“We are at a tipping point in this country, but what gives me hope is to continue to talk to students,” said Alan Khazei, a Mass. senatorial nominee at a lecture at the Photonics Center on Thursday.
Khazei, who addressed about 25 students, mostly from the Boston University College Democrats, spoke at BU as part of his campaign to engage college students in the 2012 senatorial race.
Students are the golden generation, Khazei said. Citing the 2008 presidential campaign as proof, Khazei said that students are crucial to a campaign and that without this generation’s vote, President Barack Obama would not be in office.
“I think that I can have a secret weapon and that is your generation,” Khazei said. “I think you all are the key to beating Scott Brown and getting that seat back.”
BU is the most recent of colleges Khazei has visited. Northeastern University, Williams College and Tufts University were also on his tour.
Khazei lost the Democratic nomination to run against Sen. Scott Brown for former Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat in 2010. The campaign, he said, is a grassroots, service-based candidacy that is devoted to fixing the economy, education and poverty.
Khazei, whose parents immigrated to the United States from Iran, said he is loyal to the American dream. Instead of a policy-based approach, he wants to turn on people’s “justice nerves.”
“I think that solutions come from the community up,” Khazei said. “We need to get people more involved, get people more political.”
Khazei founded City Year, a service-based company in which young adults mentor, tutor and educate children, according to the Be The Change, Inc. website. He also helped save former president Bill Clinton’s AmeriCorps , which was based off of City Year in 2003. He also won the Reebok Human Rights Award and the Jefferson Award for Public Service.
While he works in politics, Khazei said he is an “activist senator.” His career began not in politics, but in service, he said.
“I don’t think that I have all the answers, but I have a track record of finding the people who do,” he said.
Students said they were receptive to the nominee’s platform.
“I thought his answers were straight forward and fresh,” said Brandon Wood, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences.
CAS junior Leah Nodvin said that he personalized his speech and that she was impressed by his grassroots campaign.
“I thought he was great,” said CAS freshman Nate Fairchild. “A lot of what he was saying wasn’t the usual stuff that you hear.”
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