February 27th marked the first ever National Term Limits Day. Celebratory events took place all over the country. Some of the activities were guided tours of state capitols, some were sign waves, one was an online lecture to students in Colorado, a few others were luncheons with term limits discussions.
USTL organized At least 16 Events in 12 states: Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, West Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky, South Carolina, Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and both coasts of Florida.
Our goal was to get as many people involved as possible to bring awareness to this very important cause. Our hope is that term limits supporters would find simple tasks they could repeat or expand upon for next year’s Term Limits Day.
An easy way to be involved is to wear a Term Limits shirt or cap, put a yard sign on your lawn (from termlimits.com/shop), or tweet/post photos on social media with the hashtag #termlimitsday.
SOCIAL MEDIA
We are happy to report that our social media metrics went through the roof. Senators Rand Paul, Rick Scott, Mike Braun, and Ted Cruz all made term limits day posts as well as former Ambassador Nikki Haley and several state legislators.
There was an overwhelming show of support online and I had many supporters reach out asking “What can I do to help?”
View more social media photos in our album on our facebook page.
EVENTS
Here are some of the events held this year:
- MICHIGAN: 2 sign waves lots of thumbs up; our volunteers were troopers standing out in snowy weather
- KENTUCKY:
- Aaron, the Kentucky state director, started with a Skype session with AP American Government class (where he was former Principal at Vanguard Classical School in Aurora, CO) They discussed Article V and the process of amending the Constitution;
- Then he spent the day at the capitol in Charlotte, WV. Volunteer Rachel coordinated grassroots events for 4 KY dinners in Lexington, Louisville, Owensboro, and Florence.
- WEST VIRGINIA: Tom and Karen Shantz in WV organized a sign wave. Aaron was in the capitol working to get our resolution to the full judiciary committee. The WV vols reported lots of honks and thumbs up and they managed to score a television interview.
- MAINE: grateful to Al Fitzmorris heading up the evening event; Ken Quinn. USTL regional director, organized a few events including a broadcast interview.
- NEW HAMPSHIRE: Shout out to Caleb Ness for heading up the evening dinner event.
- SOUTH CAROLINA: Steve, our vol. state director, and Ken Clark, Southern Regional Director organized a group of folks for a luncheon to discuss the pending term limits resolution in that state.
- MARYLAND: Mike O’Dell, MD state director, had a Capitol Day and took a group of supporters to meet their legislators as well as the House and Senate sponsors of our resolutions in the Maryland General Assembly.
- GEORGIA: our resolution was heard in Senate so the group (including Kennesaw State students) was able to attend the hearing and provide public testimony… for which our resolution passed unanimously. David Guldenschuh (attorney and Article V expert) spoke at the hearing and encouraged constituents to speak to individual legislators.
- ARIZONA: luncheon at Mission Possible cafe and tour of the Capitol in Phoenix.
- ILLINOIS: Digital billboard acquired through the resources of Scott Murphy, author of “The Term Limits Revolution.”
- ALABAMA:
- Shanna organized a term limits sign wave in the morning.
- A reporter covered term limits day in a local newspaper.
- The main event was a dinner at SweetCreek where 50 people were in attendance:
- Blues band
- Alabama State Auditor attended who may run for US Senate
- FLORIDA
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- Phil and George put hundreds of signs in yards at the request of residents
- A large banner was hung on an overpass on I-95
- A sign wave was organized in Palm Beach
- In New Port Richey we put signs out, provided literature, had a luncheon, and discussed the mission of USTL including the school board term limits initiative we are undertaking in Florida
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- TEXAS
- Neil from Term Limits for Congress walked 20 miles in support of National Term Limits Day.
All in all it was a very rewarding and very successful day!
Our ultimate goal may be to change the date to correspond, not with the date of the anniversary of Presidential term limits… but to the date in the future when the amendment passes for term limits on Congress!
How did you celebrate National Term Limits Day?