A campaign office for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened in Lansing on Sept. 17, after a Hillary Clinton campaign office opened last month.
Michigan state director for the Trump campaign Scott Hagerstrom said the office is one of 15 official Trump campaign offices in Michigan, with 16 more projected to open.
Trump has been active in the state during his campaign, visiting Detroit twice in addition to stops in Dimondale and most recently, Flint.
Hagerstrom said the campaign hopes to win Michigan, though the state has gone blue in presidential elections for the last two decades.
“Michigan is unique, most people that are voting age are registered to vote, so it’s our goal to get them to the polls and vote,” Hagerstrom said.
Hagerstrom, an MSU political science alumnus, worked in the Michigan House of Representatives for 15 years and is currently working out of Trump's Lansing office.
Hagerstrom said the office’s central location makes it easy to reach a majority of Michigan’s population.
“We’re really emphasizing getting out and knocking doors of ... registered voters, people who haven’t voted recently,” Hagerstrom said. “Mr. Trump has really appealed to a demographic of people who feel abandoned by the process, feel abandoned by the political elites in Washington D.C., so we’re really reaching out.”
Hagerstrom said the office has not yet campaigned at MSU, but has plans to campaign in East Lansing neighborhoods and at MSU football tailgates.
MSU College Republicans president Jeff Litten said the student organization has not been working with the new office, but a new Trump student group is forming that will directly work with the Trump campaign.
“It’s going to be an independent group, but we’re going to work together,” Litten said.
Genetics senior Kevin Kramer began volunteering at the Lansing office on Sunday.
Kramer said he works a full-time job, but plans to contribute 10-15 hours a week volunteering at the office.
“My primary goal is to get my friends who are Trump supporters to speak out about their views,” Kramer said. “I know that there’s a lot of us who are afraid to speak our mind on campus because it’s not popular to be conservative.”
Kramer supported Trump shortly after he announced his candidacy, but said Clinton’s recent labeling of a swath of Trump supporters as “deplorable” pushed him to get involved with the campaign.
Kramer, who said he’s worked more than 3,000 hours of community service, believes the characterization is unfair.
“I couldn’t sit back anymore and see people who I know as friends be called 'deplorable' people,” Kramer said. “I hope through my own actions that I can show people what we stand for.”
