The Arkansas Times highlights a bright shining future star for the GOP:

“My life pretty much changed overnight.”

That’s how native Arkansan Princella Smith describes speaking at the 2004 Republican National Convention at the age of 20.

She got to the stage by winning a speech contest sponsored by MTV called “Stand Up and Holla,” and soon found herself thrust into the national spotlight as a rising star of the GOP.

Looking at her record, it’s no surprise that Smith has climbed the Republican ranks so quickly. Between her junior and senior year at Wynne High School, Smith was elected governor of Girls State, a summer leadership program sponsored by the American Legion. She then took on internships with then-Gov. Mike Huckabee and then-Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller. She worked as the e-campaign director in Maryland Republican Michael Steele’s bid for the Senate in 2006, and now works as the chief spokesperson for American Solutions in Washington, D.C., an organization started by Newt Gingrich.