Brooke Fox

The Washington and Lee University Mock Convention has a reputation for accurately predicting the winner in either the GOP or Democratic race (depending on the year) and, 2016's, which focused on the GOP candidates, called the win for Donald Trump.

According to the Roanoke Times, Trump won twice as many delegates as Ted Cruz during Saturday’s event.

Specifically, it reported, Trump would receive 1,320 delegates; Ted Cruz 652; and Marco Rubio the third-highest number of votes, at 399.

Trump called the students on Saturday, the newspaper also reported, saying, "'I know your track record is extraordinary, better than anybody’s record, I just wanted to thank you very much for this election.'”

The mock convention, which even comes with its own playlist, began at Washington and Lee in 1908, when Democratic presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan visited the school. Since then, the students have accurately predicted a party winner 19 of 25 election cycles, according to its website.

The convention has had such guests as Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and many other prominent politicians and heads of state.

By 1948, the convention included a parade through the streets of Lexington, a tradition that continues today. In 1952, the convention added a student secret-service team to work on logistics.

This year, the mock convention hosted Newt Gingrich, Ed Gillespie, Kristen Anderson, Bob Goodlatte, Dick Cheney and many others.





This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.