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BU College Republicans gear up for midterm elections

The Boston University College Republicans hope to host local candidates and conduct bipartisan get-out-the-vote efforts. OLIVIA NADEL/ DFP FILE ILLUSTRATION

With the highly anticipated 2018 midterm elections rapidly approaching, the Boston University College Republicans organization is trying to plan an engaging semester.

BU College Republicans held their first meeting a week ago to establish plans and goals for this semester, Ben Zabel, the group’s vice president, said.

Over the next few weeks, BU College Republicans hopes to host a “coffee with the candidates meeting” before the midterm election in November, said Zabel, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Candidates running in local races, or even members of Congress, would be able to meet with the club members and speak about their platforms, Zabel said.

“[We could] get to know them as people, so we as club members get a better sense of not only their policies, their vision for where they want to take Massachusetts and the country, but also who they are as people,” Zabel said.

Beyond getting to know the candidates this season, Zabel also spoke about the club’s various plans regarding voter registration and their get-out-the-vote campaign. The club’s Facebook page features links to help guide people through voter registration, he said.

One of the group’s more formal plans, Zabel said, is hosting a bipartisan “get-out-the-vote effort” with another campus group, such as the BU College Democrats.

Zabel said he thinks the 2018 election could be the most influential midterm election BU has seen.

Youth voters’ engagement will contribute to the significance of this year’s midterms, Zabel said.

“I think that the youth vote this year is going to count more than anything,” Zabel said, “so people that have felt disenfranchised in the past for whatever reason can go out there and voice their opinion this year, and say, ‘This is me, this is what I believe in, here’s what I want to do about it,’ and I think that that’s … one of the most beautiful things about our country.”

Each individual should consider the issues at hand in the upcoming election without factoring in personal emotions, BU College Republicans recruitment officer Bennett Morgan said.

“We’re in a very divisive, tribal period,” Morgan, a junior in the College of Communication, said. “I encourage every student to think about the issues critically, and more importantly, logically and to consider that everyone has the best intentions in mind and to not get super emotional or personal about the issues, because that’s not productive.”

Morgan also said he encourages anyone to attend the club’s meetings, regardless of political ideology.

“We enjoy and thrive on debate and the free market of ideas,” Morgan said. “So we encourage and have had people of all sorts of left-leaning political inclinations in our meetings.”

The club’s essential values are contributing to this free expression of ideas, Zabel said.

“No matter what you believe in, however far right or far left or whatever you are, we just want to create a platform where people can come express their ideas,” Zabel said, “… and then kind of debate that in not an incubated setting, but a professional setting, where everybody’s ideas get expressed, and that can only happen when there’s people from contrasting ideologies there.”

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