TAMPA, Fla. — Part of the fun of party conventions is seeing delegates show up in their traditional state garb.
The obvious example is the 10-gallon hats worn by the Texas delegates, along with their matching red, white and blue Western shirts. Then there is the Wisconsin delegate in his dark suit and Green Bay Packers “cheesehead” hat, and the West Virginia delegates in their black miners’ helmets.
The Kansas delegation took it a step further Tuesday with outfits from Kansas lore: Several delegates dressed up as famous Kansans like Amelia Earhart and Wyatt Earp, as well as characters from “The Wizard of Oz,” which, as everyone knows, starts off on a farm in Kansas.
“We flew all this way, we want to make some noise,” said Kansas delegate Celia Beymer.
The Colorado delegates wore red Western shirts along with cowboy hats Tuesday, and switched to white shirts Wednesday. That left state Republican Party Chairman Ryan Call with a problem: What about Thursday?
The obvious answer would be to wear blue, but that’s also the color associated with the so-called Democratic blue states. Said Mr. Call, “We’re not going to go there.”
