Michigan State University received plaudits from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for the school’s decision to exclude in-person instruction during its fall semester.
But virtual college classes make reelection efforts more difficult for Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan and other Democrats relying on student votes in college towns.
“The biggest thing that just happened to me is Michigan State University just announced that it’s not coming back to campus. That’s 50,000 students and grad students. That’s definitely affecting my race,” Slotkin, a first-term lawmaker, told the Washington Examiner. “It was the right decision. I completely support it from a public health perspective. But, of course, that means I’m just gonna have to work harder to win my race.”
Fourteen percent of the MSU student body is from out of state. First-year students from that group will likely stay home with their parents and vote from their home state. The remaining out-of-state students can either register to vote from their home state and cast a ballot there or request an absentee ballot and vote in the battleground where they attend school.
Additionally, many in-state students may live on campus during the school year but live outside Slotkin’s Lansing-based district during the summer.
Slotkin, 43, won Michigan’s 8th Congressional seat in 2018 against Republican incumbent Mike Bishop by just over 4 percentage points. The multilingual former CIA officer and Defense Department official will face Republican Paul Junge, a prosecutor and former television anchor, in the general election.
Although Slotkin is concerned about turnout from a traditional Democratic base of university students, she currently maintains a huge cash on hand advantage over Junge, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Similarly, California freshman Rep. Katie Porter, a former University of California Irvine Law School professor, benefited from the student vote in her district during the 2018 election cycle. Now, due to the pandemic, according to the school’s website, all upper-division class sessions are expected to be online. Other schools in the region, such as Chapman University, are also conducting their classes online for the fall semester.
Like Slotkin, Porter, who won her first race two years ago by just 4 points against Republican incumbent Mimi Walters, has amassed a campaign war chest that presently eclipses her Republican opponent Greg Raths.
However, campus closures across the country are a factor the Republican National Committee is watching closely and considering in key elections.
“If these college campuses are vacant in the fall, it really changes some of these battleground states if the students aren’t there,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said during an interview on Fox and Friends earlier this month. “For example, in New Hampshire, you’re not going to be able to do same-day registration and turn out all these college kids. So that’s going to change a lot of these states and the calculus for Democrats in some of their turnout models.”
According to the National Conference of State Legislators, as of June 30, 2019, 21 states along with the District of Columbia have enacted same-day registration, which allows any qualified resident of the state to register to vote and cast a ballot all in one day.
Same-day registration will happen in key battleground states such as Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. President Trump is expected to go to New Hampshire this weekend to hold a rally in Manchester.
