From early on skeptic to ardent supporter, Joe Pitre has stayed the course

RNC Chair Michael Whately, top left, addresses the crowd at the RNC convention on Monday. inset, Joe PItre (Courtesy photos/Joe Pitre)

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Not long after then-presidential hopeful Donald Trump rode down the elevator at Trump Tower in June of 2015, he flew into Laconia, N.H., and spoke to a group of New Hampshire Republicans in a conference room at Laconia's airport.
Strafford District 1 state rep Joe Pitre of Farmington was one of those in attendance.
"He came up to me and said, 'Are you supporting me?'" Pitre said in an exclusive phone interview with The Rochester Voice on Wednesday. "I told him I haven't even vetted you."
Pitre, who is attending the Republican National Convention as an alternate, said he was shocked that day when he first met Trump, who then sat down next to him at the table and said, "Let's talk."
Pitre told Trump that he was a disabled vet and didn't like having to go to the VA Hospital in Jamaica Plain Mass., to get medical services.
Trump told Pitre he would be looking into that, and three years later he signed the Mission Act into law, which greatly enhanced the Veterans Choice Act that President Obama had signed into law in 2014.
Pitre, 78, suffers from leukemia, heart disease and skin cancer and said the work Trump has done for veterans is tremendous.
"I used to have to go to Jamaica Plain for treatment of my skin cancer. Now I can do it in Portsmouth. I had a heart operation last year where they put three stents in. I paid nothing."
Now a staunch Trump supporter, Pitre said he's never seen the Republican Party so unified.
"The mood is exciting, there's nothing subdued about it," he said. "We feel a victory in November, across all the delegation."
Pitre, a former Farmington Police Officer, Air Force and New Hampshire Air National Guard veteran, said when Trump entered the Fiserv Forum Baird Center on Monday the mood was electric.
"It was very emotional," he said. "Everybody was close to tears."
Pitre said he's looking forward to tonight's speech by the former president and believes he's seen a change in his demeanor since the assassination attempt on Saturday.
"I think President Trump seems more somber," he said. "I hope he tones down his boisterousness, it will attract even more people. I think he's very patriotic. He's not doing it for fame, it's cause he loves this country. I'm very happy, very excited to have the president on our side."
While the emotions have been high for Pitre at the convention, there have also been some lighter moments.
"The New Hampshire delegation is right next to the Fox News booth," he said, "so there's a lot of celebrities that come and go. I was wearing my 'Grumpy Old Vet' hat, and Eric Trump came over to me and said he really liked it. The hat was signed by President Trump."