More Pictures from this Semester

  

Patty Philipps Canvass

 Mike McIntyre Canvass

Deb McManus Canvass (one of many)

 

 Awesome NC Artwork

Good ole fashioned phonebanking 

 We also have an incredible debate team! (near side)

And sent our people up to DC to lobby on Capitol Hill!

Gotta get creative with advertising.

Volunteering at Michelle Obama

 Waiting on Michelle to speak

Got to meet Governor Hunt!

Held Watch Parties for all the Debates

Gotta register!

 We made some awesome literature.

 We made sure everyone saw/had one of these.

And handed out hundreds of these.

I Give Great Interviews...

Rally With Lt. Governor Dalton at Ram's Head

David Price also voted at Ram's Head!

  

Watching the Election Night results.

Our Races

As far as races we covered:

                Ellie Kinnaird- Won her reelection for state senate here in Orange County.  Knew this was gonna happen, but we still love to help out such a progressive woman as Ellie, and she’s been absolutely amazing to us over the years.

                Verla Insko- Verla was reelected to state house here in Orange County.  Similarly to Senator Kinnaird, we didn’t have to help out her campaign too much, but she’s an incredible lady and we love having her represent us.

                Deb McManus- She was able to win her election bid down in Chatham County for the state house.  This is great because it was the local campaign we were most involved with, and a good friend of mine/former YD president was her manager.  She won handily, so we’re excited to have a voice for public education going to Raleigh!

                Patty Philipps- Unfortunately, Patty Philipps did not win her race in Alamance County.  About a week after we went to canvass for her, she received a DUI which unraveled her campaign and she was not able to recover.  

                Valerie Foushee- Valerie was able to win her bid for the NC state house up in northern Orange County.  Again, a former YD member was her campaign manager, so it was great to be able to help him out and get another progressive thinker elected to Raleigh.

                Mike McIntyre- In what was the closest US House race in the nation (!), Mike McIntyre won reelection by a few hundred votes.  We knocked on a few hundred doors for him.  Therefore, we won his election.  Don’t tell me otherwise, because blahblahblahICANTHEARYOU.  This is the race we might be most proud of, simply because it shows the incredible impact even a small group of individuals can have on such an important election.

                Larry Kissell-  Unfortunately, Representative Kissell was ousted in his reelection bid.  Large points go to gerrymandering on this one, but he still ran a great campaign and we loved to go work with him.  Best of luck to him in the future.

                Walter Dalton-  Again, Unfortunately, Walter did not beat Pat McCrory for the governor’s mansion.  It was a definite Republican year at that level, and it’s hard to beat a man who has been campaigning for the past six years or so since he lost in 2008.  But it’s okay, Walter was a strong voice for our campus, and he will continue to raise issues that we truly care about.

                 Barack Obama-  Winner winner, chicken dinner.  This was great, after all of our hard work and hundreds of hours campaigning, we were able to see our man, Mr. President, get reelected in what turned out to be a pretty decisive victory. 

Election Day

So, I know it's been a while since Election Day, but I wanted to detail our activities, because it was insane.

4:00AM- Yepp, you read that right, four in the morning.  We woke up (and by we I mean 17 people, not just me and my one friend) and met at the Davis ATMs for a literature drop.  We ended up splitting up into 4 cars, with over 100 yard signs, and over 2000 pieces of literature.  We hit up pretty much every apartment complex in Chapel Hill, so if you are a student living in the area, you knew it was election day the second you walked out your door.  It was incredible.  My car alone went to every door at Townhouse Apartments, Mill Creek, Stratford, Stratford Hills, Chancellor's Square, Airport Commons, and a few other complexes whose names I can't even remember.  All total, we were done by 6:30 when the polls opened and we had distributed all 2000 pieces of literature, as well as a majority of our yard signs.

9:00AM-6:00PM- Pit-sitting time.  We had a table set up right in front of Lenior all day to give out information to folks who hadn't yet voted but wanted to.  We had flyers with directions to every single polling location that a campus address could possibly go to, as well as information on how to vote provisionally at the Center for Dramatic Arts on campus.  We even gave dozens of people a ride to the polls, so those first-years without cars were able to go vote on election day.  We gave out literature again, as well as stickers and buttons so that those who had already voted could voice their support and encourage others to do the same.  I spent every waking moment I had in the pit, except for my 11 o'clock class which took attendance.  I even registered for classes for next semester while helping someone figure out how to take the bus down Highway 54 to their polling location!

6:00PM-7:30PM- Polling location.  On my way home from the pit, I stopped by my polling location on Roberson Street to help pass out information to any last minute voters.  So much fun, but so cold!  I have so much respect for the volunteers that work the polls, they have to know absolutely everything but get no respite from the marathon that is election day.

7:30PM-bedtime- Election party at R&R Grill.  After the polls closed, hundreds of students and townspeople alike descended upon R&R for our election night party.  We all gathered in the venue to watch the live results come in. We had TVs displaying both the national results (going state by state) and the North Carolina results (showing the winners of the NC house and senate, as well as numerous ballot initiatives- yay transit tax!).  It was an absolutely incredible night, punctuated by many victories.  All in all, it was a much better watch party than in 2010, as can be expected...

