The Pierce College Democrats club went on a trip to Reno, Nevada from Sept. 20 to 22 in hopes of convincing locals to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and learned more about how democracy works along the way.
Denise Robb, a political science professor and the club’s adviser, led students as they went door to door in groups of two, encouraging people to register to vote and trying to convince them to vote for Harris.
“We’d ask them who they’re planning to vote for, and if they are not sure, and most of them weren’t sure, then we asked them what issues are important to you,” Robb said. “If they have certain issues, we kind of explained to them why we thought Kamala Harris would be a better choice than Donald Trump.”
Robb said she believes it was a positive experience for the students, because they get to learn more about the political system.
“Overall, it was positive, because a lot of young people had never campaigned before,” Robb said. “Some of my students have told me they’ve never left California, so they got to experience how democracy works. It’s hard work, but it’s important to participate.”
Owen Harwig, the club’s vice president, said he thinks it’s important to get people active and start voting for the election.
“It’s a really important election coming up, and I think by going door by door knocking and incentivizing people to vote, giving them reasons, helping them if they’re unsure about candidates, you know, don’t know the facts,” Harwig said. “It’s really important to do that.”
Harwig added that it was a special experience being a part of the campaign and feels great that he is doing something to help.
Political Science Major Marcelo Cabrera said his favorite moment was helping out a woman who turned out to be unregistered and convincing her to become a registered voter.
“We told her specifically, even if you register as an Independent or Republican, like we’re not going to criticize you, we’re just, more than happy that you’re even willing to register,” Cabrera said. “So we got her filled out, and it turned out she ended up registering as a Democrat, so that felt pretty good.”
Robb said she believes undecided voters can help be a deciding factor to winning the election.
“Kamala Harris could end up winning Nevada by five votes,” Robb said. “We could be the five votes if we just got a handful of people to change their vote, or not even to change their vote, to go from an undecided to a yes, that could do the election, that could seal the election.”
