Why This 23-Year-Old Republican Delegate Wants To Apologize For Donald Trump

Logan Nevonen, a 23-year-old Republican, wants to apologize.

Nevonen was in Cleveland, Ohio this week as an alternate delegate for the state of Texas (which had the best outfits) at the Republican National Convention.

It took a lot of steps for Nevonen to get herself to Cleveland. She had to be elected as a delegate in a series of levels -- from precinct to Senate district to state and then to national. The national delegates are the ones at the convention.

Nevonen was running against about 15 other people to be a national delegate for her district. So, she had to campaign. She created push cards with information on her party involvement and went door-to-door, introducing herself to voters and talking about her dedication to the Republican party and conservative values.

Although she's dedicated to the Republican party, she's not quite dedicated to their presidential nominee Donald Trump. After a luncheon on women in politics hosted by The Atlantic, Nevonen told Elite Daily,

Trump will have to earn my vote and he can do that by portraying our conservative message more broadly to appeal not just to Republicans but the rest of the voters that we need to win a general election instead of a primary. I think that he can really, really work on that -- portraying our message better and not seeming so hostile to other demographics that we need to have support to win.

Millennials tend to lean more toward Democrat than Republican, but Nevonen has been a lifelong Republican, and her belief has only grown as she got older. She said,

I honestly think that conservative values have empowered me as an individual because with limited government we have less restrictions. Focusing on fiscal policies, we get to keep more of what we earn, so just the economic part of conservatism has really empowered me to feel that I can own whatever I want to do and be successful however it is and not feel so victimized by different things that may be some roadblocks but nothing I can't overcome.

Nevonen became committed to working in politics because she's concerned about getting more women involved in politics and having more female representation in the government.

She thinks there are a few reasons young women don't get involved in politics, mainly rooted in the fact politics is a bit of a hostile area. Women know they'd face excess criticism and anger thrown at them if they ran for office or otherwise got involved in politics, which is definitely not encouraging.

As someone concerned about women being turned away from politics, Donald Trump and his noted history of sexism is problematic for Nevonen, and she wants to apologize on his behalf. She said,

I think it's very shameful... As a young Republican woman, I feel it's important for me to say that's not what the party stands for and I'm sorry he said that. But I don't believe in that, and that is not appropriate for him to say.

If Trump was a great leader, he'd say, 'I was wrong for saying that, that is not what I believe in.'

Earlier this week, another young Republican woman told me she blames the media for blowing Trump's sexism out of proportion. Nevonen disagrees. She said,

I always start with apologizing instead of just going on the attack and saying, 'Well the media does this and they cover it too much,' you know? That's not how you build bridges and get people to understand where you're coming from.

Nevonen is very concerned with bringing people together -- and that was the part of the convention she enjoyed most. She worked with a few other people to create an RNC Youth Caucus, which met during the week.

Nevonen said although Millennials make up about 25 percent of the population, just 2 percent of delegates at the Republican National Convention are in the demographic. She explained,

They don't like what they're hearing on the news about all this mud-slinging that's going on by both parties.

She's working in political consulting now and is helping to train women on how to run for office and get politically involved. Over the next decade, she intends to gain expertise in fundraising and communications and, eventually, one day, run for office, practicing what she preaches.

Citations: Los Angeles Times