MILWAUKEE — The Republican National Convention is teeming with journalists eager to interview the thousands of delegates and other party faithful in attendance. Unlike many other states, Washington’s delegation doesn’t include members of Congress or other statewide elected officials with experience talking to the news media, but it does have a secret weapon to help them deliver the message of GOP unity that has defined the convention.
Susan Hutchison, a former news anchor, Senate candidate and chair of the Washington GOP, led a media training when the group arrived in Wisconsin before the convention kicked off. In an interview Wednesday, she said the 45-minute session was paying off.
“When we were at the state convention in Spokane, when I gave my speech to get elected to be a delegate, I said, ‘Hey, look, there is press crawling all over that convention. We need to have at least one person in our delegation who’s media savvy,’ “ Hutchison said. “We have so many people at this convention who’ve never done politics before.”
They ended up with more than one media-savvy attendee. During breakfast at their hotel Tuesday and Wednesday, members of the Washington delegation shared accounts of talking with reporters from around the world.