Last week, Del Cerro resident Sharon Carter had the “experience of a lifetime”.
Carter was front and center in American politics as an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Raised Democrat, Carter eventually turned Republican and served as an RNC fundraiser for 12 years.
“I realized how important the Republican Party is to the health and welfare of the country, creating jobs and getting things done,” Carter said.
Rocking patriotic star glasses in the second row, Carter witnessed everything from plagiarism allegations in Melania Trump’s speech to Senator Ted Cruz's non-endorsement.
“Everybody was all excited and anticipating that Ted Cruz would endorse Trump,” she said. “I think almost everybody was holding their breath.”
When it became clear Cruz was wrapping his speech and would not, in her mind, take on his “responsibility” of endorsing Trump, she said the room collectively exhaled in disappointment - eventually turning to boos.
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Despite the dramas, Carter said she thought the convention was great.
“It was so exciting and you met such intelligent people and you saw all these fabulous speakers,” she told NBC 7.
Carter said she thought the negative press about Trump’s speech, which in the view of some people gave a bleak picture of the state of our country, was “crazy.”
“I don’t think his speech was dark,” she said. “I think he's saying what everyone feels. I can't go to a baseball game or football game without thinking ISIS could take out the whole stadium.”
She believes that concern for safety will help Trump win the election.
Carter has been a Trump supporter since the beginning, saying she came onboard after she heard him make his first speech last summer, in which he spoke controversially about Mexican immigrants.
“He said the things I’d been feeling inside, but never could ever vocalize them.”
The Democrats will kick off their convention in Philadelphia Monday, preceding what will likely be an unprecedented general election in many ways.
For now, though, Carter is still basking in the memory of her time at center stage.
“I was so proud to be there and be his supporter,” she said.
