New York State College Democrats: Their Rising Importance

Question: What is the most important organization for organizing college students to vote in elections and to help work on candidate campaigns? The answer of course, is the New York State College Democrats. The NYS College Democrats federation is one of the biggest state federations in the country that deals exclusively with raising political awareness across New York State for college students.

The NYS College Democrats organization is set up as a federation in which it oversees more than 50 active college democrat chapters on college campuses throughout the state. On almost every major college throughout the state and even in some middle and small schools, there is a good chance that there is a college democrat chapter already established, working hard to get college students interested in politics and being part of the political process.

The College Democrats organization actually uses the model established by the Republican Party of a networking system for college students. College Republicans was set up years before the college democrat chapters got going, which is why throughout the 80s, college students were primarily republican. In the early 90s, the Clinton administration really changed that as it began leading the way for college democrat chapters being established throughout the country. Howard Dean, the DNC Chairman has also had a major influence on college democrats, helping to get more college students involved than ever before, and getting students energized and active on campaigns.