Your Boys State Elected Officials

Dimitri Clarke, Auditor

"I’m going to tell my brother to come. Force my brother to come, actually. . . . And when you go back to your high schools, you’re all seniors, everyone listens to you, tell your teachers, request your students to go to Boys State and Girls State because it was one of the best experiences of my junior year."



Ryan MacPherson, Treasurer

"Kids get so much bad press these days. You hear about drunk driving and all this stuff and I look out here and the 350 some-odd kids, and honestly I have no idea what they’re talking about because these are some of the most amazing individuals I have ever met in my life."



Greg Gaffney, Secretary of State

“I heard about this in my history class, and no one made a big remark to it, and I put my name down just to see what’s up. . . I like government and I like politics, but I never thought I’d be up here. Never.”



Matt Russell, Attorney General

“When the time comes for us to lead the way in politics, or medicine, or whatever we’re doing, we can do this, because we’re together, we’re united, we’re not cut across party lines. We’re going to change America. We’re going to do it, and it’s going to be amazing.“



Matthew Cipollone, Lt. Governor

“Considering I came here with no intent to run for anything, I feel honored to be here. When my friend first told me about it, I said ‘Sure, I’ll see how it is, and if things don’t go too well, I’ll just spend the whole time with (the two kids I came with)'. . . . I’ve spent less than 15 minutes with each of them.”


Douglas Dame, Governor

(speaking of his Boys State friends)” I stopped for a second and they to this moment don’t know why I just stopped and looked around for a minute. . . but I looked at them and thought to myself that, in that moment, I had made friends that I’m going to have for the rest of my life. . . That was my moment of realization.”



Adam Formica, United States Senator

“When I hear it from people my own age, it really sinks in, and I really do see that people do see the world in different ways. They think in different ways, and it’s really been me coming to that understanding. And the only successful way to deal with that is just letting your voice be heard, being respectful, being sincere.”



Jeffrey Pereira, United States Senator

“When we’re here. . . we just embrace each other. And, what make me feel most. . . what makes me feel so good, is when after I was done with my speeches, and you guys came up to me – it could be anybody – and you shook my hand and you said, “Hey Jeff, I loved what you said today.”