Early On, Students Back Candidates

The U.S. presidential election is still 20 months away, but in typical Harvard fashion, a number of student organizations pledging support for the candidates are hitting the campaign trail early.

Last weekend, members of Students for Obama traveled to New Hampshire to “build support” for Illinois Senator and Harvard Law School graduate Barack Obama, according to Nathaniel J. Lubin ’09, the group’s chair.

“We’re working with both the field directors in New Hampshire to try to knock on doors and reach voters,” he said.

The previous weekend, Students for Hillary made the trip north to New Hampshire, which traditionally holds the nation’s first primary, set for January 2008. It was the fourth trip the group has made since New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that she was forming a presidential exploratory committee in January of this year.

“About 30 students have taken part in the trips, and we’ve also done data entry within the New Hampshire campaign and made phone calls,” said Ari S. Ruben ’08, the co-chair of Students for Hillary.

In total, student groups have been founded in support of each of the six leading presidential candidates.

Students for Obama appears to have the largest on-campus backing so far, with about 90 subscribers to its e-mail list and 165 members in its Facebook.com group last night. The chairs of a number of the Democratic groups said these numbers are the most accurate available for the recently formed and largely informal groups.

Pawanpreet K. Dhaliwal ’09, the director of Students for Edwards—which currently has the smallest enrollment among the Democratic groups—said that her group is in its very early stages.

Organizers of the campus groups supporting two of the GOP frontrunners—former Massachusetts Governor W. Mitt Romney, a graduate of both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School, and Arizona Senator John McCain—said they were unable to give specific membership numbers for their groups.

The chair of Students for Giuliani, Jeffrey Kwong ’09, was unavailable for comment.

While only the Obama and Clinton groups have organized trips to New Hampshire so far, other groups are focusing their efforts on building their student foundations as the fall—the traditional lead-up to the primaries—approaches.

“It’s so early in the game that there hasn’t been a tremendous amount of communication so far,” said Steven E. Johnston ’09, the chair of Students for McCain.

Johnston said that he hoped students wouldn’t get “burned out” with the campaigns beginning so early.

“That’s going to be the challenge for any one of the ‘Students For’ groups, maintaining energy and momentum over the course of the campaign,” he said.

Taking advantage of the location of one of the campaigns is Christopher W. Higgins ’10, the director of Students for Romney. He said there are consistent opportunities for the group’s members thanks to Harvard’s proximity to the Boston headquarters of the former Massachusetts governor.

Despite pledging their support to different candidates, group leaders were quick to stress unity along party lines.

“Most of our group likes Obama, and the people in the Obama group like Hillary,” Ruben said of Students for Hillary. “This is as friendly as a primary group can be at this stage, and I hope that continues.”

—Staff writer Malcom A. Glenn can be reached at mglenn@fas.harvard.edu.