Channeling their political enthusiasm for Illinois’s own Sen. Barack Obama, Northwestern students are venturing beyond Illinois to campaign for the popular presidential candidate.
Before Tuesday’s primary, students went door-to-door in Wisconsin to campaign for the Democratic frontrunner. When votes were tallied, Wisconsin awarded Obama his ninth consecutive primary win.
After visiting Obama’s headquarters in downtown Chicago, Maggie Li, a former Daily staffer, caught the election season bug and decided to volunteer to canvass in her hometown of Madison, Wis.
“I did it on a whim,” the Medill junior said. “I had never (canvassed) before. I was never in touch with political activism hands-on.”
Li said her experience was rewarding despite the frigid weather.
“I’m really glad I went because I met amazing people,” she said. “This election, I’m seeing a lot more activism and coming together for a cause.”
NU students joined others from DePaul University, Illinois State University and high schools as part of a 400-person group that canvassed in Madison. Students for Barack Obama, the organization that coordinated the outreach event, was impressive, she said.
Li knocked on the doors of 60 houses to tell residents about the primary and “plug Barack” by giving out Obama stickers, she said.
“There were hits and misses,” Li said. “Some people were eager to close the door. A lot of people were also receptive.”
Many residents were surprised to see young people going door-to-door for a candidate, she said.
“I just recall getting a funny look,” Li said. “‘What is this young girl with a clipboard doing at my door talking about politics?'”
Telling personal anecdotes helped Li offer voters another perspective, she said.
After seeing the poll numbers “tightening” days before the Wisconsin primary, Muhammad Safdari said he spontaneously decided to canvass in Wisconsin. The Weinberg sophomore traveled by himself for one-and-a-half hours on the Metra to Kenosha, Wis., and called staffers from the Obama headquarters to pick him up. He then went door-to-door in below freezing weather to get the word out, he said.
“Some people looked at me like I was crazy,” he said. “But it was fun and interesting.”
When knocking on doors of voters who were known Obama supporters or likely Obama supporters, Safdari’s main goal was to “guilt-trip people into actually voting.”
“It’s not only (important) to convert other voters into Obama voters, it’s getting your people to show,” he said. “If they are waffling, we have to get them back into the camp. Turnout is really important.”
It was rewarding to reach out to voters, Safdari said. He told residents the locations of their polling places and left notes on doors that detailed polling location information.
Most of the residents he encountered were undecided voters who were wrestling with their decision, mostly between Obama and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, Safdari said.
“People were telling me personal stuff, like their daughter’s health issues,” he said. “It means a lot to them. They take their vote seriously.”
NU’s proximity to Wisconsin does not mean it is the only state that attracts NU student-canvassers.
Obama supporters at NU went to Missouri before the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” primary to canvass.
“Obama is the first candidate who I’m passionate enough about to canvass for,” said Weinberg freshman Samantha Reed. “I’m a shy person.”
Reed talked to voters and knocked on doors with the NU chapter of Students for Barack Obama.
“As a group, our goal was to help Obama win in Missouri, which he did,” she said. “Missouri was a very close state – he only won by a few thousand votes. It made us feel that the few hundred people who we talked to really did matter.”
Another student who canvassed in Missouri said her job was to remind people about the primary and hand out Obama campaign literature.
“In the middle of the day when I was getting grumpy, I thought I wasn’t making a difference,” said School of Music freshman Kira Frank. “But I realized that even just reminding people about voting is helpful.”
Obama has attracted an “enthusiastic voter turnout” and this momentum has propelled Obama’s campaign, Safdari said.
“I don’t know the cause and effect, whether the energy is causing the votes or the votes are causing the energy,” he said.
Either way, he said, “people are going to the moon and back to try to get him to win.”
