New Kent State Group is Ready for Hillary
Clinton campaign workers and student volunteers are working together in a new organization to try to help elect Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The Kent State University Ready for Hillary group had their first organized meeting Thursday night at the Kent State Student Center.
The group comprised of Clinton campaign campus organizers, campaign fellows and student volunteers spent the evening discussing their goals as a group while providing an opportunity for volunteers to learn how to get involved.
Matt Bianco, a senior managerial marketing major is a new volunteer for the group and said that he joined because he is a Hillary Clinton supporter and wanted to get more involved in politics.
“I think it’s important to make your voice heard, if it is something you are passionate about,” Bianco said.
Though the group is not currently an official Kent State organization they are potentially seeking to become one. For now, Kent State for Hillary has had an informal partnership with the College Democrats who publicly endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.
College Democrats communications director and sophomore political science major, Alexis Atwater said that working with the Kent State Hillary group has been a natural pairing.
She also stated that the groups have not worked closely on any major projects yet but they have been sharing the College Democrats office.
“It’s really exciting to have them around,” Atwater said. “We’re looking forward to working with them closer.”
As of now the main goal for the Kent State for Hillary group is voter registration and attempting to spread the word about their candidate.
The group stressed the importance colleges have in elections and also noted that Kent State is especially important due to its size and location in a key battleground state.
Other campus political groups are attempting to work on campaign volunteering as well.
During the Kent State for Hillary meeting, members of the College Republicans were phone banking for Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman.
College Republicans president and senior political science major Jennifer Hutchinson said that the main goal for the College Republicans right now is grassroots efforts and focusing on local candidates.
Hutchinson stated that as a club, College Republicans haven’t done any official work for the presidential campaign, in part because the group has not officially endorsed a candidate.
But she confirmed that there are also Trump campus coordinators who have been working at Kent State as well looking for volunteers and attempting to campaign for their candidate but said she was unaware of any official group for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
“To my knowledge there is no formal group or meetings here at Kent but there are definitely people that are involved on the campus that people can always reach out to and if they wanna find out more information all they have to do is call one of the Trump field offices or victory centers,” Hutchinson said.
At this point Kent State’s Ready for Hillary doesn’t currently have any plans for weekly meetings but for now will continue to run out of the College Democrats office and attempt to gain more volunteers.