Student Union
- By Pete Musto
Students Have One Word for American Elections
But students at GW aren't convinced.
VOA asked several students about how politically active they were on a scale of 1-to-10. And none of the students put themselves higher than a six on that scale.
VOA also asked the students to describe the presidential election in one word.
"Crazy."
The Princeton Review created the list of schools they say have high numbers of politically active students. The Princeton Review is an organization and publication that ranks U.S. colleges and universities each year in a book called "The Best 380 Colleges." (It is not affiliated with Princeton University, which typically ranks in the Top 3 on college-ranking lists.)
The Princeton Review surveys more than 136,000 students at 380 schools. The organization told VOA that the list of politically active schools is based on one question: "Student-run political groups have an active presence on campus."
The possible responses are "strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree or disagree, agree or strongly agree."
Regan McAllister, 19, is a first-year student of international affairs and Asian studies a
"Just being right by the White House and the Capitol and everything. Our professors and the students are constantly hearing about the news. And it kind of hard not to, because it’s right where we live. ... People with interests in politics come to GW to be among it all."
McAllister first started following politics when she studied in Turkey in 2015 before coming to GW.
"There was a big election that happened in June. Leading up to that election was when I really got into it and it was mostly Turkish politics at the time. I learned a lot about it and so that just kind of carried over when I came to college."
The political activity of young people can be hard to predict. For example, college-educated young people vote differently from young people who never attend college.
Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg is the director for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, at Tufts University in Massachusetts. The organization studies the political activity of people younger than 30.
Kawashima-Ginsberg says college-educated young people are twice as likely to vote in primary elections as those with no college experience.
She says the 2008 campaign that elected President Barack Obama broke a 30-year record in numbers of young people involved. The 2012 campaign also had high numbers of young voters. But, she added, young people lately have trouble feeling connected to politics.
"We were hearing both from young people who are in college and out of college about how they perceive voting. For them, it was starting to become this old, outdated thing that has no relevance or impact. And that showed, truly, in voting statistics, where we recorded the lowest youth turnout ever in 2014."
Young people are not alone in low turnout. FairVote -- an organization that studies U.S. democracy and elections -- reported only about 36 percent of the entire voting population voted in the 2014 midterm election.
Nancy Thomas is the director of the Institute for Democracy and Education, also at Tufts University. The institute runs a project called the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, or NSLVE. Researchers studied the voting habits of U.S. college students from 2012 and 2014.
Thomas says there are more college students now who are older than 30. And studies of young people produce different results than studies that only look at college students.
Student movements like the Black Lives Matter protests show college campuses are important places for political activity, she said.
Thomas adds that schools where politics are frequently discussed in class have the most politically active students. If professors use political examples in any subject, including math or history, students will see how important politics are.
Hanna Corn, 20, is a second-year student studying international affairs and political science at GW. Originally from Wilmington, New Jersey, Corn is also the membership director of the GW College Democrats.
Corn says political student groups and political discussion are everywhere at GW.
"Students would be talking about it in line to get their food at cafeterias. You’d be in the library and you’d look over at people laughing and they’d be watching a political talk show. Even at a social gathering, people are discussing politics. ... Even when you don’t want to hear about it, it will be right outside your door… So you might as well reach out and also engage in it."
Corn says she has also learned a lot about people with opinions different from her own. She frequently talks and debates with members of the GW College Republicans.
"We share an office actually , so we are constantly exchanging ideas. … It’s good to learn both sides. ... But I think it’s very difficult to be a strident conservative or Republican at our campus because the Republicans even I know are not so far to the right.
"People that are more conservative don’t speak out. … But I think that there are more of them in our campus than you realize."
VOA reached out to the GW College Republicans but received no response.
Both Thomas and Kawashima-Ginsberg agree there is an increasing number of young Republicans voting in this primary. But Thomas says young Republicans care about different issues than older party members. Older members care more about terrorism, while young members care more about government spending.