Anyway, election day was absolutely exhausting but absolutely incredible.  It was a culmination of years' worth of effort and organizing, a triumph on so many levels.  It fulfilled all of our hopes, desires, and wants that had cropped up during this tumultuous election season.  I'll post again to recap many of the individual races we were involved with, but truth be said, it was one of the happiest political moments of my life.  Til next time...

Pre-Election Day Updates

So I haven't updated here in a while, so I thought I'd recap our pre-election day festivities before coming back with another post about election day. 

Early voting was insane at Carolina, with Rams Head open from Oct 18 to Nov 3, we had a total of 9500 students vote on campus.  It was amazing; we were standing outside Rams Head everyday from noon to 7pm (when the polls closed) and simply herded people into the dining hall.  That was our strategy: simple, effective, and fun.

Speaking of fun, we had many events down in the Plaza.  Candidate for governor, Walter Dalton visited us to speak to a crowd of volunteers along with his wife and election team.  A couple of days later, Congressman David Price actually came and voted at Rams Head on Nov 2.  He brought with him Lt. governor candidate Linda Coleman; they both gave impassioned speeches that truly reminded us why we were volunteering.

It was a long couple of weeks, but we made it.  We had a great turnout and informed so many students.  I'll come back in a few days with an Election Day post; because that was one hell of a day.

So when I voted early at Ram's Head I also happened to vote next to Chancellor Thorpe!  No matter what your political views are, get out and vote!

MICHELLE!

  So, the first lady came to Chapel Hill, not sure if anyone noticed....

HUGE event.  We had some practice back in April when the President came, so this time around we (the students/volunteers) knew exactly what we needed to do.  I was one of the first students to actually know about the First Lady coming to visit, which was exciting.  I found out that Thursday evening, and Friday afternoon I (along with my co-VP and Pres. of Young Dems) were in a meeting with the advance team, Carmichael arena staff, university representatives, and the US Secret Service.  Pretty cool.  That's where we learned everything we needed to know: all the details of when things were going to happen, where everyone needed to be, etc.

So we were prepared when she came.  Volunteers had to show up at 9, and we were there mainly for crowd control.  We had to help certain individuals to their seats, fill in sections, and generally answer any questions the public had.

The actual event started when our Young Dems president, Austin Gilmore, took the stage to give an introductory speech to the students, getting them ready for Michelle.  It was great getting to see a really good friend of mine up there in front of the entire auditorium, having his voice heard by everyone in attendance.  I would've given anything to get up on that stage...

After Austin, former Governor Jim Hunt said a few words, along with a representative from Organizing for America.  Finally, it came time for the First Lady to be introduced.  Again, one of my really close friends was given the opportunity to get up on stage and bring in Michelle Obama.  Lindsey Rietkerk, head of the Tar Heels for Obama organization, gave an incredible introductory speech and actually got to hug Michelle as the swapped on stage.  Afterwards, both Austin and Lindsey were able to meet and speak with Michelle backstage.  That's another perk I would have given anything to have; initially I was given the impression from OFA that myself and my co-VP were going to have the chance to meet her, but this also was taken.  You know, as a student who has been instrumental in the running of this campaign on campus, from the Young Dems perspective, it hurt not to be rewarded when you see others getting the opportunity of a lifetime.  I have a lot of issues with the way some aspects of this campaign have been run by the OFA team.  The majority of the time it seems like they care about nothing more than numbers: they forget that voters (and volunteers most importantly!!!) have feelings and needs and would like to see their effort and sacrifice rewarded.  Just saying, after putting in over a hundred hours this semester (and many times that throughout my first three years), it would have been nice to even shake the hand of the First Lady and say thank you.

Her speech itself was great.  It had a lot of crossover between her previous speech at the DNC in Charlotte several weeks ago and the visit her husband had paid Chapel Hill back in the spring.  She touched on a lot of issues concerning how her and the President were raised, the struggles they went through, the pressures on their family.  She did an incredible job showing that her and her husband could relate to the hard time students are going through.  She went on to mention the President's past accomplishments in making college more affordable and what he planned to do in a second term.

Overall, it was a great event.  Yes, I have some (read: many) regrets and sorrows from being forced to watch over a rope separating the floor from the bleachers ("you shall not pass!"- me for three hours).  But the student body loved the speech, it was extremely popular, and I think it really motivated my peers to become more involved in this election cycle.  We had many people sign up for volunteer shifts to help get out the vote.  So it's been a great week. 

I'm on fall break right now.  It's been slow the past week (except for that whole First Lady thing) but we're ramping back up on Monday when students get back.  Early voting at Ram's Head started two days ago and I'm lucky enough to say I've already voted.  Felt great getting to vote for a President for the first time ever!!!  Now I just have to get out there and help every student on this campus feel that same passion, that same fulfillment, that same accomplishment that can only come with doing your civic duty as an American citizen.

Til next time....