College Republicans from all over Massachusetts came to the Hill on Saturday to hear from a number of prominent GOP figures.
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Peter Torkildsen, former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and state Senator Scott Brown (LA '81) were among the speakers who addressed the audience in Barnum Hall.
Torkildsen kicked off the event by speaking about the challenges of running for office as a Republican in the liberal Bay State, specifically highlighting the campaign of Jim Ogonowski.
Rep. Marty Meehan (D-Mass.) vacated his seat in July, and Ogonowski is running to replace him. While a victory would give the GOP its only congressional seat in the state, he is currently trailing Democrat Niki Tsongas in the polls.
Torkildsen said that the race could have national implications, and if the Republicans prevail, it would "send shockwaves not only across the state, but across the country."
Later on in the convention, students heard a similar story from Jeff Beatty, who formerly worked for the FBI and CIA, and is currently trying to unseat Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).
Kerry Healey, who waged an unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign against Deval Patrick in 2006, spoke after Torkildsen and also had a candidate to promote.
She began with a DVD about her former boss Mitt Romney, who is seeking the GOP presidential bid, and then supported his candidacy.
She is currently working on the Romney campaign, and noted that he would be "a fantastic president."
Romney is ahead in Iowa and hopes to use a victory there as a springboard for his campaign goal of moving away from the status quo.
"This is going to be a 'change election,'" she said. "People across the country want things to be different."
But she feels that electing a Democrat would be the wrong type of change.
"We don't want to lose our conservative principles and we don't want to lose representative leadership in Washington," she said.
According to Healey, Romney's campaign has three central goals: improving the economy, advocating for family values and fortifying the country's strength internationally.
His concern about economics, she said, has a global focus and aims to help the United States better compete with emerging markets in China, Russia and India.
"We are at a point now where we could be a second-rate economic power," she said.
She also touched on the contentious immigration debate, noting that Romney supports closing the border, requiring stringent employment background checks and creating harsher punishments for people who knowingly employ undocumented immigrants.
"There cannot be any amnesty," she said.
At the same time, she said that the government "should be expanding legal immigration to this country."
Healey ended her speech by telling the audience members that they are "a very powerful, powerful group."
Specifically, she said that Massachusetts Republicans, especially college students, have played a pivotal role in presidential campaigns in New England.
When Brown took the stage, he spoke about his time at Tufts and came to the support of The Primary Source, the conservative journal that was found guilty of harassment and creating a hostile environment after a Committee on Student Life hearing last year.
"There were hardly any restrictions on free press that I was aware of when I was a student [at Tufts], which is why I was surprised that The Primary Source couldn't get their point across without being harassed by the administration," he said. "Our country was founded on free speech and I hope that it continues at Tufts."
On a broader level, he said that Republicans are generally not treated fairly at colleges. Still, he encouraged Republicans at Tufts to "stay active, stick to your principles [and] speak respectfully yet forcefully."
The convention came to a close with remarks from three representatives from Vets for Freedom, a bipartisan, independent organization comprised of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who support military efforts in the Middle East.
All three veterans agreed that America was not fully prepared at first for reconstructing Iraq, but claimed there has been much improvement in the past four years.
"Things have changed dramatically from 2003 to 2007," Iraq war veteran Emory Bellard said. "Americans have to now take a backseat role and allow for Iraqis to take ownership of their [country]."
Mount Holyoke student Becky Echevarria said she enjoyed the veterans' speeches.
"Vets for Freedom was my favorite part of the convention because it represented a bipartisan [effort] and it was a presentation by people with real experience," she said.
The MACR holds conventions twice a year, but this is the first time that Tufts hosted one. Tufts students worked with peers at a number of other schools to plan it, so Tufts Republicans President Dan Hartman, a junior, said that the convention provided a good opportunity for collaboration.
"This is a chance for ... all Republicans across the state to meet each other and to network too," he said.
Hartman also said that the event was a tribute to the character of the university.
"Even though Tufts is a predominately liberal campus, the fact that we were able to host this Republican convention shows that we are open to discussion," he said.
