UVM students campaigned in New Hampshire this past weekend, in preparation for the state’s primary.
A local student group, UVM Students for Bernie Sanders, bused students to New Hampshire Feb. 6 to Feb. 9.
He said he saw a broad spectrum of political views while campaigning.
First-year Adrian Burnett is one student who volunteered for Bernie Sanders.
“A couple weeks ago I went door to door and met people who were undecided,” Burnett said.
He said he saw a broad spectrum of political views while campaigning.
“It’s given me the opportunity to talk to people about the election,” he said. “I live in Burlington and this is the center of ‘Berniedom’.”
He said roughly 20 students volunteered last weekend encouraging people to vote.
“I would like to see more people get fired up,” Burnett said.
The Vermont College Republicans cannot endorse a candidate until a nominee has been selected, SGA President Jason Maulucci, former president of the group, said.
He said they take a pragmatic approach to issues before taking either a Democratic or Republican view, and try “to support candidates who will work to make Vermont more affordable and bring more high-paying jobs into the state.”
“The main focus of College Republicans is affordability, and how to get the economy going again,” Maulucci said. “Most of us are socially liberal which might not be the same for nationwide Republicans.”
Former UVM student Sam Rostow, now a sophomore at George Mason University, said he campaigned for Jeb Bush this past weekend.
“This whole weekend I’ve been campaigning in New Hampshire,” Rostow said. “On Saturday we spent the whole day in Portsmouth going door to door.”
He said he was concerned about interactions with campaigners of other parties but described the experience as positive.
“The Bernie Sanders campaigners were really respectful,” Rostow said. “I was very pleased to see the respect between the different party campaigns.”
He said he saw other campaigns as well.
“There were a lot of Chris Christie’s people out there,” Rostow said. “We also saw Hillary’s people.”
Senior David Oppenheimer is the president of the UVM College Democrats.
He said they have also been trying to get people involved and ready to vote, but do not support any one particular candidate.
“Obviously we recognize this is Burlington and you can end up with a lot of Bernie supporters,” Oppenheimer said.
He said they have been hosting voter registration drives as well as debate watching parties to get people politically involved.
“Come general election time, we will be going door to door to help people vote,” Oppenheimer said.
He said he is happy to see people involved, but noted that not everyone turns up to vote.
The New Hampshire primary was Tuesday.
