Young Voters Say Neither Party is Reaching Out
By: Sujata Khandelwal
Updated: March 6, 2012
Presidential candidate Rick Santorum's home state may be Pennsylvania, but he's fighting for Ohio, and political experts say it will be a tough one.
"He has the benefit there of having Ohio voters look very similar to western Pennsylvania voters, which is where he is from so he can speak to them and relate to them, but the polling shows that Romney may win," says Dr. Alison Dagnes, a political science professor at Shippensburg University. "It won't be a huge victory."
Dagnes says while the remaining four candidates are all vocal, there's one voice that's even stronger.
"What this primary season has taught us is that the American voter counts. The American voter matters."
But some Shippensburg University students say the call to action for the youth is almost non-existent, and doesn't compare to four years ago.
"Not even close, actually," says Cody Bowersox, a junior. "Obviously, Obama's pushing the narrative 'We need the youth. This is what I'm doing for the youth,' but there's nothing close to it like 2008."
Some students feel there has been little push from the republican candidates partly because there is a mindset that younger voters are more liberal.
"We're not all liberal college students," says Erica Williams, a senior and the president of College Republicans. "We're not all fitting in that one particular cookie-cutter shape. There's a lot of Republicans on campus. There's a lot of people that share conservative views."
During the 2008 election, Sarah Palin spoke at Shippensburg University.
The Pennsylvania primary is April 24th.



