Delegate brought full circle

Beth Boyce remembers the first political convention she wanted to attend while she was in high school in 1996.

The Republican National Convention was conducted in San Diego that year, and her father Bruce Buchanan, a member of the Benton County Council, would be one of less than 60 delegates from Indiana to decide the GOP candidate. But her dad said Boyce couldn’t tag along, she said.

Buchanan said families weren’t supposed to be at the convention, so she had to stay home. Little did he know, when he arrived at the convention, wives, husbands and children of delegates were everywhere, Boyce said.

Now, 20 years later, the Johnson County Republican Party chairwoman is able to attend her party’s national convention, where the presidential nominee will be selected. And finally, she’ll be at a convention with her dad.

Boyce is the lone delegate from Johnson County who will vote on the presidential nominee for the Republican Party in July. Boyce will represent the 9th congressional district of Indiana, which includes Johnson, Brown, Clark, Floyd, Harrison, Jackson, Lawrence, Monroe, Scott, Washington and portions of Crawford and Morgan counties.

Buchanan will go as an alternate for an at-large delegate spot, Boyce said.

Boyce might now do the same thing her father did when she was younger: leave her children at home. She hasn’t decided if she’ll bring her three children, since her youngest is 2 years old, Boyce said.

Although she knows children are allowed at the convention, it may be a bit too hectic and structured for her daughters to have a fun experience, she said.

In addition, the landscape of Cleveland may not be as exciting as the tropical scenery of San Diego, Boyce joked.