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Mitt Romney supporters and protesters came out to the grand opening of Romney’s newest headquarters Friday in Acorn Alley II.

Over 25 supporters gathered to hear Ohio Republicans Rep. Jim Renacci, Matt Lynch from Bainbridge, OH and Munson Township’s John Eklund stress the importance of Romney’s campaign in Portage County.

President of Kent State College Republicans, Stephen Dawson, is excited to work closely with the Romney campaign.

“You know, we’re a little bit further away from Cleveland…we’re not near Columbus or Cincinnati and people tend to forget about us,” says Dawson. “But we are very important and we have a great student body here in Kent. We have a growing population, [we’re] very energetic, [we’re] very excited about the election and [we’re] very intelligent… I think the campaigns are starting to realize that.”

Marilyn Sessions, Chair of Romney’s campaign in Portage County, wants to reach out to the Kent community, including student voters on campus.

“This is Kent, this is our base,” says Sessions. “We have a tremendous amount of independent voters in Kent and we’re after them.”

Sessions says the Romney campaign leased the space to be a center for volunteer work. Currently, Sessions is looking for interns as well as supporters, to go door-to-door and make calls on behalf of the Romney-Ryan campaign.

Renacci emphasized the importance of Kent State students learning about the issues.

“We need to look at fiscal responsibility and we need to look at jobs and the economy,” says Renacci. “It’s gonna be real important as people graduate from Kent to know that there is a job available for them. We got to get this economy working again.”

Outside the event, protesters from Fight for a Fair Economy, a labor-backed group, marched and chanted in the parking lot below.

“People are out here today because they don’t approve of the Romney economic plan and they don’t approve of Jim Renacci,” says Fight for a Fair Economy’s communication worker, Zoe Thomas.

Thomas believes that students on campus will continue to back President Obama this election season.

“You can see why they come here,” says Thomas. “But it’s a student town and I think the students here are going to understand that Romney and Ryan don’t really support the issues that are important to students, especially the students in Kent.”

The Obama campaign also has a headquarters in Kent at 1307 S. Water St.

Lauren Miller and Jasen Sokol are the Executive Producer and Anchor of Portage Pulse, TV2’s new public affairs program airing Sundays at 11:30 AM beginning September 16. Contact them at [email protected] and [email protected].