Ed Gillespie is eager to hear the opinions of college students. The former chairman of the Republican National Committee, running for Senate against incumbent Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), showed that his platform is more than platitudes by driving 150 miles through a snowstorm in mid-February to speak to a handful of College Republicans.
Yes, really.
“He didn’t cancel, which I thought he probably would,” Chandler Crenshaw, a senior at The College of William and Mary, told Red Alert Politics about Gillespie’s visit to his school. “A lot of people really appreciated that he drove to Williamsburg from Northern Virginia in the snow to speak to college students, and I think that speaks volumes about what kind of candidate he is.”
He’s also the kind of candidate who has focused his campaign on three things that will resonate with voters this fall, including young Americans: jobs, the economy and Obamacare. His platform on jobs and the economy includes reducing taxes and government spending to allow Americans to keep more of their paychecks and encourage upward mobility.
On Obamacare, Gillespie wants to replace the nightmarish law with legislation that puts patients first and offers affordable options by encouraging competition.
“We need health care reform that works — and that means replacing Obamacare with policies that put patients in charge, not political appointees,” his campaign website reads.
And Crenshaw, who served on his College Republicans executive board last year and learned about Gillespie when he was volunteering on the Romney campaign in Boston, observed that Gillespie has also focused his platform on issues that pertain particularly to college students. Student loan debt and the jobs that students need getting out of school to pay off that debt are examples.
“Like he said in his speech to the [College Republican Federation of Virginia] convention,” Crenshaw said, “he doesn’t want the old mediocrity to be the new normal.”
Maybe that includes a legitimate effort of youth outreach. Although Gillespie has his own ideas, he knows young people have some good ones, too.
“Some of the best ideas we have for growing our party and putting an end to irresponsible policies in Washington come from our college students,” Gillespie said in a recent press release.
Amanda Kranz, a 22-year-old senior at Virginia Tech, can attest.
“I saw Ed take out a piece of scratch paper and a pen from his body man and start writing down these ideas from College Republicans,” Kranz told Red Alert about Gillespie’s visit to her college, where he had lunch with the Virginia Tech College Republicans. At the lunch, he genuinely asked the group of college students what he could do better to reach out to the youth.
Kranz was impressed that Gillespie didn’t assume he knew it all — that he actually cared about their opinions.
“I think it spoke a lot about his character, that Ed Gillespie isn’t some big important person, he just wants to run for Senate to represent Virginians.”
Kranz, who has been involved with her campus’ College Republicans all four years of college, was introduced to Gillespie early on in 2011 when she volunteered as a field director for a Virginia State Senate race.
“I think he really is the candidate to revolutionize the GOP,” she said.
