was 18,egistered when i i was closely identified with the republican party in terms of issues concerning the future of our country. issues of personal responsibility and individual freedom and all that. i had to defend that a lot. ,s a young female hispanic italian descent, and higher ed, theten would fall under stereotype of oh, you are republican christian that -- you are republican? that is weird. i think that is offensive that people would assume something like that based on how i look into i am to read it did force me to come to terms and understand again why it is i believe what i believe and why i identify as republican. when i graduated, i was 23. the midterm elections were rolling around. honestly i just thought i will help on a campaign. i called a friend who was involved in politics and said, who can sign up for this? it was that time, the first time ever that someone suggested, why don't you run yourself worse rep?wrapped -- for state it was not something i thought would be a possibility for me or anything i had considered, but at the end of the day i realized, you know, the