Washington and Lee Mock Convention - History

History

In the spring of 1908, William Jennings Bryan, a front-runner for the Democratic presidential candidacy, announced a visit to Lexington, Virginia, arousing interest in Washington and Lee’s already political-minded campus. To capitalize on the furor, The Forum, W&L’s leading political organization at the time, organized a replica of the upcoming Democratic Convention. The event was an enormous success, owing to the highly political student body: according to the Lexington Gazette, “The young gentlemen entered into the meeting with the zest of seasoned politicians plus the enthusiasm of collegians”. After fierce (and occasionally chaotic) debate, the campus correctly predicted Bryan to be the 1908 Democratic nominee. With the exception of the 1920 and 1944 elections, the Mock Convention has occurred every four years since the original 1948 election. The state delegations are known to go to great lengths for accuracy: the 1952 state chair for California, David Constine, developed a correspondence with California Governor Earl Warren, one of the leading candidates. As it rose in prominence, the convention gathered an impressive docket of speakers, including Harry S. Truman and former Vice President Alben Barkley, who died in the midst of a speech at the 1956 convention. In addition to the convention itself, W&L hosts a large number of formal and informal celebrations in honor of the Convention and its honored guests, including parades, parties, and balls. These events have seen some of the Convention’s most famous stories. In 1972, then-governor Jimmy Carter’s speech at the Con was missed by his own press secretary, who had been celebrating with a group of W&L students and alumni. Before his famous MTV appearance, Bill Clinton played an impromptu concert for students at an off-campus party for the 1988 Convention. By 1996, the Mock Convention was acknowledged by the Washington Post as “one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious mock conventions.”