By Jonah Kim -Staters Union
With general elections behind us and brand new party platforms in place, many Staters have been asking themselves about what they value most within their party’s platforms. Additionally, with a 50/50 split of the parties, one party must differentiate themselves and gain support from the other side.
For some there seems to be some strong party loyalty. “They seem to focus on more unity and trying to keep everyone together, and defining what they mean and what we want,” Federalist Russel Wyer explains on what he likes about his party. Also, when asked about whether he could be swayed by the Nationalists, Wyer immediately replied with a firm “no way.”
However, others seem to be going into the debate with an open mind. Federalist Jackson Taylor explains his take: “I’ll be listening at the state debates on who has the better policies and might switch over depending on that.”
From the other side, Nationalist William Robin says, “In order to switch over to the other party, the candidates would just have to have good ideas and I would switch over to them.” Despite this, Robin still is in support of his party, saying, “Our four ideals are economy, education, industrialization, and legalization of drugs, and a lot of our candidates talked about that and I support them.”
In the middle of the day, the debates were underway and ballots were cast. After a strong showing from Federalist candidate Noah Gould, there was unease in the air of the Nationalist party regarding their chances for governor.
This unease was clearly felt for a reason as the Federalists seized the positions of state treasurer in Logan Claasen Wilson and governor and lieutenant governor in Gould and Chris Taylor. Interestingly, Gould chose Taylor from the Nationalist party to run as his lieutenant governor. Despite the gubernatorial win, the nationalists still took the majority of positions in the general election with secretary of state in Patrick Olson, Attorney General in Ajay Lohr, and Commissioner of Insurance in David Drake.