A small coalition of college students and Bloomington residents discussed strategies Thursday evening at Soma Coffeehouse to campaign on campus and beyond for Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld.
The goal was to plan the next month of campaign activity. Among the necessary tasks: organizing a campaign push during the Wake Forest v. Indiana football game tailgate Sept. 24 and putting up posters around campus .
There’s also a rally to plan. But the de facto leader of the operation, IU senior Brandon Lavy , is hesitant to call it such.
“Maybe only 15 people will show up to what we call a rally,” he said to other attendees.
A moment later, Lavy considered the pros of calling it a rally. Maybe if they call it such, more people will show up. Either way, they plan to hold the event at Kinsey Hollow.
Bloomington resident Margaret Fette hosts a radio program on WGCL and hopes to use the airwaves as another way of letting voters know about Johnson.
“Libertarians aren’t noted for their real seriousness with rules and regulations,” Fette said.
Another resident, Dave Nakarado, wears a shirt that sums up the attitude better than any sloganeering could. It reads, “Less Government, More Fun.”
“We all pitch in wherever we need to pitch in,” Fettesaid. “We’re not as concerned about titles. We’re concerned about reality and getting stuff done.”
And to get stuff done, the campaign needs young voters. Lavy said he speculates that at IU, most students interested in voting Johnson are ex-Democrats.
An Aug. 25 poll from Quinnipiac University found Johnson the most popular of the third-party candidates, taking 10 percent of total American voters. Resident Matt Roger said he believes there’s a good chance Johnson will participate in upcoming debates.
Lavy believes Johnson can win.
“Johnson says all the time that he wouldn’t be in this if he didn’t think he could win,” Lavy said. “The issues he stands on, I think, the majority of college students and Americans support. Even if they don’t know it yet.”
The Quinnipiac University poll also showed the vast majority of voters aren’t voting for Trump or Clinton because they want them in office. They just don’t want the other.
“Its very unique,” Roger said. “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced it even in my long lifetime, a election quite like this.”
And should Trump win this November?
“We’ll do the same thing as if Clinton wins,” Roger said. “We’ll cry.”