Both younger and older Democrats seem to care about the same issues, she says. But fewer young people are joining any political party at all.
Kawashima-Ginsberg points out that technology plays a major role in how young people choose to be involved.
"Social media’s played a bigger role in this age. In a way, young people are able to organize themselves online with their like-minded peers and start some action or cause… without being told what might be helpful for a candidate or what they’re supposed to do for the campaign."
Thomas says that students entering the field of education vote more than any other group. Students studying math and science vote the least. Also, African-American students vote more than white, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander and Native American students.
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Lily Meskers faced an unexpected choice in the lead-up to the first major election she can vote in.
The 19-year-old University of Montana sprinter was among college athletes in the state who received an inquiry from Montana Together asking if she was interested in a name, image and likeness deal to support Sen. Jon Tester, a three-term Democrat seeking re-election. The group, which is not affiliated with the Tester campaign, offered from $400 to $2,400 to athletes willing to produce video endorsements.
Meskers, who is from Colorado but registered to vote in Montana, decided against the deal because she disagrees with Tester's votes on legislation involving transgender athletes in sports.
"I was like, OK, I believe that this is a political move to try to gain back some voters that he might have lost," Meskers said. "And me being a female student-athlete myself, I was not going to give my endorsement to someone who I felt didn't have the same support for me."
Professional athletes such as LeBron James, Colin Kaepernick and Stephen Curry have taken high-profile stances on hot-button topics and political campaigns in recent years, but college athletes are far less outspoken — even if money is available, according to experts in the NIL field. Being outwardly political can reflect on their school or endanger potential endorsement deals from brands that don't want controversy. It can certainly establish a public image for an athlete — for better or for worse — or lead to tensions with teammates and coaches who might not feel the same way.
There are examples of political activism by college athletes: A Texas Tech kicker revealed his support for former President Donald Trump on a shirt under his uniform at a game last week and a handful of Nebraska athletes a few days ago teamed up in a campaign ad against an abortion measure on the Tuesday's ballot.
Still, such steps are considered rare.
"It can be viewed as risky and there may be people telling them just don't even take that chance because they haven't made it yet," said Lauren Walsh, who started a sports branding agency 15 years ago. She said there is often too much to lose for themselves, their handlers and in some cases, their families.
"And these individuals still have to figure out what they're going to do with the rest of their lives, even those that do end up getting drafted," she added.
College coaches are not always as reticent. Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl has used social media to make it clear he does not support Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic opponent in next week's presidential election. Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy once caused a stir with a star player for wearing a shirt promoting a far-right news outlet.
Blake Lawrence, co-founder of the NIL platform Opendorse, noted that this is the first presidential election in the NIL era, which began in July 2021. He said athletes are flocking to opportunities to help increase voter turnout in the 18-to-24 age demographic, adding that one of his company's partners has had 86 athletes post social media messages encouraging turnout through the first half of the week.
He said athletes are shying away from endorsing specific candidates or causes that are considered partisan.
"Student-athletes are, for the most part, still developing their confidence in endorsing any type of product or service," he said. "So if they are hesitant to put their weight behind supporting a local restaurant or an e-commerce product, then they are certainly going to be hesitant to use their social channels in a political way."
Giving athletes a voice
Many college athletes have opted to focus on drumming up turnout in a non-partisan manner or simply using their platforms to take stands that are not directly political in nature. Some of those efforts can be found in battleground states.
A progressive group called NextGen America said it had signed players in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Virginia to encourage voting among young people. Another organization, The Team, said it prepped 27 college athletes in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and Michigan to lead volunteer voter participation opportunities for students. The organization also said it got more than 625 coaches to sign a nonpartisan pledge to get their athletes registered to vote.
The Team's executive director is Joe Kennedy, a former coach who coordinated championship visits and other sporting events at the White House during President Barack Obama's administration. In early October, it hosted a Zoom event during which panelists such as NCAA President Charlie Baker and WNBA players Nneka Ogwumike and Natasha Cloud gave college athletes advice about using their platforms on campus.
