UW student chases youth vote for Obama
By: Politico
MADISON, Wis. — If younger voters help Barack Obama win this state in November, the presidential candidate will be sure to thank a 20-year-old college student.
University of Wisconsin-Madison junior Bryon Eagon is taking off the fall semester to organize college campuses statewide to get Obama elected.
As state coordinator for Students for Barack Obama, he is the point man for an effort that Democratic pollster Paul Maslin said could take the youth vote to its "absolute peak" in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s turnout among voters under 30 surged by 14 percentage points to 65 percent in 2004, when only Minnesota had more young voters turn out. They helped deliver Wisconsin for Democrat John Kerry, who exit polls showed was favored by 57 percent of those voters but won Wisconsin by less than 1 percent of the vote.
Pollsters and consultants say several factors suggest Obama will do better among voters under 30 in Wisconsin than Republican John McCain. They point to his appeal to young voters in the primaries, his relative youth at age 47 (McCain turns 72 later this month) and excitement over his potential to be the first black president.
Eagon plans to do his part by getting Students for Obama groups off the ground on all 13 four-year University of Wisconsin System campuses and at several private schools as students return for fall semester. He’s ensuring activists are ready to do everything from register voters to knock on doors and organize on Facebook.
"We want students to know the first few days they hit campus that Students for Obama and College Democrats will have a large presence on campus," he said. One key message to students, he said: "They can be the decisive factor if they become active."
McCain’s campaign also is recruiting student leaders for campus groups. Spokeswoman Leah Yoon said McCain’s positions on the environment, immigration and government reform appeal to younger voters.
Maslin, the Madison-based pollster, said he expected the percentage of young voters to increase in Wisconsin but not as much as in other states given the already high turnout here.
Eagon said he sees room to improve Democratic turnout at UW campuses in places such as Green Bay, Eau Claire, Platteville and La Crosse, which have not been targeted as much by previous campaigns.
A Winneconne native who attended high school in Neenah, Eagon became an Obama fan after watching his speech at the Democratic National Convention four years ago. He skipped classes to see Obama campaign for Gov. Jim Doyle before the 2006 election.
The following spring, he started helping organize UW-Madison’s Students for Obama chapter, which became one of the largest and most active in the nation during the primaries. Obama made an early campaign visit to Madison last year, in part to recognize its efforts.
Eagon and colleagues traveled several times to campaign in neighboring Iowa before Obama’s victory in the first-in-the-nation caucuses propelled his candidacy.
Then the political science major helped stage a rally of about 20,000 at the Kohl Center a week before Wisconsin’s Feb. 19 primary. Eagon handed the candidate a "Badgers for Obama" shirt backstage and warmed up the crowd with a speech.
"He’s an impressive young guy," said Dan Kanninen, Obama’s Wisconsin state director, recalling that event.
Later this month, Eagon will head to the Democratic National Convention as an Obama delegate.
He skipped many classes campaigning for Obama but said the work paid off when he saw fellow students swarm to the polls. He is making a similar calculation in deciding to suspend his education to work for a candidate he says inspires young people.
Young voters helped give Obama a 17-point victory over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in Wisconsin’s primary. Exit polls showed about 175,000 voters below 30 cast ballots for Democrats — nearly twice as many as in 2004 — and about 7 in 10 favored Obama.
UW-Madison political scientist Charles Franklin said he believes Obama will do better than Kerry in winning young voters but cautioned they are not as Democratic as some assume. He estimated Obama will win about 60 percent of voters under age 30.
Mike Tate, a consultant who organized Wisconsin college students for Al Gore’s campaign in 2000, said the time Obama’s campaign spends mobilizing campuses "will pay off in spades."
"I think you see a very unique opportunity with Sen. Obama to possibly soar even higher on what has been very, very strong turnout in the past," he said. "Will Obama’s young voter turnout match John Kerry’s? No question. Will it leave him in the dust? Most likely."