By Anthony Johnson & Reed Argiropoulos

“A party of action, a party of doers that gets things done”

These were the words that echoed through the assembly hall last night at day two of the federalist convention. When winner for the governor ballot Luka Phillip-Ikpo (0272) from Fish County.

Phillip-Ikpo took only two rounds of voting to gain a majority with an astounding 129 votes where the second place candidate from Scheiberling only obtained 53 votes in the second round with half of those coming from his own county.

Luka was able to win over so much of the crowd with his heartfelt speeches where he discussed the topic of affordability. Luka explained how that was the biggest issue he wanted to solve in New York State. He talked about the astronomical prices of housing and college.

“Truly representation for the underrepresented communities. I represented Special Needs children for six years. People who just don’t have a voice, people who can’t speak, people are getting priced out,” Luka said.

Luka who talked about how he comes from a family that has struggled with these same affordability issues that he talked about in his speeches, “I’m not like the other kids. I don’t come from the same background as most of these kids, but I don’t waver. I show them myself,” he added.

Luka also commented on his dad and how he has worked two jobs and fully supported his family throughout his life.

“He means everything to me. He is the role model, he is the standard, and he embodies everything that I want to be when I grow up,” Luka noted.

Luka hails from Suffolk County and he is looking forward to beating the Nationalists in the state election.

The Lieutenant Governor was also selected last night to represent the Federalist party; Adrian Devery (0410) from Scheiberling County won in a close race with a difference of only 24 votes. 

Devery is a New York State champion in public forum debate which he thinks can greatly help him when he goes against the Nationalist party.

“I really care about affordability,” he said.

Affordability was a common theme throughout the whole night and that shows too with affordability being one of the platform committee main three goals. It includes everything from banning asset managers from buying single family homes to a $3 max on snacks in the vending machines at Boys’ State.

Devery also talked about how he thinks a fair election is the most important thing that he wants to see at Boys’ State.

“We really want to win, not by any tricks or cheating; just through our policy, our speaking, and our presentation,” he added.

Daniel Kang (0038) from Roosevelt County was selected to be the candidate for Attorney General. He won with 126 votes compared to Troiola’s candidate with 100 votes.

Kang believes that accountability is one of the most important values.

“I think the biggest thing I have to do is live up to my word,” Kang said.

Kang is looking forward to helping the party in any way that he can and being as fair as possible as the attorney General.

Accountability was also one of the main themes of the platform committee as one main thing they want is requiring the county legislature to post videos of the meetings that they hold. They also want to see the Board of Elections to strictly enforce campaign finance laws (PACTs) to combat bias.

The final tenet of the party legislature was devoted to protecting individual freedoms. Federalists seek to ban random searches in school without reasonable suspicion, ban license plate readers, ban artificial intelligence predictive policing, and establish special education employment and transition programs. These policies focus on protecting the rights of citizens by checking government technologies and behaviors.

Shrinandi Patnaia (0556) from Pedro County won Comptroller, pragmatically discussing allocation of resources to maximize efficiency. “[We’re] coming up with sustainable ways to raise money because we don’t want to burden groups or individuals too much.” He supports deliberate and careful investment and diversification of income to produce a stable economy and financially balanced government.

The party elected seven Judicial candidates as well, a diverse group that discussed topics ranging from hacky-sack to mock trial expertise. “I just want to serve. I just want to help out however I can,” said Nicolas Katsoulis (0602) from Spafford County after winning the fourth party election he participated in. That relentless dogma is reflected in his peers, who discussed their own desire to collaborate and advance citizens in every way possible.

Nathaniel Hall (0446) from Wong County embodies that spirit. “I’m big on equality, not just for us Federalists, but for all our Boys’ State brethren Becaues there are parties, yes, but judges are supposed to be impartial to parties. They are meant to be fair.”

The group did not neglect their party platform, however. Jeremiah Sheehan (0412) from Scheiberling took a stance on housing costs, a central theme forming in the Federalist party, and (0062) from Roosevelt County discussed anti-discriminatory policy in the courtroom.

The 7 judicial nominees are Matthew Aguiar (0062) of Roosevelt, Quinn Heptig (0232) of Fish, Daniel Jang (0692) of Stember, Jeremiah Sheehan (0412) of Scheiberling, Nathaniel Hall (0446) of Wong, Nicolas Katsoulis (0602) of Spafford, and Daniel Jung (0692) of Triola.

The Federalist Party will look to sweep the Nationalist Party and dominate the Boys’ State Government.