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Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone and thank you for checking out my blog! My name is Lana Sleiman and I am a senior at USF Tampa majoring in political science with a minor in French and francophone studies. I am excited to take you along with me as I embark on the Road to the Whitehouse internship in South Carolina! I told myself in freshman year of college that I wanted to participate in an internship or job with a presidential campaign by the time it was the end of my senior year, or right after graduation, since I knew I would be graduating in a general election year. Once I learned about this course and the opportunity that it would grant me to intern for the South Carolina Democratic Party, and get hands-on learning experience in a presidential campaign cycle, I knew I had to apply for this course. It was everything I had wanted since freshman year. 

I have had other governmental experience such as interning for Florida Democratic Representative Fentrice Driskell of former District 63. I had learned a lot about state government and constituent casework through that internship, so with the Road to the Whitehouse, I am hoping to learn more about campaign and fieldwork organization, grassroots mobilization, retail politics, and more about the presidential primary cycle in general. 

We have already done candidate presentations to get to know each candidate that is running on the Republican and Democratic side. I was assigned to research and present Chris Christie along with my classmate Zack Tounsi (make sure to check out his blog as well). We have also read chapters from Dante Scala's book Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics, as well as Redlawsk, Tolbert, and Donovan's book Why Iowa: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process. Both authors have spoken to us in our class. Emma Watts from Australia also joined our class to discuss the election cycle and voting process in Australia, and how it differs from the United States. All pictures will be included below.

I cannot wait to share more with you as we head to South Carolina! Thank you. 

Emma Watts Lecture

Redlawsk Lecture

Dante Scala Lecture

Chris Christie Presentation

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