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In the aftermath of the election, on-campus political groups brace for change

Coming fresh off a season of campaigning and fieldwork, ASU political interest groups begin laying the foundation for next semester

Protestors begin to march down the University Drive bridge during a protest of the 2016 presidential election results near the ASU Tempe campus on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016.
Protestors begin to march down the University Drive bridge during a protest of the 2016 presidential election results near the ASU Tempe campus on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016.

Now that Election Day has passed, campus political organizations are scrambling to regroup and plan out the spring semester, fresh out of their busy campaign seasons.

The ASU College Republicans, ASU Young Democrats and Youth for Johnson/Weld at ASU are preparing for a future in a nation under the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump, with plans for structural reform within each group.

ASU College Republicans

ASU College Republicans President Kevin Calabrese said his club plans to increase political solidarity on campus, despite the atmosphere created by an especially polarized impression on Trump among the Millennial demographic.

“One of the goals of ours is to unite the campus around our new president,” he said. “Assuming that Trump’s policies end up resulting in prosperity for our country, then I think that will prove to Millennials that the Republican Party is the way to go and that conservative ideals are better and superior to socialism.”

Calabrese said there was some internal damage done to the GOP during Trump’s campaign. However, he said he believes it will ultimately result in stronger party identity.

“It’s definitely been rough throughout the campaign,” he said. “People coming and going … elected officials pulling their support and some even re-endorsing later on … but I think now that we have this victory, and we also won the house and senate, I think that we’re going to see a newly reunified Republican Party.”

Calabrese also said he plans for the ASU College Republicans to focus less on campaigning and more on sharpening conservative ideology in the spring semester.

“When the whole campaign season was still happening, our whole focus this semester was to get students involved in the political process,” he said. “Moving into the spring, we’re going to focus more on — not so much on candidates because the elections are over — but we’re going to be focusing on more advocacy for the issues, getting more activities on campus that kind of really show why we’re conservative and what conservatives really believe in. The spring is more based around ideology whereas in the fall it was more politics.”

Youth for Johnson/Weld

Youth for Johnson/Weld at ASU President David Howman said the campus will see its first-ever club focused on the Libertarian movement in the spring semester.

“We’re going to transition into a college Libertarians club for ASU and just primarily work on raising awareness and visibility for the party and what causes they have, especially around the Millennial groups,” he said. “In this election, we’ve had a large amount of turnout from Millennials and in 2018 and 2020 with the elections coming up in the future, I think that Millennials are going to have a much more influential role as well.”

Howman said the club aims to advocate for those who were disappointed in the outcome of the election season.

“I could also see a lot of people continuing the trend of dissatisfaction with the two major parties that pretty much plagued the whole election process,” he said. “I know there’s a large population of people who are very frightened at this point at the idea of what a Trump presidency might look like. We’re here to advocate on your behalf.”

ASU Young Democrats

ASU Young Democrats President Austin Marshall said the Election Day results won’t stop the club from helping strengthen the Democratic movement in Arizona.

“I really think it begins at the grassroots level," he said. "It’s keeping people involved, keeping them activated. Just because of the results of Tuesday night doesn’t mean that we can stop caring — that we can give up. We’re going to continue fighting for democratic ideals and principals through Trump’s administration.”

Marshall said even though his presidency in the club will be ending this semester, he can foresee the club focusing on legislative activity within the state that could affect ASU students.

“My presidency for the Young Democrats is ending in December, and it’ll be a new group of people leading the organization,” he said. “(We’re) going to be following what’s going on with the legislature, making sure that we support higher education funding and just tracking down particular bills that are relevant to student issues.”

ASU Young Democrats Vice-President Zakary Ghali, who is seeking to run for club president in for the spring semester, said although the election results were disappointing, the Democratic Party has made great strides in Arizona that shouldn’t be ignored.

“I think that nationally, it’s hard to be optimistic,” he said. “But we had thousands of volunteers come out, we made millions of phone calls, we’ve knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors, we gained house seats, we gained senate seats and once the count’s done we might end up tying in the state senate. Nobody expected us to come this far.”

Ghali said the political atmosphere coming into 2017 will be different. However, the club will still continue to encourage political engagement among student Democrats.

He said even though the election season was intense and divisive, he can still see a cooperative future with the ASU College Republicans.

“I think that throughout the election we had a pretty amicable relationship with the College Republicans and I think that once the dust settles, we’re going to be able to go back to that,” he said. “I think that in terms of building unity, we’re going to want to look toward the entire ASU community and how we can make sure to leverage what we have to make ASU a better place.”


Reach the reporter at angel.n.mendoza@asu.edu or follow @angelnikolas96 on Twitter.

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