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Students for Burr mobilize across North Carolina

Sen. Richard Burr’s re-election campaign launched a leadership team of nine student representatives across North Carolina campuses to promote Burr’s re-election in November.

Burr’s race with Democratic challenger Deborah Ross has become close in recent weeks.

Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College, said the Burr campaign’s presence on college campuses calls attention to the importance of student voter mobilization.

“Typically, student populations have low voter turnout rates,” he said. “If we’re talking about a close election, literally every vote is going to matter.”

Danielle Adler, the Students for Burr representative at UNC, said she initially became involved with Burr’s campaign to stress the importance of the election to other students.

“North Carolina is such a toss-up state in this election,” she said. “This is one of the biggest congressional campaigns people are going to be watching in November.”

Patrick Mangan, a graduate student at the Wake Forest School of Business and the Students for Burr representative at Wake Forest, said a main focus of the students’ efforts is to combat the negative attitudes toward voting.

“It’s very disheartening to see people our age decide not to vote and it’s mostly because of the presidential election,” he said. “We’re trying to make it clear that your senators and representatives in Congress are almost as important as the presidential race, and their actions affect our quality of life.”

Mangan said Burr’s outreach on campuses aims to excite students about the political process.

“It’s a matter of reaching out to individuals and letting them know that Washington hasn’t forgotten about them,” he said.

Bitzer said campus political advocacy groups like College Republicans usually organize outreach for the party ticket, but Burr chose to distinguish his campaign this election.

“This specific isolation of Students for Burr, I think would be something new,” he said. “It may be that Burr is trying to keep his distance, particularly from Donald Trump, and keep the focus on himself.”

Mangan said detaching from political advocacy groups was a strategic decision to attract voters outside of the Republican party.

“I don’t feel that keeping the campaign tied to the College Republicans would allow the widest number of people to get involved,” he said. “We’re tied to Senator Burr and we’re supporting him not because he’s Republican, but because he’s a very bipartisan leader.”

Adler said Senator Burr’s bipartisan legislation in Congress, such as the Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act, stands out in the current political climate.

“I support Senator Burr because of his given track record of pushing bipartisan legislation in a time that is otherwise highlighted by unparalleled stagnation and partisan gridlock,” she said.

More than anything, Adler said she wants to encourage students to vote in November.

“I just want to get students excited about politics and let them know that their voice is meant to be heard,” she said.

state@dailytarheel.com

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