While classes and campus life keep most students busy, many university students have found time to dive into political campaigns, motivated by a blend of personal passion, civic duty and hope for real change.
Many students involved in campaigns were heavily impacted by the political and social climate of the country during their high school years, with influence from social justice movements, COVID-19 and the Trump Administration.
Kristen Daley, a senior political science major, worked on the Dr. Frank Burns campaign for the 21st State House District this summer. Daley became motivated to get involved with politics while she was in high school during the peak of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
“My junior and senior year of high school, I became super interested in mobilization and mobilization efforts, getting people to vote and seeing direct policy change as a result of that,” Daley said.
Another student, Devin Jiang, a senior public policy major, was driven to politics when he saw a rise in hate against Asian-Americans during the pandemic. Jiang interned at the White House and worked on the Battleground States Team for the Biden-Harris campaign.
“There was a rise in Asian hate during the COVID-19 years,” Jiang said. “But then there also seems to be a lot of negative attitude towards people of Asia and people of Asian descent, and I really wanted to challenge prejudice and foster more inclusion and representation in our systems of government.”
Another issue that has been up for debate this election season is the environment and climate change.
“My main policy focus is energy and environment,” Josh Koppel, a junior energy and environmental policy, economics and political science triple major, said. “Having lived through a few years of a president who didn’t really give much regard to energy and environment, I found myself getting kind of angry, and I decided I needed to actually take action about it.”
Koppel, who worked on the Lisa Blunt Rochester for Senate campaign, is looking to move into policy implementation and work with stakeholders as a career. However, he still emphasized that getting in the field and speaking to voters is an important part of politics.
This sentiment is shared amongst all these students. Although their motives for getting involved differ, they all maintain the importance of meeting voters where they are.
“I think a lot of people may not know the importance of really engaging with voters,” Carson McClung, a junior public policy major, said.
“Many people are single-issue voters or uninformed voters,” McClung, who interned on the Marcus Henry campaign for County Executive for New Castle County, said. “Uninformed voters tend to vote for their feelings, even if they don’t actually know what the candidate is going to do.”
That personal aspect of engaging and communicating with voters, especially on local candidates, is something that Daley believes is critical to a campaign.
“I think voter contact in general is kind of underappreciated,” Daley said. “Especially with smaller campaigns, because what matters to constituents is that their district representative is responsive. So in terms of campaign work, I definitely made sure that they knew how to contact the candidate.”
Daley not only emphasized the importance of accessibility to their candidate but also the importance of listening to constituents. Based on the conversations she had with voters, she was able to bring up concerns about a garbage dump and new building developments that voters had.
Especially with local elections, larger issues like foreign policy and budgets are not at the forefront of voters’ minds. They are worried about what will impact their daily lives and their families.
“I sat down with this woman for 30 minutes on her front porch and talked to her about what matters to her in terms of providing for her family,” Daley said. “She was like, I don’t really care about the party of my district rep., but I care that I’m able to throw my trash out where I have been for a certain amount of years and I care that my children will have accessible child care when they do have kids.”
McClung highlighted that a large issue for people living in Hockessin, Delaware, a district within New Castle County, is cell service when you enter the township.
“One issue that they’re trying to work on is the broadband speed and lack of data,” McClung said. “It’s actually a big issue, which may be surprising for some people.”
Another aspect that accompanies working on a political campaign – it is unpredictable, especially at higher levels of government.
“We were running Biden’s campaign and then one day we saw the letter,” Jiang said. “No one expected it. We found out at the same time the rest of the American people did. Within one or two days, we quickly shifted and really turned our operation into a Harris for President campaign that we hope will send her to the White House.”
Between canvassing, phone banking and meet-and-greets, these students had their hands full this election season, hoping to sway voters and make a difference in their communities.
“Talking to voters is always interesting to me,” Koppel said. “I’d say it’s fulfilling a lot of the time, especially when there’s a voter who’s undecided or just disillusioned with bigger party politics. Seeing that same person eventually putting a lawn sign out for your candidate, it’s nice just knowing your work actually made a difference.”