From November 2, 2022 post
USA Today: ‘All gas, no brakes’: In Wisconsin Senate race, students key to final push for votes
Until this year, Cameron Knoll never thought about midterms; she cared about presidential elections, and “that’s it.”
The first political rally she attended was headlined by Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, now the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin’s Senate race. After hearing Barnes speak and meeting him, Knoll decided to get involved with his campaign.
“It was like, I definitely want to volunteer for him and give some time for him,” said Knoll, 21 and a senior at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “This is worth it.”
“People are looking for elected officials, for representatives, who actually get what they’re going through, who understand their struggles – people who don’t make excuses for everything that’s gone wrong,” Barnes, who would be the second millennial elected to the U.S. Senate, told USA TODAY in an interview. “Young people don’t have the luxury of sitting around and having people say nothing can be done when their entire future is on the line.”
With some 500 young volunteers organizing events and actions, students are one of the Barnes campaign’s largest coalitions, said Nina Harris, coalitions director for the Barnes campaign.
The campaign on Oct. 24 launched a 100-stop bus tour, where Barnes plans to stump at six University of Wisconsin campuses statewide, including in Madison and Milwaukee.
“A lot of people feel disconnected from politics, politicians and government in general,” Barnes said. “(We) want people to know that elected officials are supposed to be there to answer calls, to take in the concerns and to do something about it.”
Simultaneously, the Barnes campaign has engaged Wisconsin college campuses by having “dorm captains” door-knock for Barnes in student housing, where access is limited to students only, and having resident advisers and professors distribute voting information in classes, online and in dorms.
Original source can be found here.
