Election Night with Mitt Romney

When I woke up Monday morning, I checked my email like I always do and I saw that I received an invitation to Mitt Romney’s Election night event which was going to be held the next day at the Renaissance Hotel in Schaumburg. Tuesday was the Illinois Primary. I never went to anything like this before and I wanted to go especially after having my picture taken with Mitt Romney at the Meet and Greet in Rosemont three days before. But I still hadn’t got my car back from the body shop. So I decided to make a reservation for a car rental the next day. Tuesday morning came and the phone woke me up. “This is the body shop, your car is ready to be picked up,” the girl told me. I couldn’t believe it. I thought I wouldn’t get it for another 3 days yet. I was thrilled. I asked her if they could pick me up. I hurried up, through on some clothes and 10 minutes later the body shop guy picked me up. 

 Now I had my car back. Did that ever feel great. I wasn’t trapped in my apartment anymore. I went home and cancelled my car rental and then got cleaned up. I got back in my car and went over to vote. 

   I got to the Renaissance Hotel at 6:15. They said the doors would open at 6:30. There was already a line waiting to get in. I had no idea how big this election night event would be. This one guy came along and searched anyone with a bag or a purse.  The sliding glass doors opened and we quickly moved forward. Right inside the glass doors were two tables. They checked to see if you were on the list of guests that were invited. I had to show them my photo ID and they put a band around my arm. I walked down the hall to the Schaumburg Ballroom   and looked in. From where I was standing, I could see this big American flag hanging on the back wall. As I walked in, all the cameras and equipment from the media caught my eye. There was so much equipment that they had built a grandstand inside the ballroom to hold everything. I thought it was cool seeing all of the media there. In the ballroom they had a stage and then a walkway out to a podium. They had a fence surrounding the walkway and the podium and the people started to take up their places around the fence to get the best view. I went and sat down on small grandstand which were on both sides of the walkway by the stage. The event wasn’t supposed to start until 8:30. I didn’t feel like standing up that long and I didn’t know how long this event was going to last. I sat there looking around and taking in this experience, “This is awesome. I’ll probably never get to do anything else like this again for the rest of my life,” I thought to myself.  

  More people were starting to fill the ballroom. I got up after a while to look around. I went up to the grandstand where all the cameras and stuff were. In the grandstand I saw Candy Crowley from CNN along with Carl Cameron from Fox news. I had my camera with me so naturally I took pictures of everything that was going on around me. 

Hanging on the wall on either side of the ballroom were two large video screens tuned into Fox news with the election returns that were coming in. As I was standing there, Dan, the guy that was in my booth at the Meet and Greet a few days ago came up to me and said, “Hi.” I was glad to see him but there was so much noise coming from the band that was playing that I wasn’t able to hear anything so he left. Then at 8pm Fox news declared Mitt Romney the winner of the Illinois primary. Holy cow, everybody started cheering as they held up their signs waving them around.

  It wasn’t long after that that some girl came out and started talking. Then State Treasurer Dan Rutherford Chairman of the Illinois Romney campaign came out and introduced Mitt Romney. When Mitt Romney and his wife Ann came out the cheers went up. Everybody was clapping. I got out my camera and videotaped his speech. 

 After he was through, the election night party started to thin out. I stayed and shook hands with Dan Rutherford and then left. It was an awesome night and I was so glad that I got a chance to be there when Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary. The last few days were an experience that I will never forget. Come November, I WILL have that picture of me and President Romney standing together framed!