From going door to door, to tabling, to getting students registered to vote, the Young Democrats have tried their hardest to support Democratic candidates and get students involved in politics.
Catherine Yenne, University of Idaho junior, is on the state board for the Young Democrats. She said before Election Day they pushed to get students involved.
“We’re informing people about our candidates. We did a lot of big pushes to get people registered to vote before that deadline passed,” Yenne said.
She said one of the biggest challenges for the Young Democrats has been getting enthusiasm back up since Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders withdrew from the race.
“There was a lot of support for Bernie in the beginning of the year. People were really excited for politics,” Yenne said. “Unfortunately, that has kind of come to a slump later in the year.”
Baylee Ellis, junior and president of the Young Democrats, agreed with Yenne. Ellis said she has been a Democrat since she was a child.
“I’ve been a Democrat since as long as I can remember. In the 2008 election, when I was still in middle school, I was on Facebook arguing with my family,” Ellis said.
She said it’s been hard bringing everyone together under one candidate. However, when confronted with the alternative candidates, many of the Young Democrats threw their support behind Clinton.
“Basically, even if you don’t support Hillary Clinton specifically, you can support many of the ideas she’s behind,” Ellis said.
The Young Democrats do not formally back any specific candidate, Yenne said. Ellis said instead they back all the Democratic candidates.
“We are the largest volunteer base for local candidates. There are people working on those campaigns, but there has been no official endorsement (for Clinton),” Yenne said.
Both Yenne and Ellis said the local elections are more important to the individual voter than the presidential election anyway.
“The president doesn’t ultimately matter too much more than a head of state. Your congress, your local and city officials are the ones that are going to be making the most impact to you,” Ellis said.
Yenne said she encourages people to be informed about local issues as well as national ones. However, she said she understands that people can’t always stay up-to-date on all the issues.
“To some extent, that’s the reason we have political parties, it’s hard to stay up-to-date on all the issues. It’s convenient to have the little letter next to their name when it comes to vote,” she said.
Yenne said it’s the individual voters who matter in elections.
“I always frame it in the way that you don’t have the right to complain if you don’t vote. If you don’t voice an opinion in the democratic way, you have to deal with what you have,” she said.
Yenne said while she hopes Democratic candidates will win elections, there’s no guarantee of this. She said everyone has poured so much time and effort into campaigning, it can be hard not to see it come to fruition.
“If we don’t win, we’ve still made progress. We’ve knocked on a lot of doors, we’ve informed voters about local politics,” she said.
Ellis said Tuesday isn’t the end for her political involvement either. She said if things don’t go the way she hoped, there are still other elections coming up.
Yenne said regardless of the outcome on Tuesday, she plans to head home Wednesday for some well-earned rest and relaxation.
When it’s not an election year, Yenne said the Young Democrats are still active on campus, but less so. She said it’s hard to keep people interested during the years without presidential elections.
Carly Scott can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Idaho_Scotty.