Led by a former skeptic, CT casts ‘28 spicy votes’ for Trump at convention

Four years ago, she called him “vulgar” and “ill-mannered.” On Monday, Leora Levy of Greenwich declared Connecticut’s — and her own — passionate support for President Donald Trump on the first day of the Republican National Convention.

Levy, a Republican National Committee member, announced that the Nutmeg state’s delegates would cast their “28 spicy votes” for Trump during the national roll call to re-nominate the president.

She was one of just two Connecticut GOP delegates who traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina to participate in the convention’s “rather subdued” inperson activities. Trump surprised the approximately 340 delegates from 50 states in Charlotte with a fiery in-person convention speech, along with Vice President Mike Pence.

Levy is Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Chile, although she has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. She’s also a major GOP donor, who’s given over $900,000 to Republican caucuses since 1989 and coughed up $25,000 for Trump’s inauguration, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But like many Republicans, she did not favor Trump for president in 2016; in fact, she fiercely opposed him before he won the nomination. Levy backed former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida for president, decrying Trump as a candidate who transformed the Republican primary process into a “circus for his own purposes and his own aggrandizement.”

“He is vulgar, ill-mannered and disparages those whom he cannot intimidate,” Levy wrote in a Greenwich Time op-ed. “His modus operandi is to try to intimidate people then call them names and calumniate about them and then if those tactics do not work, to sue them. That is how he has run his businesses and that is how he is running his campaign.”

Levy has since changed her tune and Monday, in an interview and on th floor of the convention, she praised Trump’s “great leadership” and efforts to combat the coronavirus.

“We’re all here dedicated to improving our country and supporting our president and renominating him,” she said. “I agree with his policies and the direction in which he is taking our country.”

Levy claimed the honor of delivering the state’s so-called “brag” during the roll call, a tradition of the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.

“Connecticut, the Nutmeg state, the Constitution state and the arsenal of democracy, also home to the champion women’s and men’s basketball teams,” Levy announced. “Connecticut proudly carries the legacy of self-government even before the American Revolution through the Connecticut charter granted by King Charles in 1662. When King James tried to revoke it in 1687, Connecticut leaders, through their sleight of hand, hid it in the charter oak tree in Hartford, Connecticut for two years, until it safely re-emerged in 1699 to enable Connecticut to continue selfgovernance. Today, as a proud and independent Nutmegger, I proudly cast 28 spicy votes for President Donald J. Trump and American greatness.”

Levy misspoke: the Connecticut charter emerged from hiding in 1689, after King James II of England was overthrown, according to the Connecticut historical society.

In 2016, GOP Chairman J.R. Romano made the declaration: “Well, Mister Chairman, I come from the land where we manufacture PEZ, nuclear submarines and the home of the WWE, where men are men and women are champions. The great state of Connecticut casts all 28 delegates for the next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”

Although he remains the party chairman, Romano is not attending the Republican National Convention in Charlotte this week, leaving Levy and state Rep. John Frey, R-Ridgefield, the national committee members, to proxy for the state’s delegates at the event.

Frey, Levy and other delegates have undergone COVID-19 testing every day in Charlotte, received temperature checks and completed lengthy health questionnaires during convention activities. They wore masks as they stood in the red carpeted ballroom, while Trump delivered a lengthy, campaign-style speech to the convention Monday, during a scheduled swing through North Carolina.

Trump’s message was a warning that Biden and Harris would bring a radical left agenda to the White House and the judiciary. He ticked off accomplishments like appointing numerous judges to the federal bench, working to address prescription drug costs and creating opportunity zones. He praised his decisions to ban travel from China and spur production of ventilators, while insisting that the time to shut down was over and life across the country should open up amid the first global pandemic in 100 years.

Levy applauded Trump’s pandemic response.

“As I have with every leader who has had to make decisions at this very unusual time and an event that none of us who are alive today have lived through before, I give all of our leaders, including Gov. [Ned] Lamont and including the President, I give them latitude because this was something that was imposed on our country by China by spreading this virus and not being honest about the details,” Levy said. “I think the president has done an excellent job.”

As House Democrats held a hearing with the U.S. Postmaster General on mail delays and staffing changes, Trump claimed Democrats were hyping up Postal problems so they can blame the Post Office when Democrats lost the 2020 election after more voters cast ballots by mail.

“They’ll blame it on the Post Office. You can see them setting it up,” Trump said. “They’re trying to steal the election from the Republicans.”