Republicans for Hillary had fewer Villagers at their second meeting than their first meeting in September. What they lacked in local attendance was more than made up for by the national media presence.
National Public Radio network out of Washington D.C., a national CBS producer and Voice over America attended the meeting on Thursday at the Eisenhower Recreation Center.
The publicity of their first meeting has generated a lot of interest. Linda Fogg, organization founder, has been interviewed twice by the Wall Street Journal and by USA Today.
NPR producer Greg Dixon and reporter Asma Khalid were already planning a trip to Florida to talk to seniors about the election. Their research led them to The Villages. Villager and retired NPR producer/director Penny Hain sent them a link from a Villages-News.com story and they decided to add the meeting to their itinerary. While in The Villages they visited the softball fields, Lake Sumter Landing and watched the debate at the Republican Headquarters.
CBS was gathering background for a larger story they are planning to do next week.
Fogg shared with the reporters and those in attendance at the meeting that this is the first time she has voted a split ticket. She has voted straight republican for forty years. Fogg feels the moderate republicans have lost their voice in the party.
“The silver lining in this whole thing is that if Hillary wins, the Republican party will have to reinvent themselves,” said Fogg. “It started as an anti-Trump vote, but the more I have studied Clinton’s policies I have realized she is more moderate than I realized. Hillary has become acceptable to me.”
