Students Organize for Hillary in Bernie Territory

Months before Hillary Clinton declared her presidential candidacy online in April, leaders in the Democratic Party saw her as the destined choice to be the party’s standard bearer in the 2016 election.

But no political pundit foresaw the rise of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders in recent months, mostly shrugging when he declared his candidacy in May on the shores of Lake Champlain. In the New Hampshire primaries, Mr. Sanders swept the first-in-the-nation vote by a 22-point margin. Ms. Clinton managed a comfortable five-point victory in the Nevada caucuses.

And as the race tightens up in South Carolina and Super Tuesday states, where nearly 900 of the 4,192 available delegates will be allocated, the question becomes whether Sen. Sanders’ message of political revolution can eventually — after a long slog to the Democratic National Convention which most pundits are predicting — secure him a first place finish. In this race, though, second place does not cut it.

For members of Middlebury Students for Hillary, the former first lady will always be number one. The group is not officially registered as a student organization, but they still hold events like phone banking and canvassing in Vermont and New Hampshire. They were present at the Democratic Debate watch party earlier in the fall and at the Iowa caucus watch party on Feb. 1.

Between these events, the Feb activities fair and tabling in Atwater with a Hillary Clinton cutout, Middlebury Students For Hillary has extended their membership and presence.

“We continue to see our supporter list grow every time we reach out to students on campus,” said Will Schwartz ’16, the group’s organizing lead.

President of the Middlebury College Democrats Hazel Millard ’18 noticed that student support for individual candidates has solidified over the course of the academic year.

“Based on our weekly College Democrats meetings, it seemed to me that many students entered the school year with a vague sense of who they would support in the primaries,” Millard said. “Over the course of the semester, opinions grew stronger and debate within the group got more heated. There are students on campus organizing for both candidates in the Democratic Primary.”

Middlebury Students for Hillary also works on other projects, including gathering enough signatures from Vermonters to get Secretary Clinton on the ballot for the primary.

“The main goal of our efforts is to interact with as many voters as possible to talk about the candidates, to find out what issues matter most to voters and to discuss where Secretary Clinton stands on those issues,” said Mitch Perry ’16, campaign liaison for Middlebury Students for Hillary.

He said getting enough signatures to get Secretary Clinton on the ballot in Vermont was “tougher than it sounds.” Students from the group walked along Church Street and the Farmer’s Market in Burlington on multiple weekends to ask people to sign the ballot access petition. Many people resisted stopping to talk in the cold weather, said Perry, but the people who did stop were “very interested in starting a dialogue and contributing to the political process.”

Over February break, a group of students, including Schwartz, Perry and Charlotte Boghossian ’16, traveled to New Hampshire for four days to volunteer with “get out the vote” efforts. They made phone calls to N.H. voters, went door knocking and engaged in other campaign activities.

They also had the opportunity to hear from political figures like Senator Al Franken (D-MN) about why he and so many others are supporting Secretary Clinton.

“Despite Bernie’s victory in the N.H. primary, it was a great opportunity to be in the center of the excitement and to learn more about grassroots organizing and campaigning,” Perry said.

“For me, Secretary Clinton is the most qualified and most experienced candidate,” he said. “I trust that she will use her experience as Secretary of State and as a U.S. Senator to take on the tough foreign and domestic policy issues that the country faces. I joined the Middlebury for Hillary group to do my part in ensuring the most qualified and experienced candidate is elected as the country’s next leader.”

Middlebury Students for Hillary will continue to hold weekly phone banks on Thursday nights as the election progresses.

Middlebury Students for Hillary will be at the Super Tuesday viewing party in Crossroads Café, an event sponsored by the College Democrats, on March 1. To get involved with the group, contact Will Schwartz at wschwartz@middlebury.edu.