Desiree Nguyen – Palo Verde City
With the rising sun smiling brightly upon the 2021 AZ Girl States delegates no matter what part of the state they are from, all were ready to begin another exhilarating day full of anticipated elections, exhilarating displays of politics, and much more.
We kicked off today’s meeting with a brief, yet nonetheless, crucial lesson on budget and planning and zoning presented by two of our wonderful advisors. In our morning crash course into city budgeting and zoning, we learned the essentials we would need to include in our city. Delegates hung onto each word during these morning lessons, in order to utilize our newfound knowledge in the creation of our own mythical cities. Not only did we want the best for our cities, but we were further motivated by the prospect that the best city would be awarded with the utmost, prestigious honor of “Capital City” for next year’s AZ Girl State held in-person at UofA.
I then had the honor to be elected as the Precinct Committeeman to represent Palo Verde in the Federalist Party. I ushered into a new meeting where our Federalist advisor talked about the role of the State Party Chair, the Platform Committee, and, finally, the Slate Committee. We elected Taylor Brown as our State Party Chair after her amazing speech asserting her passion to listen to all members of our party. As time began to dwindle, we tried to quickly discuss our party’s main principles, only to grasp at our shared agreement of the importance of education, healthcare, and conservation of natural resources.
I shepherded into my meeting with the rest of my fellow women of Palo Verde. There, we launched our primary election for Mayor with Isabella and Meghan running against each other. Both delivered outstanding speeches establishing their commitment to Palo Verde, and by extension, to our own needs. After thrilling deliveries from both, we all leaned forward to hear the results as our advisor, Mrs. Heck, counted the virtual votes. “Congratulations to Meghan as Palo Verde City Mayor!” announced Mrs. Heck to a virtually muted audience of applause. We finished the meeting with the establishment of our new city’s crest entirely drawn by our new mayor, Meghan!
As we all waved goodbye to each other through the screens, I couldn’t wait for what is to come tomorrow after such a fast-paced immersion into government. Stay tuned to read all about our county elections tomorrow!