APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – With less than three months from Election Day, “Get out the Vote” efforts are ramping up.
Youth organizers were in the spotlight at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday, while students met in Appleton to help re-elect President Trump.
College students had phones in their hand, but not for reasons you might think.
Members of “Make Campus Great Again, Trump’s Victory College Student Coalition,” were taking part in a phonebank, trying to get the vote out by phone.
“They’re very enthusiastic, they’re working hard, they really care, and they know a lot about the issues,” State Representative David Murphy, R-Greenville said. “I was extremely happy to see that they were so well-informed about what’s going on.”
For many of the students there, it’ll be the first time that they get to vote in a presidential election, so getting involved is very important.
“I realized that if I don’t get involved, I don’t know who will,” College Democrats interim president Matthew Nowling said.
Matt Albert, chair of the Outagamie County Republican Party and volunteer at the phonebank, tells FOX 11 if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.
“You can’t sit on the sidelines and expect that what you believe in is going to be taken care of.”
The Campus Vote Project says millenials and Gen Z will be the largest share of eligible voters in 2020.
Those groups have seen a pandemic, two economic crashes, two foreign wars, and renewed, nationwide reckonings with racial justice and gun violence.
“The Parkland shooting was something that felt really close to home,” High School Democrats president Charlotte Kerpen said. “I knew at any moment that could be me or my friends.”
“What really sparked me to get involved and take action was a combination of the Ferguson protests, that really made me think about my position as a black man in America, and also the Pulse Nightclub shooting, that really made me reflect upon my experience as a gay man,” said Nowling.
Research shows the youth vote will play a huge role in the 2020 election and beyond.
“What happens in Washington and what happens in Madison affects what it’s going to happen to me in one, two, three, four years, and I think that’s gonna be important for young voters,” Albert said.
Data from the 2016 presidential election shows that less than half of the 18-29 year olds voted in that contest, however, that age group was also the only one that actually increased its voting rate from the 2012 election.
