Clintons Crisscross State Trying to Draw Youth Voters

Because of the increased importance of the youth vote, California college students are witnessing incredible attention from Democratic presidential candidates.

In Iowa, Senator Barack Obama treated young people as voters, not just campaign volunteers. His strategy paid off. In Iowa more than 65,000 people under the age of 30 (more than triple 2004) showed up to vote for a change. After tremendous youth turnout in Iowa, Senator Hillary Clinton was determined to attract young voters to her campaign saying: “I’m going to, in the next five days, do as much as I can to talk about my record in creating opportunities for young people.” With both the Obama and Clinton campaigns targeting young voters in New Hampshire, youth turnout increased by an astounding 43%. In both of these contests it was crystal clear that when campaigns invest the resources to target young voters, it pays off. All of the Democratic presidential campaigns are realizing that the youth vote is truly going to be the margin of victory in 2008.

This week, all three Clintons are running up and down California targeting the youth vote. Tuesday night, January 15, President Bill Clinton spoke to an audience of about 7,800 people at University of California Davis. Thursday, January 17, Senator Clinton has scheduled two rallies at college campuses in California: the first at California State University Northridge, and the second at University of California Santa Barbara. All three events are co-sponsored by their campus’ College Democrats chapter. Additionally, last week Chelsea Clinton visited with college-aged Democratic voters at University of California Los Angeles, University of California Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, and Stanford University.

The California College Democrats are thrilled that Presidential hopefuls are realizing that the shifting political landscape demands they pay attention to the youth vote. “Many young Californians are still undecided and we’ve seen that when a Presidential candidate shows us they care about young people and the issues affecting us, we respond by turning out to the polls,” said Nick Warshaw, President of the California College Democrats. “With over 4.6 million young people in California, young people will be the key demographic for campaigns to target on February 5th. I implore all the Presidential candidates to continue to reach out to young people, throughout California, as young people will be the margin of victory this November.”