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College Dems travel to Iowa to help campaign during caucus

February 3, 2016
<p>MSU College Democrats in Iowa before the caucuses. Courtesy of&nbsp;Ronald&nbsp;Owens.</p>

MSU College Democrats in Iowa before the caucuses. Courtesy of Ronald Owens.

This past weekend, the MSU college democrats traveled to Iowa for the first caucus of the presidential primary season and managed to keep themselves frightfully busy.

“We did quite a bit while in Iowa,” said social relations junior Alex Noffsinger, even stating they campaigned in the dark. 

The students’ political activism over the weekend ranged from endless canvassing for campaigning purposes, phone banking to heighten caucus attendance as well as knocking on doors to get people to attend the caucus itself, they said. 

“The time crunch made our work essential, so we got around to as many people as we could,” world politics sophomore Marena Tedaldi said. 

Despite the traditional tumult of the Iowa Caucus, the students were able to meet presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former President Bill Clinton, as well as their daughter Chelsea.

Meeting the president was certainly one of the highlights of the trip, political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore Ron Owens III said. 

“It inspired us to work a little harder and walk around a little longer to round up the last round of caucus goers,” Tedaldi said. 

As the night of the caucus itself arrived, students found themselves in awe of the size and scope of the event.

“The caucus itself was pretty surreal and like nothing you would expect,” Tedaldi said. 

She painted a picture of a horde of adults in a precinct center berating each other on the subject of which democratic candidate to support. 

Noffsinger even mentioned how surprised he was at the millennial attendance at the event.

Despite being nowhere near a college town, younger voters boasted an impressive turnout for Sanders, he said. 

Amongst the turmoil of our democratic process, the students found themselves unsurprised on the results and support for the candidates.

However, according to a recent article posted by NPR, Sanders still failed to muster the same youth turnout of president Barack Obama’s 2008 fervor. 

The study of the event also revealed Clinton fails to garner support from “liberals and progressives,” the article said. 

“The good news for Clinton was that 60 percent of caucus-goers were over the age of 45 — and she carried them easily. Among voters 65 and older, Clinton had a more than 2-to-1 advantage,” the article stated. 

The results from Monday night indicate Clinton holding an ever so slight lead over Sanders, a whole .3 percent, according to the article. 

“It was a close race, but that is what makes democracy exciting,” Owens said. 

Tedaldi, a Clinton supporter, considers “a win a win” and is confident this is the type of motivation that will encourage more voters to go out to the polls. 

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