By: Cayden Hartman
FAYETTEVILLE: Ark. — The University of Arkansas student political groups have promised a shift in focus in the coming months after reacting to the end of the 2020 general election.
UA Young Democrats President Billy Cook was happy to hear the news that Joe Biden had won the election, he said.
“We are very excited about the outcome of this election. One because we firmly believe that the former president is no longer in office and that he was a great threat to our democratic institution,” Cook said.
With the end of the election at hand the organization plans to shift its focus from general campaigning to more focused issues.
“After every campaign season we always shift our activities to issue based campaigning, or what we usually do is that we coalesce around a specific topic or specific issue that we see in the community,” Cook said.
The Young Democrats also take part in other direct action work like letter writing and advocacy outreach, Cook said.
The group had to change the way it operated following the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, Cook said.
“It really animated and electrified a lot of us because we saw this individual in the White House who did not share our values, and who has been proven to not share the values of millions of Americans. So that made us want to hit the streets more and work even harder for candidates,” Cook said.
College Republicans President Emily Phillips said that even though President Trump lost reelection, the group still had many reasons to celebrate.
“We worked hard, we got Tom Cotton reelected, we got every republican we were hoping for all four districts elected and we got most of our local campaigns elected. As far as we are concerned, besides the presidential election, we did our part,” Phillips said.
Despite a loss in the presidential election, Phillips thinks that this will help to energize republicans on campus.
“I think that we are going to get a lot of involvement and a lot of people showing up to our meetings because of the last week,” Phillips said.
“If anything I think having a Democratic president right now especially after all of this will motivate people to join and motivate people to get even more active,” Phillips said.
In the coming months the College Republicans plan to shift their focus toward issue-based campaigning, Phillips said.
Those looking for more information about the Young Democrats and College Republicans can find the organizations on HogSync.