As Democratic students watched election night coverage and saw Hillary Clinton’s lead fall while Donald Trump cinched red states, their dismay turned to determination. After canvassing for Democrats at multiple levels, some students resolved to work even harder to take back Democratic seats in future elections.
Students on campus focused on making sure their peers were registered to vote and then sponsored early voting drives. They also participated in phone banking and door-to-door campaigning directly before the election. Students also raised awareness on local races and other issues, such as the Monroe County Community School Corporation’s referendum to help fund public schools through property taxes.
“Canvassing helped mostly with making people aware of who was running in the down-ballot races,” said Kegan Ferguson, current president of the College Democrats of Indiana. “A lot of people tend to focus on the presidential campaign, and a lot of the political focus on campus was entirely national. Numerically speaking, we clearly didn’t make the difference needed, but I do think we helped many students make up their minds about races that were happening in Indiana.”
Ferguson said the results of the election would spur Democrats on campus to resist much of Trump’s proposed legislation, such as his promise to deport 2.3 million undocumented immigrants in one year. After the election, many students called on the IU administration to declare the school a sanctuary campus that could provide safety to undocumented immigrants.
Ferguson said millennials who weren’t as active in this election cycle as they could have been may now feel pressure to reform the Democratic party to reflect their own interests.
“There are going to be a lot of people, especially in our age group, motivated to structurally change the composition of the Democratic party to be more progressive,” Ferguson said. “I think people might have sat on the sidelines this election and didn’t do quite as much work, and I think that for 2020, and even for 2018, I think that sort of attitude and feeling will change.”
Terry Tossman, president of the IU College Democrats, said students cannot be complacent in the next four years like they were during a Democratic presidency.
“For the last eight years, we’ve been coasting, and we thought we were going to get the presidency and maybe the Senate, but it was a shock to everyone that you can’t sit on the sidelines,” he said. “That willingness to do more is how we get things done. Republicans have been doing that for eight years, but now it’s our turn to show that Democrats have the best interests.”
Ferguson said the most important thing politically active students should be focusing on in the wake of the election is making sure their peers are registered to vote in upcoming elections in an attempt to see different representatives in office.
“It’s very difficult for out-of-state students to vote in Indiana, and I think more than anything the No. 1 goal for students should be making sure as many of their peers vote as possible,” he said.
Tossman said any activism post-election is valuable.
“Get involved however you see fit,” he said. “Any time you feel like you’re not doing enough, think about what you were doing before the election, and if you’re doing more than you were doing before the election, then you’re heading in the right direction.”
