This Tucson high school teacher goes to political conventions and reports back to his students

What happens when a high school government teacher goes to political conventions to talk to delegates and activists? This teacher has done just that.

Brian Mock teaches high school government in Tucson and has been going to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions for more than 30 years. He’s also the director and co-producer of an upcoming documentary about his experiences, called "Unconventional!"

Mock spoke with The Show about this and they started with how when he goes to these conventions, he approaches it as a teacher, as opposed to if he were a journalist or someone else trying to document the events.

Brian Mock

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Handout

Full conversation

BRIAN MOCK: Well, that’s that’s interesting because in 2024, I actually went as a journalist and teacher. I had a press pass from the Tucson Sentinel.

Prior to that, it was just as a teacher. So, you know, I would approach people and just say, "Look, I’m a teacher from Tucson, Arizona. I teach government and politics. Would love to, you know, have a few minutes of your time. Tell my students on camera why you’re supporting or not supporting the nominee for your party."

MARK BRODIE: And were people generally willing to talk to you?

BRIAN MOCK: Absolutely. Now, the parties differ sometimes in how much they’re willing to talk. There’s definitely a cultural difference. But, yeah, overall, yeah.

MARK BRODIE: And what were you trying to find out from these attendees?

BRIAN MOCK: I wanted to find out their their social and economic and foreign policy beliefs so because that’s what I teach in my class. And I use the the same sort of jargon and verbiage that I use in my classroom so that when they’re speaking, they’re answering in the same language of my classroom.

And I wanted to find out, you know, are they more centrist, are they more radical, and do they agree or disagree with the party’s platform, why or why not?

MARK BRODIE: And you focus mostly on what was going on outside the arena, right? Like you weren’t necessarily recording the speeches going on from the stage.

BRIAN MOCK: Yeah, in the early, you know, in ’96, 2004, 2008, I was mostly outside. I got in, I went with a couple friends, and one had a press pass. And so, a lot of times at the, you know, I think in 2004 and ’08, I got to go in the last night and see the acceptance speech or something. But, yeah, so I was mostly capturing the insanity often that goes on outside the conventions.

MARK BRODIE: And that’s something that I think a lot of people don’t necessarily see. Like even if you watch the convention, you’re seeing what’s going on inside, maybe you see some images or you hear, you know, some voices from people outside, but you’re focusing on that. Like, what what are we missing by not seeing that?

BRIAN MOCK: You’re missing, you’re missing protests, counter-protests, speeches, events, you’re missing just the milieu of people around and press and you get to see how the press works, too.

You know, for example, you can run into, say, the leader of the, I think, Muslim Americans for Trump, I think was what the group was called in 2016, and say, "Hey, can I get an interview with you?"

Or in 1996, it wasn’t near the convention, but I found that I could sneak in with some friends to the Christian Coalition right-wing rally, with cut-off shorts and t-shirt, long hair, you know, looking like a college student that I was. And if I had a camera and microphone, people were like, "OK, well, sure, I’ll talk." I’ve talked to Jerry Falwell. You know, I walked right up to Jerry Falwell and got an interview.

MARK BRODIE: Wow.

BRIAN MOCK: And realized, "Oh, this is not, this is cool."

MARK BRODIE: So, what have you seen over those 30 years of, you’ve not been to every single convention over those over those 30 years, but, broadly speaking, like what’s what’s changed? What’s different?

BRIAN MOCK: The militarized kind of structure outside the DNC I’ve noticed over the years, has become incredibly has become a lot more prominent. They separate delegates for their party going in from protesters, and there’s thousands of people outside protesting. And we’re talking people on the left, not really people on the right. Left of the party.

I’ve seen that become more extreme, and I’ve also seen the Republican conventions become much more open. A little there’s definitely security, but much more open in terms of delegates, you know, milling about with just the public.

MARK BRODIE: What has been different about what you have heard from folks about maybe why they’re there or where they stand on the political spectrum?

BRIAN MOCK: Well, from delegates, delegates seem to, you know, they're giving party talking points, right? So, they’re there to support the nominee, the candidate, whatever, and they will list off the basic talking points of the party.

Now, if you challenge them a little bit, sometimes they get a little confused. For example, you know, in 2008, I asked an Obama delegate, "Well, you know, does it bother you that he is, you know, for the death penalty?" Now, I asked that because I knew my students and I were talking about inconsistencies right between parties and candidates and the platforms. And this has happened many times, and the delegate said, "Oh, really? I didn’t know that." I said, "Yeah."

Activists are much more, in my experience, informed and passionate. They don’t have to toe a party line and they can be more critical and they can still say, "I’m going to still vote for the party, for the candidate," but they’re a lot more a lot more informed.

MARK BRODIE: How has the kind of footage and the kinds of insights that you’ve brought back from these conventions informed some of the conversations and discussions you have in your class?

BRIAN MOCK: Well, you know, one of the narrative arcs of this project is going to be: a teacher goes to the convention to get nuanced, real-life, real-people views to bring back to the classroom to analyze. So, I mean, you just find all kinds of nuance and interesting perspectives.

MARK BRODIE: And what do your students think about that? I mean, I would imagine, a lot of 17-, 18-year-olds, you tend to teach high school seniors, like, have a sense of, you know, what the Democratic Party stands for, what the Republican Party stands for and to an extent, maybe even what they stand for, but maybe don't realize that what they stand for is a little bit from here and a little bit from there?

BRIAN MOCK: Yeah, well, when we learn about that kind of nuanced and abstract thinking about ideology, and I then, you know, I do what teachers call scaffolding, I work up to then, OK, like we've got that down. Now let me show you some videos I took.

And my students can't believe it. I mean, they're oftentimes, they're just, their jaws are agape like, wow, like I didn't realize a Democrat would say that or a Republican would say that. They get to see how powerful ideology can be. 

MARK BRODIE: Is part of the hope with doing this that you can sort of introduce maybe a little more nuance into our political thinking?

BRIAN MOCK: Yeah, I mean, you know, I’m I feel like I’m one of the other kind of narrative ideas here is going up against this, as I said earlier, this kind of binary red-blue that we have that’s divided us. And saying, "Well, wait a minute, you know, what do people really believe in, you know, and what are some common, like what’s some common ground here? And do the two parties actually represent what people want?"

MARK BRODIE: How long do you think you want to keep going to these conventions?

BRIAN MOCK: Oh, I want to I want to just as long I mean, I want to keep going. Ad infinitum, I really do. I mean, I plan to go to 2028. You know, I want this to come out in for festivals in a year, and then wide release, 2028 before, you know, during the primaries, you know, before the summer, before the election. Yeah, I wanted it to have an impact there and but, yeah, I do plan to keep going, absolutely.

MARK BRODIE: All right. That is Brian Mock, a high school government teacher in Tucson. Brian, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

BRIAN MOCK: Thanks for having me.