In its early days, The Team seized upon momentum from the record turnout seen in the 2020 election. The NCAA that year said Division I athletes could have Election Day off from practice and play to vote. Lisa Kay Solomon, founder of the All Vote No Play campaign, said even if the athletes don't immediately take stands on controversial issues, it's important for them to learn how.
"It is a lot to ask our young people to feel capable and confident on skills they've never had a chance to practice," Solomon said. "We have to model what it means to practice taking risks, practice standing up for yourself, practice pausing to think about what are the values that you care about — not what social media is feeding into your brain, but what do you care about and how do you express that? And how do you do it in a way that honors the kind of future that you want to be a part of?"
Shut up and play?
Two years ago, Tennessee-Martin quarterback Dresser Winn said he would support a candidate in a local district attorney general race in what experts said was very likely the first political NIL deal by a college athlete.
There have been very few since.
The public criticism and fallout for athletes who speak out on politics or social issue can be sharp. Kaepernick, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, hasn't played in an NFL game since January 2017, not long after he began kneeling during the national anthem at games.
Meskers, the Montana sprinter, said political endorsements through NIL deals could create problems for athletes and their schools.
"I just think that NIL is going to run into a lot of trouble and a lot of struggles if they continue to let athletes do political endorsements," she said. "I just think it's messy. But I stand by NIL as a whole. I think it's really hard as a student athlete to create a financial income and support yourself."
Walsh said it's easier for wealthy and veteran stars like James and Ogwumike to take stands. James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, started More Than a Vote — an organization with a mission to "educate, energize and protect Black voters" — in 2020. He has passed the leadership to Ogwumike, who just finished her 13th year in the WNBA and also is the president of the Women's National Basketball Players Association. More than a Vote is focused on women's rights and reproductive freedom this year.
"They have very established brands," Walsh said. "They know who they are and they know what their political stance is. They know that they have a really strong following that -- there's always going to be haters, but they're also always going to have that strong following of people who listen to everything that they have to say."
Andra Gillespie, an associate professor at Emory University who teaches African American politics, also said it is rare that a college athlete would make a significant impact with a political stand simply because they tend to have a more regional platform than national. Even celebrities like Taylor Swift and Eminem are better at increasing turnout than championing candidates.
"They are certainly very beneficial in helping to drive up turnout among their fans," Gillespie said. "The data is less conclusive about whether or not they're persuasive – are they the ones who are going to persuade you to vote for a particular candidate?"
Athletes as influencers
Still, campaigns know young voters are critical this election cycle, and athletes offer an effective and familiar voice to reach them.
Political and social topics are not often broached, but this week six Nebraska athletes — five softball players and a volleyball player — appeared in an ad paid for by the group Protect Women and Children involving two initiatives about abortion laws on Tuesday's ballot.
The female athletes backed Initiative 434, which would amend the state constitution to prohibit abortions after the first trimester, with exceptions. Star softball player Jordy Bahl said on social media that the athletes were not paid.
A University of Montana spokesperson said two athletes initially agreed to take part in the NIL deal backing Tester. The school said one withdrew and the other declined to be interviewed.
For Meskers, deciding against the offer boiled down to Tester twice voting against proposals to bar federal funds from going to schools that allow transgender athletes to play women's sports, a prominent GOP campaign topic. Tester's campaign said the proposals were amendments to government spending packages, and he didn't want to play a role in derailing them as government shutdowns loomed.
"As a former public school teacher and school board member, Jon Tester believes these decisions should be made at the local level," a Tester spokesperson said. "He has never voted to allow men to compete against women."
Meskers said she believes using influence as college athletes is good and she is in favor of NIL. She just doesn't think the two should mix specifically for supporting candidates.
"I think especially as student athletes, we do have such a big voice and we do have a platform to use," she said. "So I think if you're encouraging people to do their civic duties and get up and go (vote), I think that's a great thing."
