in that city.
Asked if Trump helps Republican candidates in Connecticut, Romano said “I think there are wealthy areas of Connecticut that can afford to be offended.”
Rep. John Frey of Ridgefield is the only other Connecticut resident at the convention.
Ben Proto, a Republican delegate to the convention who didn’t travel to Charlotte but cast his vote by proxy, said the convention wasn’t really a convention.
“It’s a giant Zoom meeting,” Proto said.
He said the goal of the convention needs to be to articulate where the party wants to go in the next four years. As Republicans, Proto said they are going to work hard to get people back to work and address the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Republican Party decided not to write a new platform this year. Instead, they are using the one from 2016.
Proto said the mostly virtual convention, like it was for the Democratic Party, will be “less dramatic.”
He said it’s more of a television production, which will make for a different viewing experience. However, he said he expects to see more live speeches than they saw during the tightly scripted Democratic National Convention last week where former Vice President Joe Biden accepted his party’s nomination.
