Nicolle Conlogue – City of Manzanita
Our last day of blog posts and nearing the end of Girls State for 2020. Today we continued our learning of branches in our state government with today’s focus being on the judiciary branch. Attorneys Hilary Weinberg and Kate Loudenslagel provided a detailed presentation of different courts in Arizona from the municipal court to the Arizona supreme court.
Afterwards, we heard speeches from the candidates in the general election. The three candidates running for governor include Ms. Vogel, Ms. Steenhard, and myself. The three candidates running for secretary of state include Ms. Swanton, Ms. Quinn, and Ms. Becerra. All six candidates passed the elections in their counties and gave speeches detailing why they should be elected for their desired position today.
The meeting began with candidates for governor giving their speeches, then moved on to Whistle Stops which are questions given by the bloggers to the candidates. Most of the Whistle Stops for the governor’s position were focused on humanitarian issues and personal experiences. Then the candidates for secretary of state gave their speeches and also had Whistle Stops, with most of their questions being focused on the current pandemic and environmental issues. Everyone will be finding out the results of the election tomorrow, which is officially the final day for Girls State 2020.
The meeting ended with a talent show displaying a variety of talents from singing, playing the piano and guitar, and cultural dancing to dog training, language fluency, cookie baking, and boxing. It was amazing seeing all these different types of talents that are a part of Girls State this year, and giving a little more insight on some of the girls’ lives.
Unfortunately, this is my and the rest of the bloggers’ last post for Girls State. It was such an honor to be a part of this program, to run for governor, and meeting such wonderful people along the way. I hope that if there are any junior girls reading this post, that you’ll seriously consider attending Girls State. It has been a wonderful experience and I can’t even imagine how great it would have been attending in person. Thank you, everyone!