Four Kent State students are devoted to working to make sure their “guy” will be in office next November, which means making sure fellow voters are right behind them.

Volunteering as a priority

James King, sophomore political science major, is the secretary for the College Democrats and works closely with the organization. Most people find political science to be extremely frustrating; however, King enjoys his job and has many plans for a political future.

He has been involved with politics since the 10th grade and has been a part of the Obama campaign since 2008 when Barack Obama was elected president. King was born in Russia, and adopted at 11 months old. His family’s history is what has made him a Democrat today.

King has made about 2,000 phone calls for the Obama campaign.

“Sometimes I just want to throw the phone against the wall and say I am done — because people aren’t the nicest,” King said. “But I picked up the phone and kept on calling.”

He has a goal of trying to get Barack Obama to come to Kent State to speak to our students.

“I plan on calling our state campaign headquarters and trying to work something out,” King said. He said he could see Obama coming to Kent State because Ohio has a lot of swing voters.

King was recently elected as director of governmental affairs for the Undergraduate Student Government on campus. He has put forth over 600 volunteer hours and tries to encourage all students on campus to register to vote.

“Kent State University has a lot of students involved in politics, but not nearly enough College Democrat campaigns are getting kicked up,” King said. “Talking to people about getting them register to vote and explaining to them their civic duty to vote [is important].”

Family and satisfaction say it all

Greg Allison, senior political science major, is the president of the College Republicans. Ever since he was young, his dad and uncle were involved with the Republican Party, which made him want to join forces with them.

Allison’s organization is the voice of the Republican Party on campus and tries to help Republican candidates win locally and statewide. As president, Allison has many duties to uphold.

“I keep up with the social networking part of the group — lots of paperwork and making sure everything is solid,” Allison explained.

Allison has been secretary and treasurer for the College Republicans.

“Hard work is the biggest thing to have in politics,” Allison said. “As a campaign group we got 21,000 voter contacts last fall and I hope to get people motivated to do what I do.”

Allison joked a Republican in office is also rewarding because the candidate will respond by lowering taxes.

“I get satisfaction from my family because we can all talk about it,” he said. “ … Having all of my hard work pay off and being able to see that is a sense of accomplishment,” he said.

Future Politician

Bryan Staul, junior political science and history major, has been president of the College Democrats since April 2011. In a nutshell, the College Democrats is the official arm of the Democratic Party on campus.

The organization has “registered more voters than any other organization combined in three years [and] made 10,000 phone calls for Obama and knocked on 3,500 doors in Portage and Summit County,” Staul said.

Staul said that as long as young people are voting their party seems to be consistently happy. His job is to make sure College Democrats is involved within the student media to get word out about their organization.

“This is as close as you get to the big leagues, once you’re involved you’re married to it,” Staul explained.

Staul said he does not get paid to be the president, but describes his role as a “labor of love.” The most rewarding part about this experience for Staul is that no other student organization has gotten people to talk about what they care about.

“That is the most rewarding part,” Staul said.

His best day as a Democrat was the November 2008 election. He had spent a year working with the Obama campaign prior to the election.

“When I saw Obama give his victory speech, I cried,” Staul said. “That was my best day as a Democrat and I hope we can do it again.”

Believing in a Real Cause

Corey Moore, freshman digital science major, is president of the Kent Student Liberty Alliance. Although this is his first year as president, he has been involved with the Liberty Alliance since 2008.

Moore’s daily routine consists of coordinating events, managing Facebook, Twitter and the email list and holding meetings. The Liberty Alliance is a group of people who are non-partisan and is a broad correlation of libertarians separate from the Libertarian Party. They are anti-war Republicans and are pro-small government.

“Preferably, I wouldn’t vote at all — I tend to believe it is an immoral action,” Moore said. Moore said most libertarians will support Gary Johnson of New Mexico in the upcoming presidential election.

Moore said most of his family is conservative.

“I actually found out about Ron Paul when I was a senior in high school and wanted to know more about the ideology of the [Libertarian party],” Moore said.

Moore has a similar desire to the other volunteers.

“I truly believe in the cause and I have dedicated my life to it,” he said. “I truly believe peace and prosperity are the best for American society.”

Moore said his best day as a libertarian was going to the International Students for Liberty conference and realizing that there are thousands of students around the country who are working towards the same cause.

Contact Haley Phillippi at [email protected].