With the 2012 presidential elections just a semester away, The Argus is beginning a series of articles to examine how students are interacting with the election. In this first piece, we investigate how the Wesleyan College Republicans are gearing for up the general election.
As the Republican primaries heat up, many students may be wondering whether conservative student groups at the University will take a renewed interest in political activism on campus. There have been relatively few events hosted by University conservative student organizations since the results of the Middletown mayoral election were announced in November. Indeed, many underclassmen have not seen much activity on behalf of conservative student groups at all since their arrival on campus last fall.
However, it’s not for lack of trying. Though they may number few in a sea of blue, the dedicated members of the Wesleyan College Republicans are heavily involved in local and national politics.
“When I was here in 2008, it was very exciting. I was a freshman, I had just joined the College Republicans… and every single week we would go make phone calls or knock on doors,” said Alex Levin ’12.
Since the beginning of the school year, the group has been involved in several political events.
“We did a lot of phone calls for the mayoral race, and we had two big meetings last semester, the first with the mayor of Middletown, the second with [State] Senator Len Suzio, and we had over 30 people show up to each meeting,” Levin said.
The group has also had success in bringing liberal and moderate students to its events.
“The mayoral election especially interested kids,” Levin said. “We had 35 kids at that first meeting, and there was definitely a solid number that weren’t Republicans, that I knew were Democrats, but who were still interested in showing up and hearing from the mayor, actively seeking to hear from the other side.”
Despite the prevalence of liberalism on campus, many students who consider themselves Democrats or moderates are inclined toward discussion and debate. To this end, Republican students feel they have been successful in spreading political discourse and advocating an alternative, conservative viewpoint on a predominantly liberal campus.
However, the 2011-2012 school year has not been particularly active for Republicans at Wes by previous standards.
Like any group, the ability of the College Republicans to coordinate depends upon the availability of its senior members. As several more-involved members have graduated, and Levin has found himself increasingly involved in off-campus fundraising for College Republicans, the group has had fewer organized meetings than in the past.
“This year hasn’t been our most active year,” Levin said. “In general it’s been pretty quiet—we’ve definitely had a little drop-off in the amount of activities that we do.”
However, when asked about the upcoming election, Levin sounded excited about the opportunities the election will provide for conservative students on campus.
“We think Obama’s economic policies are failing the youth,” Levin said. “I think this year, with the youth movement shifting more toward the center and away from Barack Obama, we’re going to see a lot of students on campus who are going to look for an alternative to the Wesleyan Democrats.”
It seems that there is no clear preference for any of the four Republican primary candidates amongst students at the University, even with Super Tuesday—a day on which a large number of state primaries fall, and which is therefore regarded as the unofficial end of presidential primaries—drawing near.
“Even just out of our meetings, there’d probably be a couple of kids who support Romney, a couple who support Santorum, a couple who support Paul,” Levin said. “But I think whenever a candidate is chosen, that College Republicans at Wesleyan and across the country will get behind that candidate.”
As the primaries drag on with no clear consensus on a front-runner, who that candidate will be is still up in the air. For those venturing a guess however, Levin seemed to think that Ron Paul may prove popular among Wesleyan conservatives.
“A lot of younger people are leaning toward Ron Paul. He preaches a libertarian view, and I think a lot of Wesleyan kids, even though he’s running as a Republican, would actually gravitate toward him,” Levin said. “Wesleyan kids often want the administration to keep out of their lives and just let them roam the campus doing what they want, and that’s kind of the idea of the Tea Party and of the conservative movement in general—less administration in your life.”