While some students spent their winter break at home, members of the student group Bruins for Obama took a red-eye flight on Christmas to Iowa, where they worked in chilly temperatures for about 10 days on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
They volunteered with field organizers from the national campaign in Sen. Obama’s headquarters, going door-to-door in the freezing cold during the day. In the evenings, they made phone calls to encourage the Iowa electorate to get out and support Sen. Obama in the Iowa caucus that took place on Jan. 3.
“We were the army of people that went out and made sure that people voted,” said Gabe Rose, political director of Bruins for Obama. Rose is also the president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council.
Their days began at 9 a.m. and often did not end until 1 or 2 a.m. the next day.
On New Year’s Day, supporters campaigned through freezing temperatures and wind chill of 11 degrees below zero.
“That was probably the low point of our Iowa experience,” Rose said. “I couldn’t even talk because my face was frozen.”
After undertaking challenging tasks such as door-knocking in sub-zero weather, Curtis Whatley, president of Bruins for Obama, said he felt that it is difficult for people across the country to fully appreciate the hard work put in by college students and other volunteers.
“They didn’t get to see us going door-to-door, getting doors slammed in our faces and hoping the next one is undecided,” he said.
David Karol, a political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley and a former UCLA graduate student, was in Iowa observing the campaign.
He said, unlike in other states, the nature of the Iowa campaign is more involved and personal.
“If you were at all interested in the campaign, you could meet the candidates or at least see them speak,” Karol said. “In California, you experience the campaign through television.”
Iowans reported to schools, churches, and other meeting places in their precincts on night of Jan. 3 to decide the presidential nominees for both the Democratic and Republican parties. Since Californians could not actively participate in the caucus, those in Iowa at the time observed the event at different precinct locations.
Karol joined the approximately 700 people crowded into a high school cafeteria in Iowa City and witnessed enthusiastic caucus-goers wearing stickers, making friendly conversation, sharing brownies, and running around doing last-minute campaigning.
“There were people who came to the caucus and still hadn’t made up their mind,” he said. “This was the first time in 20 years when both parties had competitive caucuses and when both parties were wide open.”
Mitja Muller, media relations officer of Bruins for Obama, said one of the highlights of his trip was a conversation in which he managed to convince a lifelong Republican to become his precinct’s delegate for Obama.
Muller was impressed by Sen. Obama’s ability to motivate such a wide range of individuals.
“Some of us were political geeks, but a lot of the field organizers were people who had never been involved in politics before,” he said.
Whatley said the diversity of the Obama campaign was exciting and inspiring.
He added that he enjoyed working on a positive campaign with “people from all walks of life” and meeting Iowans who were going out to the caucus for the first time.
“I was standing next to a woman in her late 70s, and out in the crowd I could see a sea of different faces,” he said about his experience at Sen. Obama’s victory speech.
Rose said members of Bruins for Obama were pleased with both the rewarding high voter turnout and the results.
“Knowing we made a tangible difference in the future of our country was something really special,” Rose said.
Volunteering in Iowa helped participants realize the importance of camaraderie and passion in the campaigning and election processes.
“It’s really hard to put into words,” Whatley said. “It really isn’t all about the candidate. It’s about a group of Americans who are really sincere about changing this country and changing the political culture.”
Despite the cold, participants said their overall experience in Iowa was unique and memorable.
“I’ll never forget it, and I don’t think anyone else who was there will either,” Whatley said.