With election season in full swing, students at Keene State College came together to form an official Democrats Club and further the political activism on campus. Senior and President of the KSC Democrats Club Kaitlyn Kelly said that, although the club has been inactive for a couple years now, she had hopes to create a more involved club that will make a difference in the February 2016 primary and November  2016 presidential elections. “As a liberal arts school in a powerful swing state, I think it’s extremely important to have a politically active and involved campus. We have an active Keene State republican club and I felt it was important to give the democratic students a voice on campus as well. We hope to raise awareness of important political issues that

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the Democratic Party focuses on, such as health care and student loans,” Kelly said. Kelly said she feels that there is a good amount of political awareness on campus but not enough involvement. She added that although there is a lot of discussion around political topics, there is not enough activism, which she hopes will change after establishing an official Democratic club on campus. “Being apart of Keene State Dems requires attending at least one meeting per month or four meetings a semester. We meet every other Monday night in the Science Center, room 127, at 8:00 p.m. but that is subject to change once we get more members and get a better idea of everyone’s schedule,” Kelly said. Regarding future events the Democrats Club could potentially hold, Kelly said they hope to have more candidates come to campus. “Since New Hampshire is a swing state and democratic candidates usually target the younger demographic, college campuses in NH is a popular place for candidates to visit. In the 2014 senate race Jeanne Shaheen, Annie Custer, Molly Kelly, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders all spoke at Keene State in the months leading up to the election,” Kelly said. Kelly added that now that the Democrats Club has picked up its active motion again, she hopes that there will be more political involvement from students as democrats, in addition to creating more and easier opportunities for students to get involved, make connections and learn about the political process. In terms of her own political background, Kelly said that she comes from an extremely political and opinionated family. “I’m originally from Northern Virginia, about twenty-five minutes outside of Washington D.C. A lot of my family members have worked in the White House, at Langley and in the Pentagon.” Kelly continued, “My dad’s family are staunch Republicans while my mother’s family has always been very liberal. I’ve been really fortunate to experience both sides of the debate because of that,” Kelly said.Senior and one of the newest members of the Democrats Club, Jacob Loyd, said that he decided to join the club because he liked that he had a place to go and discuss politics with individuals who share similar interests and beliefs that coincide with his own. Loyd said that his interest in politics sparked in high school and influenced his decision to major in political science. In terms of the political activism that he sees on the KSC campus, he said that he is not satisfied. “I think most students don’t care or at least don’t like to be involved with politics or political activism. Students could be more involved but it would require more work for them to be informed and create their own opinions. I feel that is the problem in general, people don’t want to do the work,” Loyd said. In terms of the impact the Democrats Club has on the KSC campus, Loyd said he hopes the club brings more of a political aspect to the campus. “New Hampshire itself is a very politically involved state and presidential candidates come to Keene State from time to time, so it would be nicer if more students were involved,” Loyd said.  As for his personal goals for joining the Democrats Club, Loyd said that he hopes to create a network and to share information to help people discuss openly and form opinions and hopefully inspire an interest in politics. Although she is not a member of the KSC Democrats, senior Rebecca Marquis said that when she heard that this group was forming on campus, she was surprised that a club like that hadn’t already been founded yet. “I heard about the club last week and how it was just started on campus.I’m happy to see that students are taking the initiative to get passionate about politics and get together to do something about it,” Marquis said. Marquis said that she feels there is not enough political activism on campus, which she found surprising based on how heated students get when they talk about political issues. She added that she would love to see political activism amongst KSC students increase, but no to the point where it is intimidating and too in your face where it becomes detrimental to getting new people involved. Marquis said that she thinks the Democrats Club could most definitely benefit the campus in terms of inspiring more political activism. “Clubs like these are the ones that get people talking and motivated to get active in our political community not just on the local scale but nationally. I think it’s crucial for people our age to get to know politics on a personal level as we are going to be voting for years to come and it’s important to learn early on what we consider to be the important issues and where we stand on them, no matter if you’re Republican or Democrat,” Marquis said.Marquis continued, “Students hold a lot of power with our passion for our values and opinions and it’s important we learn how to use or voices and our votes – and clubs like these are the ones that will motivate others to get involved.”

Brogan can be contacted at BWessell@kscequinox.com