News & Observer: Youthful Political Interest Surges

Youthful political interest surges
The News & Observer
Published May 05, 2008
By Mandy Locke, Staff Writer

GREENSBORO – Tilden Hagan spends his days cruising college campuses trying to pick up students.

His line: Let me tell you about my mom.

Before they can answer, Tilden Hagan, a 25-year-old Duke University alumnus, launches into a speech about the ills of America’s health-care system, lack of financial aid for students and slow progress in making energy green.

He insists that his mother, Kay Hagan, can fix what’s broken with America, and he tells them she needs their vote in the May 6 Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate.

“I hope my mom sounds like someone you want to vote for,” Tilden Hagan recently told a group of 20 young Democrats at UNC-Greensboro.

Young voters, from age 18 through their 20s, are politically awake this year and headed to the polls in droves. They’ve been energized by heated presidential primary contests, and North Carolina political candidates want to tap that energy, too. In many states that hosted presidential primary contests earlier this year, young voters turned out at three times the rate those states had seen previously.

National and state campaigns have harnessed young voters’ interest through techniques that cater to them. Politicians are chatting with them in virtual worlds like Facebook, sending their children to campuses to campaign and texting supporters’ cell phones.

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, has crisscrossed North Carolina visiting campuses. Sunday she was in Lumberton, Clinton (the city) and Raleigh. Hillary Clinton’s opponent, Barack Obama, added features to his Facebook profile to allow supporters to get updates on his campaign.

John McCain has his 23-year-old daughter, Meghan, blogging from the campaign trail.

Tilden Hagan’s campus evangelism is one of the ways candidates for state office – from wannabe governors to state representatives – are following suit.

Hagan’s chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Jim Neal, has tapped college students to travel the state campaigning with him. Republican gubernatorial candidate Fred Smith and several other candidates have dropped their commercials on YouTube, an online video site that often captures younger viewers.

Many young voters say they are enjoying the attention.

“We’ve always been regarded as wishy-washy,” said Dallas Thompson, a Peace College junior who met Tilden Hagan when Chelsea Clinton spoke at Peace in March. “This year, they know we care and they are sending people – people like us – to talk real politics with us. Talking to Tilden was like chatting with a guy at a barbecue.”

Young voters had been slowly disappearing from the polls starting in the early 1970s. By 2000, the number of young people casting votes had dropped by a third nationally, said Emily Kirby, a senior research associate at the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement – or CIRCLE – in Maryland.

In 2004, politicians and activists began working to reverse the trend. Campaigns assigned staff to reach young voters; they tapped college students to knock on doors and talk to their peers about candidates. Campaigns started to create profiles on Web sites geared toward young people.

It worked. In 2004, the number of voters ages 18 to 29 increased by nearly 10 percent.

The movement has continued, Kirby said. Many campaigns this year have hired youth directors. Facebook has counted more than 500 candidates across the nation with profiles on its site, which allows people to chat with and “friend” politicians.

Campaigning 24-7

Patrick Sebastian, a 20-year-old nephew of Republican gubernatorial hopeful Pat McCrory, helped him set up a Facebook page. On the page, the Charlotte mayor plays his favorite Beatles tunes and announces that his favorite movie is “Animal House.” Tricia Cotham, a Democratic state legislator seeking re-election to her House seat from Charlotte, has hundreds of young friends on Facebook. She has used the free forum to organize her volunteer base and is confident it will translate into votes in the fall. Cotham, the youngest North Carolina legislator at 29, said political candidates have to venture into these online forums.

“This is where the young people are,” she said. “This is where you can communicate with them all hours of the night and day. They can check in at 3 a.m. or 7 a.m. instead of just when I decide to come to their campus for 30 minutes.”

The numbers continue to rise. In presidential primary contests earlier this year, the number of 18- to 29-year-olds who voted tripled from 2004 rates. Tennessee saw a four-fold increase in young voters compared with 2004.

The majority of those participating this year have tended to vote Democratic.

North Carolina is anticipating a similar rush at its primary on Tuesday. A large number of young voters have registered for the first time: at least 150,000. That’s more than three times the number of young voters who registered for the first time before the primaries in 2004.

Though politicians may be employing new tricks to reach young voters, they say young voters are often interested in the same issues as their older counterparts.

“What’s on my mind? How will I find a job after college?” said Patrick Lawson, an N.C. State junior active in Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham’s Facebook page. “And, holy smokes, how in the world am I going to find $60 to fill up my gas tank?”

Kirby, of CIRCLE, said that while young voters may not be happy with government, they aren’t feeling disconnected or disillusioned.

“There is something about this generation,” Kirby said. “They are paying more attention. They are looking for change in government.”

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1061233-p2.html

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