Tufts Democrats, Republicans gear up for midterm elections

With Election Day less than two months away, Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans are ramping up various "get out the vote" initiatives for the 2018 midterms.

Both groups said they see potential to promote engagement on campus in the upcoming midterms.

According to Tufts Democrats co-PresidentCecilia Rodriguez, the midterms represent a vital opportunity to push back on the current political climate.

“I think it’s a big test of Democratic complacency hopefully taking a turn in the right direction. There’s a real opportunity here, especially in terms of college students and especially in terms of Democrats, to make a huge difference," Rodriguez, a senior, said.

Rodriguez also noted that political awareness is on the rise among Democrats.

"This year, I’ve noticed more Democrats than ever before know that a midterm is happening," Rodriguez said. "That in itself is a huge victory.”

Tufts Democrats aims to remotely support candidates in competitive races across the nation through phone banking, according to Rodriguez. The group recently hosted a phone bank for Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the Democratic nominee in the Texas senatorial race against Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz. Tufts Democrats plans to hold at least three more phone banks for O’Rourke, as well as some for Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee to be governor of Florida, and for incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, the party's senatorial candidate in Florida.

Rodriguez said that the effort to support races outside of Massachusetts represents an opportunity for members of Tufts Democrats from all over the country to get involved in the midterm elections.

“We really want to give our members as much sway in the work that we do as possible, especially since we have members of Tufts Democrats from Texas, Missouri, Minnesota and all these states that have important state district elections,” Rodriguez said. “We’re really letting our members take the front seat and putting our resources toward the races that matter to them.”

According to Rodriguez, Tufts Democrats' most concrete, on-the-ground canvassing efforts will take place in New Hampshire’s First Congressional District, where Democratic nominee Chris Pappas is running to replace outgoingRep. Carol Shea-Porter.

“This is the closet swing district to us, as well as one of the most competitive races in the country, so we’re really excited to support a campaign that’s as accessible as it is to us,” Rodriguez said.

Tufts Republicans President George Behrakis, a junior, said that a Democratic surge in the midterms is inevitable.

“I think history is pretty clear that when a president takes office, his party commonly has unified control of government, and that changes two years later because Americans like having separation of powers and divided government,” Behrakis said. “So it’s impossible to stop the swing back in the other direction, I think it’s just a matter of how well [the Republicans] can mitigate it.”

Behrakis said that while there are fewer competitive Republican midterm races in Massachusetts, Tufts Republicans hopes to support Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s reelection campaign against the Democratic nominee Jay Gonzalez.

“There are not as many Republican candidates in Massachusetts, so we don’t really get down to the ... activist stuff as much, but we plan on canvassing on behalf of Governor Baker for his reelection campaign,” Behrakis said. “I think he’s in a strong place — he’s a great governor and he’s very popular.”

Tufts Republicans intends to focus on its presence on campus, according to Behrakis.

“We’re doing what we normally do: having discussions, trying to reach out to people on campus, and spreading our ideas and what students may not hear from other discourse on campus,” he said.

Along with the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life,Tufts Cooperation and Innovation in Citizenship (CIVIC) and JumboVote, the Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans are hosting a series of expert-led panels that aim to contextualize the midterm elections and to expand political engagement on campus, according to Jennifer McAndrew, director of communications, strategy and planning at Tisch College.

"This series was really a student-driven initiative through the Tufts Republicans, Tufts Democrats, CIVIC and other groups; they came to Tisch College through JumboVote and asked for support," McAndrew said. "Our goal is to expand political engagement and learning on campus, and we want student organizations to tell us what motivates them about being involved in elections and political work so that we can help them plan initiatives like this."

According to Tisch College Student Outreach Coordinator Peter de Guzman (LA ’18), the first of these events is today's “The Midterm Elections & The Youth Vote,” in Alumnae Lounge. David Paleologos, director of the political research center at Suffolk University, and Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tisch College are slated to host.

Paleologos and Kawashima-Ginsberg will be discussing CIRCLE’s research, young people's political participation and voting habits and how young people might impact the upcoming midterm elections.

"This event fits into JumboVote and Tisch College’s intentional efforts to provide resources to students that go beyond just registering students to vote and request absentee ballots, but also to provide them with educational opportunities," de Guzman told the Daily in an email.

Beyond the midterms, in terms of broader organizational goals, Tufts Democrats hopes to become a better ally, both for underrepresented groups and student organizations on campus, according to Rodriguez.

“My co-president [senior Deborah Mayo] and I have both been in the club for four years, and we would like to see a shift in the culture, where I think both of us have felt like it is not the easiest space to be a person of color, to be a woman, to be a member of the queer community, and to participate, which is pretty ironic because those are all the groups that we claim to represent and fight for,” Rodriguez said. “We’re hoping to show our commitment to those groups, not only by changing the way that people in our club participate and address each other, but also in terms of supporting other groups on campus, like [Tufts Housing League] and [Tufts Labor Coalition].”

Behrakis said that Tufts Republicans looks to work toward its continuous goal of engaging students and providing an alternative source of campus discourse.

“The same goal that we’ve had for a long time is broadening our base of support, reaching out to people who we think are open to conservative or center-right ideas and just informing the Tufts campus in ways that they may not be getting informed by other clubs,” Behrakis said. “Our organizational goals are not any different than they were last year or the year before — we’re just moving forward.”