'04 Candidates Score Student Help

Though the presidential primaries are more than a year away, students across the state already are gearing up in support of their favorite candidates.

About 25 students braved the cold on Wednesday night to learn more about a new campus group designed to show support for Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who announced Jan. 2 that he would seek the Democratic presidential nomination.

Edwards, like his competitors, will need strong support behind him not only to beat President Bush but also several well-known Democrats -- including former vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. -- who are seeking their party's nomination.

That's where the students come in.

"I think that a national election in many ways will get more support," said UNC sophomore Justin Guillory, who is chairman of Carolina Students for Edwards. "Hopefully interest will grow."

Guillory said he is pleased by the number of students already showing interest in working with Edwards' campaign.

Though the group's activity will be limited initially to helping Edwards' Raleigh campaign office get set up, Guillory said he hopes eventually to show support for Edwards through active campaigning and a trip to South Carolina for its Democratic primary.

Candidates who are somehow intriguing to students are more likely to get their support, said UNC political science Professor Thad Beyle. They can appeal to students in many ways, including devotion to certain issues, such as education, or their personality and looks. "When there is nobody interesting to the students, they are not going to get involved," Beyle said.

Edwards' campaign has attracted area students early on because of the prominence of the presidential election, Beyle said.

But Democrats are not the only party with a vested interest in student support. Despite Bush's advantage as an incumbent, many Republicans still say student support is vital to his success.

"(College Republicans) will be out in full force for Bush, and we'll probably start as early as next year," said Michael McKnight, chairman of the N.C. Federation of College Republicans.

He said the NCFCR already has a major training conference scheduled for this weekend that will show interested students how to get involved. "We're working hard," he said. "A lot of people think, 'Gosh, an off year,' (but) we're actually very busy."

The Nov. 5 election, in which Republican Elizabeth Dole beat Democrat Erskine Bowles to win a seat in the U.S. Senate, is an example of the difference students can make in an election, McKnight said. Students made up about 80 percent of the N.C. Republican Party's "Get Out the Vote" campaign and were active in their support for Dole.

But college students can show their support for a candidate not just by working for their campaign but by voting -- an action that too few students engage in, McKnight said.

"I wish people of the college age would get out and vote," he said. "(Students would) be a lot more important to any candidate if (they) voted more. If (they are) not going to vote, then why support issues that affect them?"

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.