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MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
POLITICS
KU Young Democrats to attend speech
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
President Barack Obama smiles as he talks with employees of Smith Electric Vehicles in Kansas City, Mo. last July. The president toured the facility which produces commercial electric vehicles. Members of the KU Young Democrats plan to attend Obama's speech in Osawatomie on Tuesday.
IAN CUMMINGS icummings@kansan.com
KU Young Democrats has a new president and is now reorganizing for the 2012 elections. Members of the group will travel to Osasatonie for President Obama's visit Tuesday. According to Evan Gates, the campus democrats' new president, the trip will be the first event they have attended as a group in years.
President Obama will speak at Osawatomie High School at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Lines of people formed early Saturday evening for tickets being handed out at noon Sunday, according to the Associated Press. Osawatomie is historically significant for presidential speeches. Republican President Theodore Roosevelt spoke there in 1910, a year after he left the presidency, calling for a "new Nationalism."
Gates, a junior from Wichita, took over as president of the young democrats about one month ago. She said the group's membership declined after the 2008 elections, when the group counted more than 50 members. There are about 10 regular members that compose the group today.
KU Young Democrats is organizing meetings in the coming weeks in an effort to attract more students and they hope to be active in the 2012 elections. Gates said the challenges of organizing democrats in Kansas — a state dominated by a republican electorate in recent years — were serious, but that the Lawrence campus afforded the group an opportunity to make a difference.
"Lawrence is really the only blue dot in this red state," Gates said. "But that doesn't mean we can't be a powerful voice and challenge republican candidates."
Gates said that organizing students on campus could have ripple effects beyond Kansas in the future. As students get involved in politics on campus, they will take.
that experience with them as they graduate and move elsewhere.
Gates will be one of at least five campus democrats to attend the event. Gates said she expects President Obama to talk about
the economy, and hopes he will discuss his jobs plan and efforts to extend a two percent reduction in the payroll tax for all Americans.
"That applies to students."
Gates said. "Because it applies to you whether you make $2,000 a year or $200,000."
KU Young Democrats held its first meeting since the reorganization on Nov.29. They are planning an informal gathering, open to all, for Dec. 11, but have not chosen a location yet, Gates said.
For more information about KU Young Democrats, email kucollegedems@gmail.com or
search for KU Young Democrats on Facebook.
Edited by Stefanie Penn
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