Morgan Johnson is the 4th president from Oklahoma in Boys Nation’s 78-year history.
In previous years, voting for the president and vice president of American Legion Boys Nation happen the same night as the respective debates for the program’s top two offices.
For Boys Nation 2024, the debate took place Tuesday night and the election took place Wednesday morning — resulting in another sleepless night for the candidates.
“I don’t think it’s fully processed with me yet, the fact that I was selected by this group of outstanding change makers and visionaries, it’s just crazy to me,” Morgan Johnson of Oklahoma said after his election as president on Wednesday.
“I lost a ton of sleep preparing for this. I have a lot of really great debaters, a lot of national level policy guys and national debate performers that helped prepare me, because I’ve never really debated before; I don’t do debate at my school, we don’t have it,” Johnson said. “So preparing, educating myself on policy, I was up until almost 2:30, 3 a.m. the night before the debates, practicing and preparing, and then a couple hours beforehand, I was working with my VP candidate from my party, Josh (Williams of Idaho), and we were all preparing. So much help from so many guys.”
Johnson, the Federalist candidate for president, defeated Arkansas’ X’zaeviun Sims to become the fourth Oklahoman elected Boys Nation president. He joins Joe Davis (1975), Jerome Loughridge (1990) and Rick Lam Jr. (1995).
Johnson said he wanted to run for president because he knew it had been awhile since Oklahoma had a Boys Nation president. And he also wanted “to be able to unify people, to be able to push people’s messages.”
Johnson was sponsored to Oklahoma Boys State by Post 153 in his hometown of Wagoner, Okla.
“You had faith in me … to be here is so humbling and so awe-inspiring,” he said in thanking Post 153 for their support.
The four election races didn’t end in a complete sweep by the Federalists, who on Saturday saw Eshaam Bhattad of Illinois and Charan Bala of Maryland elected president pro tempore and secretary of the senate respectively. In Wednesday’s voting for vice president, Nationalist Rohan Parekh of Alabama defeated Williams.
Following the election, Johnson and Parekh were sworn into office by David Bobb, president of the Bill of Rights Institute.
Special guests
The senators of Boys Nation 2024 have seen plenty of sights around the D.C. area already this week — some that few get the opportunity to visit.
On Monday morning, both Boys Nation and American Legion Auxiliary Girls Nation were guests at the White House alongside NCAA champions from all three divisions. Some of the senators even had the opportunity to play volleyball or cornhole with national champion athletes on the South Lawn.
“White House was awesome, we got to see a bunch of really cool athletes and I met so many really cool teams, like Florida State and UCLA,” said Johnny Honnold of Missouri, who was sponsored to Missouri Boys State by Pembroke Hill School. “What was really cool was seeing Vice President Harris right after she was (endorsed) by President Biden to run for the election.”
“It really meant a lot to me to be in the White House,” added Matthew Hardy of Iowa, who was sponsored to Iowa Boys State by Post 31 in Lake City, Iowa. “I’ve been to D.C. a couple times now, seen the White House every time but never the inside. It was really unique to read up on the history that they had placarded around and you could see, visualize what other presidents lived there, and feel that.”
After a visit from West Point Superintendent Lt. Gen. Steve Gilland on Monday night at Marymount University, the Boys Nation senators headed to the Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. There, as guests of Justice Samuel Alito — who attended New Jersey Boys State — they received a guided visit of the Supreme Court chamber and posed for photos on the steps of the building.
And Tuesday night, after the presidential and vice presidential debates, the senators embarked to the House, where they received a tour courtesy of Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D.
After Wednesday morning’s election and inauguration, the senators visited the Pentagon.
- Boys Nation