Larry Staub has attended all but one Republican convention since 1992. This is the second time the former Monroe County parks director has served as a delegate.
"It sounds nerdy, but it's been an aspiration of mine my entire life," he said.
The first time was in 2016 when Staub, like this year, was a delegate for Donald Trump.
Missing this year, of course, are the balloon drops and convention floor crowds, but Staub says it was a wise decision for Republicans and Democrats to go virtual in the midst of the pandemic.
"I think it's a lot more unfiltered coverage of each party putting forth their platform," he said. "I think it's actually turned out to be a good thing."
Both Staub and fellow delegate Bill Napier say President Donald Trump deserves another term.
A recent pollsaid just 31 percent of Americans approve of Trump's leadership during the pandemic.
But Napier, chair of the Monroe County Republican Committee, believes Trump has not mismanaged the crisis. He is counting on Trump to re-energize the economy.
"If you want to have people basically in isolation in perpetuity, you can have numbers that are very low in
perpetuity,"said Napier. "But our society will die on the vine if that's the way that we go forward."
Whether he wins another term or not, many political observers say Trump has changed the Republican Party, but Staub says the only change has taken place at the top.
"I think people in the grassroots always thought like Trump and were always Trumpers," Staub said. "They just didn't know it and they didn't have the person who gave voice to everything they believed until Donald Trump."
However, even Staub admits that the President's recent comment in an interview with the New York Post that his campaign is putting New York state in play in the upcoming election is optimistic.
"I think that may be a bridge too far," Staub said. "But I guess it depends on what kind of resources you have and what the rest of the map looks like."
The lastest polls have Trump trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden by 31 percentage points in New York.
