MOULTRIE — Dennis Futch, chairman of the Colquitt County GOP and chairman of the Georgia Republican Party Rural Mobilization Initiative, served as one of Georgia’s delegates to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week.

“The convention had more energy at it than any convention since Reagan,” Futch said. “It was much more unified, much more enthusiastic than 2016.”

He said that there were 59 Georgia delegates and 59 alternates, which grew to somewhere around 200 people when the delegates’ guests were included.

Media outlets state that there were approximately 50,000 people in attendance at the RNC and Futch said that they were not “country club Republicans” but rank and file Americans.

“This was not a convention of rich people. The vast majority were ordinary people that worked in factories and stores and have sales jobs and every sort of thing that you can imagine. It was not the party of the elite,” he said.

He said that the average delegate had to spend at least $5,000 out of their own pockets to attend the convention and stay for the week, also including airfare and hotel.

“So, it’s a real big deal for some people,” he said. “But they love America enough to sacrifice for America.”

Futch said that he thought that the prevailing theme of the entire convention, and many of the speakers reinforced it, was, ”Now, we are the party of the blue collar worker.”

“The speakers at the convention were meant to portray you and me … had a lot of ordinary people speak,” he said.

He said some of the speakers and performers included Kid Rock, who went over really well, and Hulk Hogan, who was also great and would probably touch some people who normally didn’t vote.

“One of my favorite parts of the whole thing was Kai Madison Trump speaking for her grandfather. She was talking a lot about the Donald Trump that I personally know,” he said.

Futch also recounted a moment, in 2016, at an NRA convention that he had attended, where former President Donald Trump was in attendance, too. He said that when he was asked why he wanted to be president, he said, “I’m gonna make America great again for my grandchildren.”

He said that Trump had not been on the schedule to be at the RNC Monday night but he was escorted in and sat in the “presidential viewing booth” and was there for every night of the convention.

Futch said that when Trump was shown on big screens walking to his seat Monday, he could see that his demeanor was entirely changed from what people had come to know as Donald Trump.

“You could tell that it made him reexamine his thought process,” he said of the assassination attempt.

Futch said that when everyone else spoke, their speeches were put up on three large screens, which were used as teleprompters. However, when Trump spoke, the screens were turned off.

“I think he got ramped up with all the cheers and love he was feeling from the audience,” he said.

Futch said that when Trump got through with what he thought was a very unifying, humanizing speech, he then started talking about the issues.

“It was the longest acceptance speech in the history of the RNC at 92 minutes,” he said.

He also said that, when the former president asked for a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, the former fire chief who lost his life during the attempted assassination of Trump, it was the only time the entire convention arena was completely silent. He said many people were crying.

Futch said there were four Secret Service agents on each side of the stage, just out of camera view, during the former president’s speech Thursday night.

The Georgia delegation was seated to the far left side of the stage and, he said, “When Trump was speaking, I was about 100 feet from him.”

He said the RNC had hired professional television production people to do the convention and he thought that it was the best made-for-TV convention that they could possibly make it.

“It’s probably the largest security zone I’ve ever seen. It completely shut-down Milwaukee including the interstate,” Futch also said.

He said that 10- or 12-foot-high steel fences with concrete barriers were erected around the entire arena area. He said that he saw dozens of police officers from different municipalities from Fresno, California, to New York patrolling the streets around the security zone.

To get into the convention, an individual had to be either a credentialed delegate, an alternate delegate, a public official or credentialed media, Futch said.

The Georgia delegation, he said, was staying at a resort that was a 1-1/2 hour drive each way from Milwaukee and they rode in on a bus to get to the arena. He also said that Homeland Security agents were tasked with protecting the states’ delegations.

“They went with us everywhere we went,” he said.

He said they stay sed at the resort with them and rode with them on the bus to the convention.

“One thing having an agent on the bus did is that they got to know who we were or at least recognize our face,” he said.

He said it made it easier to go through the vehicle checkpoint without having the entire bus searched. However, he said, everyone had to go through the metal detectors, which were being operated by TSA along with the Secret Service uniform services.

Futch said that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp visited with the Georgia delegation and had breakfast with them. Kemp was at the convention all week, he added.

He said that there were so many events and activities during the week at the RNC that it was impossible to get to all of them; Futch said he basically attended only the Georgia activities.

He said that he did go to a party in a hospitality suite at the arena, that the former president was attending and they were not letting Trump mingle with the crowd.

“I got about 10 feet from him but I did not get to personally speak to him,” he said, contrasting that to a visit to the Mar-a-Lago Club in May where he could.

Futch said that what made a lasting impression on him, from his experience at the RNC, was, “I think Donald Trump’s call for unity and explaining what happened to himself, in Pennsylvania, in a humanizing way that showed his empathy.”

“It was an honor to be a delegate. It’s an honor to represent Colquitt County and Georgia and fight for America,” Futch said. “The whole reason I do this is because I love my children and grandchildren enough that I want to make sure that they have an America to grow-up in that is the America promised by our forefathers. … Where they’re free.”