Students Engage In Democracy

Students Take Hands-On Approach to Politics in 2020

Bella Erickson Carter McLaughlin

SMSU students Bella Erickson and Carter McLaughlin spent their fall semester working to drum up student interest in the 2020 presidential election.

Erickson, a senior Political Science and History double major, Criminal Justice minor, and McLaughlin, a junior Philosophy major and Pre-law, Religious Studies and Political Science minor, served as

Campus Election Engagement Project (CEEP) Student Fellows. They helped students register, volunteer for campaigns, educate themselves on candidates and issues, navigate confusing voting laws and promote higher turnout at the polls. They are both advocates of the democratic process.

“I’m a Political Science major so I believe in the power of democracy,” said Erickson, a Salem, S.D. native. “Students are an under-represented population. We tend to not vote as much as other age groups. I got involved because I think it’s important to have student voices heard. Promoting voting on campus is fun.”

McLaughlin, an Eden Prairie native, said he believes that “given the state of the U.S. — where the political climate is at right now — this is one of the most important elections I’ll see in my lifetime. We do not persuade; we help students exercise their rights, and help them to know what to do.”

Erickson concurred. “It’s a non-partisan organization. It doesn’t matter who the students vote for, they just need to vote. Personal feelings don’t come into play. It’s about engagement.”

CEEP is a national nonpartisan project whose goal is to engage students in federal, state and local elections. Two fellowships were awarded to SMSU through the Center for Civic and Community Engagement, overseen by Career Services Director Melissa Scholten.

“While the initial ideas about events and voter engagement activities I’d thought about in February changed due to COVID-19 precautions, it has been wonderful to see the creative ways that Carter and Bella have created voting resources and connected with other student organizations and voting initiatives that are taking place on campus,” said Scholten. The two started in September and finished their CEEP duties a couple of weeks after the election, when they filed their final report. They’ve worked hard to engage SMSU students in the democratic process, and have enjoyed a rewarding experiential education in the process.

SMSU students know how to get involved and over the years a number have jumped into politics at an early age. One of the earliest student politicians was 1974 alumnus Russ Stanton. He ran and won a seat on the Marshall City Council in 1971 as an 18-year-old. A year later, he ran successfully for the Minnesota State House. He served three terms. While serving in the legislature, he graduated from Southwest.

Alumnus Marty Seifert, a Republican, served three terms in the House representing District 21A. He also ran for governor twice. Seifert was challenged unsuccessfully in one of those House races by the late SMSU President Doug Sweetland.

This election season, Doria Drost, a Democrat, and Cory Becker, a Republican, were active participants in the democratic process.

Drost is a 2019 alumna and a current MBA student at SMSU. She ran for the House District 16A seat, ultimately losing to incumbent Rep. Chris Swedzinski.

Becker, a junior, was the regional field director for the Trump campaign. It was a paid, full-time position.

Another SMSU alumnus, Ben Dolan ’12, ran for the House District 17A seat as a Democrat, losing to incumbent Rep. Tim Miller.

Hubert H. Humphrey with Russ Stanton

SMSU Archives

Cory Becker

Cory Becker, junior from Gibbon, Minn.

“You can read textbooks, but like anything else, once you do it hands-on, it’s completely different.”

That’s the feeling of SMSU junior Cory Becker, who was the regional field director for the Trump campaign this past election season.

It was a paid, full-time position. The Political Science and History double major oversaw a 23-county area in southwest Minnesota. He hired a team of five field Cory Becker organizers and assisted them in recruiting volunteers to help with “door-knocking, phone-banking and getting people registered to vote,” said Becker. He also helped organize rallies and other political events.

He is a self-proclaimed “history geek” who in the second grade could name all the presidents “forward and backwards, with a biographical fact about each one,” he said. “That morphed into a passion for politics. I’ve always liked to read about history, and by working on an election the way I did, I lived that history first-hand.”

Becker represented his hometown of Gibbon, Minn., at Boys State and later served as a page for the House of Representatives. He’s in his second year as the president of the SMSU College Republicans.

