Final push for students on the NH campaign trail

Winter in New Hampshire is not usually the hottest vacation spot for college students – unless those students happen to be die-hard political enthusiasts.

It’s those dedicated college students who will be working in overdrive this weekend, ahead of the Granite State’s Republican presidential primary on Tuesday. It's the same mode they have been in for much of winter break.

Early mornings, late nights and chilly temperatures haven’t deterred these students whose energy is largely the driving force behind the campaigns, as they make phone calls, knock on doors and fill-in wherever they’re needed.

“College students are most prepared for campaign life,” said George Washington University sophomore Matt Epstein, who is in New Hampshire.

Epstein is one of several students who have traveled to the state to work with the Jon Huntsman campaign ahead of the primary and before the new semester starts.

This is Epstein’s first involvement with a presidential campaign as an on-the-ground volunteer. He said the work isn’t flashy and even the paid campaign workers are just a few years older than he is, but they all believe strongly in the work they are doing.

“The heart with grassroots politics is still the way to go,” he said of his experience.

The campaign work college students most often take on includes the small details of campaign logistics that don’t often make daily news coverage, but it’s work that means a lot to the campaigns.

That work might be voter contact through phone banks and door knocking, but it often means sign waving and chair set-up at event locations.

“If you’re not here putting in the sweat, living off of pizza and coffee, you don’t see that,” Epstein said.

Dan Horning, another GW student in New Hampshire ahead of the primary, has spent the last few days driving a campaign car that ferries staff and reporters between campaign stops. He’ll spend a total of 10 days in the state.

He said the work college students do with campaigns also brings an energy to the effort -- even when it means sign waving on a cold street corner at six in the morning.

“For any campaign it would be so much more difficult without students,” he said. “And young people are crazy enough to do it.

For other students, the work isn’t just for winter break.

Jake Wagner is a sophomore at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College and has spent the last few days standing at a podium. The politics major was chosen to be Huntsman’s stand-in for debate run-throughs ahead of a Saturday debate broadcast.

In that role, Wagner spouts talking points from Huntsman’s stump speech while debate crews adjust camera angels, lighting and audio. It’s talking points Wagner knows well because he’s been working on the campaign since June.

That experience has been more than campaign work; it has been resume building.

Wagner started by driving eight hours to help with the candidate’s announcement rally. Then he’s gone door-to-door, talked with voters on the phone and spent hours waving signs – all the while making professional connections.

“You never know, I might actually get a phone call from one of these people to work on a future campaign,” Wagner said of the networking.

Through it all, the experience has solidified his desire to work in political campaigns after graduation, so much so that he’s willing to put school on hold to keep working with the campaign as the process moves on to other states, if the opportunity arises.

For now, Wagner said it’s crazy to see the countdown to Election Day on the white board at campaign headquarters that is now well into single digits.

“It’s just incredible to experience the New Hampshire primary up close like college students get to do,” he said.

All of that experience culminates on Tuesday.

Come Election Day, Epstein said it will be like finals exams all over again. He expects to be up at 4 a.m. and work a full 24-hours with last minute campaigning. Horning and Wagner said they expect to be just as busy.

“Politics in New Hampshire is something you need to experience before you die,” Epstein said.

Jordan J. Frasier is a Fall 2011 Paste BN Collegiate Correspondent. You can learn more about him here.

This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.