Courtesy of www.msgop.org
Ole Miss has had the honor of educating many of the nation’s politicians.
Many of these notable alumni gained their first experiences as elected officials at the University, and for Joe Nosef, now chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, this first experience wasn’t necessarily for all the right reasons.
“My main involvement was when I ran for student body president of the law school because I wanted a faculty parking sticker, just because I didn’t want to have to walk from the depot to the law school,” Nosef said. “I don’t know how good my motivation was back then, or how pure it was.”
Of course, Nosef pursued further political aspirations with a much different motivation following his law school days, accepting prominent positions on the staffs of Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant during their respective times as governor.
The experience he gained in those positions eventually led to him being elected chairman of the Mississippi GOP in 2012, and with the 2016 Republican National Convention starting next week, Nosef now commands the party in the midst of one of the nation’s most historic elections.
“It’s been a long time since the Republicans or maybe either party have nominated somebody who isn’t an elected official or never has been an elected official,” Nosef said. “Donald Trump’s status as an outsider, I think, makes it historic as well.”
And with such an important election ahead, Nosef fully plans to ensure the state of Mississippi gets its say during the Republican National Convention next week, something of which he feels has been characteristic of the state’s involvement for decades.
“Mississippi always has, and really has for a long time, played an outsized role for the size of our state,” Nosef said. “This year, I think we just have a lot of Mississippians who are very involved on the Republican National Committee. We have a very good lineup of Republicans elected across the board in Mississippi.”
Of course, at the end of the convention, all Republican delegates will select a presidential nominee for the party, and that nominee is expected to be Donald Trump. Trump is expected to take 25 of the 40 available Mississippi delegates at the convention, something which Nosef attributes to his historic outsider stance.
“The fact that he got 48 percent of the vote is pretty phenomenal. Obviously, I believe it was a surprise to a lot of people, probably including Donald Trump, that he was able to win like he did,” Nosef said. “In Mississippi, people are just so disenchanted to a large degree with what goes on in Washington. The ability to vote for an outsider is what helped Donald Trump.”
Although Nosef generally finds congressional representatives to be more beneficial in working for Mississippi, he also finds merit in having Trump as a Republican ally for the state.
“He is going to work with our delegation certainly more so than President Obama has, and certainly more so than a president Hillary Clinton would,” Nosef said.
As the convention comes to a close and nominees are chosen for both parties, Nosef simply advises Mississippians to trust that the political process will be worked out properly and fairly and ultimately encourages all people to go out and vote during the general election.
“Another thing I would encourage (citizens) to do is vote,” Nosef said. “There are a lot of people who say the Republicans always get the win. There’s a lot of people who believe that they don’t need to vote— that their vote does not count. As the Republican chairman I would urge (Mississippians) to vote for the Republican nominee and hopefully urge their friends and neighbors as well.”
