Chelsea Clinton To Visit N.C. State Campus
This story was written by Ashley Bennett, Technician
Chelsea Clinton will speak in the bookstore plaza today from 10:30 a.m. to noon on behalf of her mother's presidential campaign, and while College Democrats are planning to attend, College Republicans have few plans in coming weeks to gain support for their party, according to Jay Dawkins, chair and junior in civil engineering.
While they will wait until it's closer to the general elections to push for more participation, Dawkins said they are not ignoring the race after Sen. John McCain became the nominee for their party.
"We're planning to get up the vote efforts, as well as organize 'Why I'm Conservative Week' at the end of April," Dawkins said.
According to Ches McDowell, member of College Republicans and freshman in political science, he is not surprised that only Democratic candidates have visited the state because McCain already clinched the nomination.
"Obama and Clinton are still in a tight race," McDowell said. "North Carolina is going to be a major player so that's why Obama and Clinton and her family are coming out to rally support."
And while the primary race is close, College Democrats President, Michael Shay, junior in microbiology, said College Democrats also has no plans to promote candidates other than to register students to vote.
"We like to promote activism," Shay said. "We're the club that's there to help people find the places that they want to go [to support] the Democratic party."
Shay said College Democrats has no plans to register voters during Clinton's speech.
Clinton will also speak at Peace College and UNC-Chapel Hill today.
While he said he saw Clinton at the Young Democrat's Convention, he said he is very excited about her visit to N.C. State.
"What's cool about [Clinton] is that she's someone closer to our age, who you can relate to a little better," Shay said.
According to Shay, Clinton will speak in a question-answer format.
"She gives really long responses, but they're long responses that relate to Clinton's issues all together," Shay said.
Emma Wahab, a sophomore in history and College Republicans member, said she also is excited about Clinton's visit.
"Regardless of what party I'm in it's exciting North Carolina is finally getting some publicity with the elections," Wahab said. "It'll be a very interesting time for North Carolina and for State until [the primary election]."
But McDowell said Sen. Hillary Clinton should have made a visit to the University before her daughter.
"Wake Tech must be a famous university because [Sen.] Clinton didn't feel she needed to visit N.C. State ... she can just visit Wake Tech and send her daughter to N.C. State," McDowell said.
© 2008 Technician via U-WIRE