January 4, 2008
Students Share Their Thoughts From Iowa
With all the buzz about students’ participation in the 2008 election, The Chronicle talked to a few who were in Iowa last night.
TC VanHooreweghe, a freshman at the University of Northern Iowa, was stunned by the crowds at the Republican caucus site in Black Hawk County. “It was kind of like going to a football game,” he said. “There were lines and lines of people.”
Among them were lots of young voters, said Mr. VanHooreweghe, who went with his family and six friends, all Ron Paul supporters. When the caucusing began, he said, older voters took him and his peers seriously: “When they saw how many of us were showing up, I guess they kind of had to.”
The political-science major, from Waterloo, Iowa, brought an income-tax booklet he got in the mail yesterday as proof of his address. He came away with what he called an “ironic” souvenir: an autograph, on the booklet, from his candidate, who wants to eliminate income tax.
Robb Krehbiel, a freshman at Drake University, drove seven hours from his hometown of McPherson, Kan., to caucus in Des Moines yesterday. “No amount of warning could really have prepared me for the chaos that went on in there,” he said.
Mr. Krehbiel showed up at his caucus site, a science building at Drake, in a Christopher J. Dodd T-shirt. But it was soon clear that his candidate wasn’t viable there. Other candidates’ supporters alternately grabbed his arm, waved pamphlets at him, and stuck campaign stickers to his shirt, he said. “There were three different groups kind of pulling me, and it was very, very stressful trying to figure out which one to go to.” (He eventually chose Bill Richardson.)
But Mr. Krehbiel wasn’t turned off by the pandemonium or by his candidate’s loss. “I’ve never gotten to experience something as awesome or as just politically involved as the caucus system,” he said.
Daniel Hay, a sophomore at King’s College, in N.Y., has been feeling that intensity since December 19, when he gave up his winter break to volunteer in Iowa for Mike Huckabee’s campaign. “I realized that something special could happen here,” he said, “and it would be crazy for me not to be a part of it.”
After Mr. Hay made hundreds of phone calls, relentlessly updated databases, and pulled several all nighters, his candidate won. “It was just a vindication,” he said, “of all the hours we put in.”
Sara Lipka | Posted on Friday January 4, 2008 | Permalink
Previous: John Edwards Belongs in a Zoot Suit, and Other Thoughts from Students on the Campaign Trail
Next: Romney Wins in Wyoming