DAVENPORT, Iowa — Lauren Lowenstein spent her Sunday calling people she probably never will meet in hopes of finding Iowans who share her passion of making Richard Gephardt the Democratic presidential nominee.

“I’m calling for Dick Gephardt,” the Weinberg sophomore said into the phone from Gephardt’s headquarters.

“You like him, huh?” she continued, chuckling. “He needs every supporter he can get to win.”

Lowenstein and several other Northwestern students trekked to locations throughout Iowa this weekend to volunteer for candidates and to encourage voters to participate in tonight’s caucuses.

Weinberg sophomore Samir Mayekar, Weinberg freshman Chris Taylor and Lowenstein — who live in the same Shepard Residential College hallway — contacted undecided voters, arranged carpools to caucus sites and tallied definite votes.

But Lowenstein said more students should have traveled to Iowa to help. More than 15 students originally committed to head to Davenport.

“It’s a shame so many people had homework to do,” she said. “We could have had a room full of Northwestern students supporting Gephardt.”

Instead of attending Monday classes, Mayekar, Taylor and Lowenstein, all of whom slept at a local volunteer’s house, will remain in Davenport to campaign.

The students decided to support Gephardt, a longtime U.S. representative from Missouri, because they think he has the best chance to beat President Bush, Taylor said.

“This is about a good man who can lead the country in a good direction, not just about any man,” Lowenstein said.

Gephardt, Communication ’62, served as president of NU’s Student Senate — the predecessor to the Associated Student Government. He also was the president of Beta Theta Pi, Mayekar’s fraternity.

“He’s a brother,” Mayekar said. “If he gets the nomination, I can guarantee that our house is going to be working nonstop.”

The students planned to phone Iowans until about 9 p.m. Sunday and spend today knocking on doors to drum up last-minute votes.

Although they could face subzero temperatures today, the three Gephardt supporters received frigid responses from call recipients.

“The other candidates have the same group of phone numbers, so (these people) have been called repeatedly,” Taylor said after a hang-up. “Some of them are getting frustrated, so we’re trying to be as nice as possible.”

In Des Moines, Weinberg senior Brian Garfield also struggled with surprising reactions when making calls for the campaign of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts.

At least three or four people Garfield tried to contact were deceased.

“Their spouses would react violently, spewing off obscenities at me and telling me to go all sorts of places,” he said laughing.

Garfield, a Des Moines native who worked for Kerry’s campaign in Iowa last summer, returned home this weekend to vote for his candidate.

“(The caucus system) is a wonderful thing, because it’s hands-on (and) grassroots,” he said while working the phones at Kerry’s Des Moines headquarters.

Although almost 20 NU students will work on other campaigns today, some still find perceived student apathy toward the election discouraging.

But Mayekar predicts more students will get involved as November general election nears.

“People know who the candidates are, and that’s saying something because there are so many,” he said. “This is when the political fever starts.”