The Dems Take Kentucky

A caravan of five vans packed with over 50 students slogged through the night and arrived back on campus yesterday morning after spending Election Day break in Kentucky, thus successfully completing the fourth annual campaign trip of the Columbia University College Democrats. With only three states holding big elections this off-year, they had a hard time finding a close race to push over the top. But make no mistake. This trip was an important achievement for progressive student organizing.
A campaign trip of Columbia students can seem scary at first; it evokes Fox News images of hegemonic liberals preaching condescendingly across the country. Yet in reality, these trips are incredibly inspiring. The Columbia Dems choose a progressive candidate already elected by local voters in a Democratic primary and then help that candidate win by reminding people to vote on Election Day. It’s hard work, but it’s the necessary component of winning in every important election.

If you believe that Democrats are different from Republicans and that elections matter (something most liberals believe after eight years of Bush), then these Election Day mobilizations bring real change by getting more progressive leaders elected. In fact, in just four years the Columbia Dems annual campaign trip has become nationally recognized as an effective instrument for change. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Governor Steve Beshear of Kentucky all thanked the energized students from Columbia in their respective 2005, 2006, and 2007 acceptance speeches for providing the inspiration and people-power needed on Election Day. The campaigners even got a shout-out from Senator Barack Obama at a 1,000-person rally with Brown in 2006, applauding the “hardcore” volunteers from Columbia for helping seal the Ohio win. And to top it all off, the Dems received the Chapter of the Year Award this past summer in large part for their ability to bring vans full of student activists to help win key elections every year.

Some have suggested however that the idea of a campaign trip, although normally good, was wasted on Kentucky’s non-competitive election. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although it is always best to help win a close race, student involvement in this election made the difference between a Democratic win and a landslide Democratic win. Beshear won more votes than any other gubernatorial candidate in Kentucky history. The landslide will send a timely message to conservative Republicans: your radical message is going bankrupt.

However, this particular campaign trip’s greatest power lies in the fact that it was not an isolated incident. The Dems Election Day mobilization is now an annual Columbia tradition, (granted, one that stretches farther into the future than into the past) with a growing number of students getting involved each year. And the importance of this longer term effect goes beyond having a Democratic Kentucky governor make next year’s election against Republican senator Mitch McConnell more winnable. Without this year’s trip, it would be impossible for the Columbia Dems to plan a successful campaign trip for next year’s historic presidential race. Organizing these trips is a feat of enormous emotional, physical, and intellectual energy that needs constant practice and improvement. Miss one year and expect to miss the next four.

The Election Day trip is an institution that affects change over time, allowing Columbia students to slowly perfect the science of modern college activism and develop organizing models that can be copied at other colleges throughout the country. It is based on the philosophy that movements may be born in moments of passion, but they are built by years of effort. (Don’t forget that these campaign trips were envisioned 50 years ago, when time off for activism on Election Day was demanded by Columbia protesters in ’68).

“The progressive renaissance starts here.” That was how the Columbia Democrats recast their mission statement three years ago following a Bush re-election that made conservatives feel permanently ascendant. Although nationally defeated, ambitions ran high on campus, and for good reason. Columbia was, and remains, resource-rich with the raw ingredients for liberal activism: thousands of the most passionate, organized, intelligent, progressive students in the U.S., all packed together into a six-block rectangle. If a small group of dedicated people can change the world, it seemed quite obvious that even a few hundred could start a movement to save America from radical conservatism. This year’s campaign trip wasn’t the key reason Democrats won in Kentucky, but it does prove that our progressive renaissance is underway and our movement is growing stronger. To the current and future activists of the Columbia University College Democrats: congratulations and keep up the good work!

The author, graduate of the Columbia College class of ’07, was president of the Columbia University College Democrats in 2005. He helped found the annual CUCD campaign trip.