On Aug. 17, a Hillary Clinton campaign office was opened on 2722 E. Michigan Ave, Suite 101. The former location of a Bernie Sanders campaign office, the space is now a hub for Michigan Democratic coordinated campaign, or MDCC, outreach in the Lansing, East Lansing and MSU areas.
Senior adviser to the MDCC Stephen Neuman said the Lansing office is one of the busiest and most successful offices opened by the campaign.
“There’s just a lot of enthusiasm in East Lansing and Lansing, there were people pouring out of that office the day we did that office opening,” Neuman said.
Neuman said volunteers and campaign staff are phone banking and canvassing, knocking on doors and talking to students individually on the issues that matter to them, such as college tuition costs.
“We really do believe that students and young voters in general have a lot of power in their hands to shape the outcome of this election and we think it’s really important that they evaluate the choice before them,” Neuman said.
The Oct. 11 voter registration deadline looms.
Neuman said the campaign organized a large voter registration drive during welcome week and aims to register thousands of students by the deadline.
“I think a lot of young voters understand they can’t be bystanders this year, that the election really is in their hands and that they’re really empowered to make the kind of change and craft the kind of country they want to live in,” Neuman said.
With the presidential election come many local and state elections as well.
“Anyone who knows anything about politics knows that the national level is important, but it’s really the state and local stuff that affects people on anything,” MSU College Democrats president and social relations and policy senior Daniel Eggerding said.
Eggerding said MSU College Democrats is working hand-in-hand with the campaign in its efforts.
The Clinton campaign's new Lansing digs will look familiar to some former Sanders volunteers.
Eggerding said the Clinton campaign chose the former Sanders office because of its central location and because the building was already in use to promote a democratic candidate.
“The thing we care about is making sure we’ve got an office that’s convenient for students, that’s convenient for other citizens in Lansing and that office there on Michigan Avenue fits that description,” Neuman said.
A portion of potential democratic voters who supported senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential bid have been reluctant to support Clinton after the former secretary’s nomination.
Neuman said the campaign is working to reconnect with former Sanders supporters.
“We’ve been working very hard on collaborating with Senator Sanders to try to reach some of his former supporters, a former student leader for Senator Sanders at MSU (political science pre-law senior Aaron Stephens) is now working with us to try to reach students there,” Neuman said.
Political theory and constitutional democracy junior Ronald Owens III, founder and president of the MSU-based Spartans for Hillary club, now works as MDCC’s campus organizer for MSU at the Lansing office.
Eggerding said Spartans for Hillary was folded into MSU College Democrats after Clinton accepted the democratic nomination, a traditional way of joining .
“The Secretary is fighting for some of the things that are very true to my heart,” Owens said. “I knew that I could not sit on the sidelines and see this campaign go by without me having a hand in it.”
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Owens said he is taking a semester off from his studies at MSU to volunteer 13 hours a day, seven days a week with the Clinton campaign.
“This is pretty much my home and I see my bed when I close my eyes,” Owens said. “This campaign is everything to me ... and that is something that I’m happy to say.”