He said COVID-19 added some challenges to the campaign season. “We opened our office (in Marshall) on March 1 and two weeks later shut it down and worked remotely until the start of June. We slowly transitioned into door knocking. We wore face masks and made sure we were social distanced. If people were uncomfortable about it, we’d leave.”

Former state representative and gubernatorial candidate Marty Seifert has served as something of a mentor to Becker. “He came to the Gibbon Library on a book tour and I talked to him after his presentation. He has become a good friend. He is experienced, and knowledgeable.”

His team didn’t work just on the Trump campaign. “We worked on the campaigns of any (Republican) running — U.S. House, state Senate and House — we would help in any way we could,” he said.

The political climate across the country can be somewhat divisive, feels Becker. Fortunately, he didn’t experience too much of that during his work. “We had pretty good reception at doors. I had good conversations with Biden supporters. It was refreshing. The narrative is we can’t get along, but that’s not who we are as a country.”

He’s cut back the number of credits he’s taking at SMSU due to the opportunity. “This semester I’m taking a couple of online courses. We worked 12-hour days seven days a week after Labor Day, so full-time classes would not have worked. I’ll graduate now in a year-and-a-half or two years.”

He’s keeping his options open when he graduates. “I’ll finish school and who knows what will come along. I’d like to run for office some time, it all depends on the timing. As far as politics go, there are a lot of things you can do.”

Doria Drost

Doria Drost, 2019 Alumna and current SMSU graduate student from Rushmore, Minn.

Doria Drost is not the type of person to sit around complaining. That personality trait led her to run for the Minnesota District 16A House seat as a Democrat, the youngest to run for a House seat in the state.

“I learned that campaigning is a huge task and a major undertaking. Doing it during a pandemic is very, very difficult,” said Drost, who lost her election bid to incumbent Chris Swedzinski.

Drost, a 2019 alumna, was a Marketing major and Political Science minor. She is currently in the SMSU MBA program with a concentration in Doria Drost leadership, and a graduate assistant in the Student Success and Advising Center.

She discovered that she wanted to do more — to give back — while participating on the SMSU Forensics team as an undergraduate student. She competed in several categories and qualified two years for national competition. “I got to hear about what other people my age are doing to make a difference, so I looked for ways to improve my community as well. It spurred a lot of volunteer work, and conversations about what I can do for our area,” she said. “With Forensics, a lot of discussions surround women’s rights, racial equity, and affordable health care, and I’ve done some advocacy work with Students United regarding higher education reform, as well.”

As an undergraduate, Drost was also involved as an executive member for SMSU Student Association, Residence Life, and theatre and cheerleading. She has a full-time job with GreatAmerica Financial Services, a leasing company, and directs theater at Tracy Area High School. During the summer, she is involved with MASC performances and coordinates blood drives for the American Red Cross.

“I’m used to being busy,” she said.

Associate Professor of Communication Studies Ben Walker — who wound up being her campaign manager — was the person who first approached her about running. “We sat down at Cold Stone and talked about things we’d like to see changed, and what’s been going on in the district,” she said.

Drost is originally from Poquoson, Va., and later moved to Rushmore, Minn., with her father. She graduated from Worthington High School. She took PSEO courses her junior and senior years, graduating with her A.A. in liberal arts from Minnesota West right before graduating high school. This gave her junior status at the time she enrolled at SMSU.

COVID-19 changed the way Drost had originally intended to run her campaign. “It’s difficult when you are trying to make one-on-one connections with people.” She made campaign stops in every town in the district “two or three times, but instead of knocking, we did literature drops to keep our volunteers and the public safe.” She relied a lot on social media to spread the word about her candidacy. “That turned into one of the largest parts of the campaign,” she said.

Her campaign also used “pop-up” portable campaign headquarters in various towns in the district.

“I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything,” she said.

The campaign itself had its ups and downs, but generally, “people were wonderful,” she said. Throughout the campaign, Drost did receive some negative comments on social media regarding her age and gender. “Folks can get blinded by the two-party system. I strongly believe leaders must be able to work across the aisle.”

She looks forward to the future, and says decisively, “I am running again in 2022.”