Editor’s Note: The quote by Tori Whiting has been changed to accurately reflect the context of the statement.
With Republicans eying the open 2014 U.S. Senate seat, the Michigan GOP said changing tactics, pushing for a more grassroots campaign to attract voters after pointed questions about the party’s exclusivity once it failed to garner strong minority support in the 2012 presidential election.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, — Michigan’s longest-serving senator — announced his plans to not run for re-election nearly two months ago, and both parties will fight tooth and nail for the soon-to-be vacant spot.
“We build voters face-to-face,” the Michigan Republican party’s new political director, Michael Bir, said.
The delivery of the GOP message is changing to reflect that, but the message itself is the same, Bir said. It’s a more ground-level emphasis, relying on neighbors and friends telling each other about
the party’s ideology.
That’s a plan somewhat mirrored by MSU’s College Republicans, with a college twist.
“I’m trying to bring the ‘party’ back into the ‘Grand Old Party,” said Will Staal, the new chair of the group.
The student organization has six new members on its board, and Staal said they’re all working to make conservative activism more fun, with plans to start meetings by chowing down on sweets and pizza, and a trip to Mackinac Island for a convention late September.
Staal calls last year’s average meeting attendance rates of 15 people “unacceptable.”
“With a university of (more than) 45,000, we should at least have 150 members,” he said.
But while the MSU and state-level GOP both are aiming to swaddle the conservative message in shiny new clothes, the university’s party chair and vice chair stray from hardliners when it comes to changing the public’s perception.
“I think both parties are somewhat alienating people,” Staal said, adding that being against same-sex marriage and abortion won’t draw college students.
He said he thinks it’s the fiscal side of the platform that’s going to attract young voters.
“Republicanism is associated with white males who are Christian and straight, and Christians who are bible-thumpers,” said Tori Whiting, vice chair of the student group, said.
But Whiting said the campus group is more diverse than that.
“We’re not that stereotypical, cookie-cutter idea of what you think a Republican is.”
To learn more on MSU College Republicans, visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/msucrs/.
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