Partisan Student Organizations Sound Off for Votes
Written by Jessica Alexander
With the primary election set to roll into Texas March 4, Texas Tech students are polarizing their campaign efforts, registering voters and getting the word out about candidates. The College Republicans at Tech and the Tech Democrats share the goal of registering as many Tech students as possible before the general election in November.
President of Tech Democrats Josh Nunez said voting is important even if students are turned away from politics.
“No matter what kind of student you are, whatever happens in politics, whether it’s local, state or federal, or international even now, it has an effect on the student, on the student’s friends, on the student’s family, and so it’s important to be informed,” Nunez said.
Nunez said the Tech Democrats, an organization formed in January, creates conversation between people with alike political views. He saw the need to get the organization started when the buzz about the Texas primaries began.
“I thought it would be a great idea if we here in West Texas had a voice ourselves and were part of it,” Nunez said.
President of the College Republicans at Tech Jeremy Faulk said his organization has been active on campus for around 20 years. The College Republicans utilized the campus’ free speech area to set up a booth in early February, registering 425 students to vote.
“Because the majority of Texas Tech students are, in fact, Republicans, the more people we can get to vote, the more Republicans will be voting,” Faulk said.
Faulk said he has seen voting patterns showing that the majority of Tech students have voted in Republican primaries in the past.
Vice President of the Tech Democrats Andrew Serrano does not believe that the majority of Tech students are Republican.
“Tech is often thought about as a very conservative, very red-state-oriented campus, and that is not always the case,” Serrano said. “A lot more students do lean toward the democratic party than previously expected.”
According to a 2005 Census Bureau press release, citizens age 18 to 24 had the lowest voting rate, 47 percent, in the 2004 presidential election.
Treasurer of the College Republicans Lliam Morrison is a freshman who said he decided to understand politics early, but he can see why many freshmen and sophomores do not take an interest in politics.
“Seniors may feel that it’s more important to them,” Morrison said. “They’re starting to get out in the real world and pay a lot of taxes from their own pocket, whereas freshman might not be as highly concerned with the things that don’t seem to affect us.”
He said it is important to get involved and become well-educated on both party’s stances.