The first group of college Democrats in Texas to endorse a candidate in the upcoming United States Senate special election announced today that they are backing John Sharp. The club is the Stephen F. Austin Young Democrats in Nacogdoches.
"John Sharp's campaign is all about us," said Laura Barry, president of the Stephen F. Austin Young Democrats in Nacogdoches.
"John has our pledge to work just as hard as he is to give Texas a fresh voice in Washington," added Ms. Barry, who also serves as the political director of the Texas College Democrats, which has 34 chapters across the state. "He has the vision to lead us into the future - and we will be there with him every step of the way."
It is reasonable to note the timing of the endorsement as the University Democrats in Austin are set to vote on endorsing in the U.S. Senate primary as it stands this Thursday, a day after their major BLUEPrint for Texas fundraiser. The UT-Austin University Democrats were the 2008 College Democrats of American "Chapter of the Year" and are the largest College Democrats chapter in the nation with the activism to match.
+ DISTRIBUTING 42,000+ voter registration cards in key neighborhoods!
+ REGISTERING 11,565 students to vote TOTAL (Including 5,700+ in one day)!
+ KNOCKING on 40,000+ doors statewide for key candidates!
+ CALLING 12,233 voters on behalf of Texas Democrats!
+ MOBILIZING 18,000 students to early vote (a UT-Austin record)!
We'll be reporting Thursday night whether John Sharp will pick up a second College Democrats chapter's endorsement, or if Bill White will overpower Sharp's endorsement and earn the support of the arguably the biggest youth endorsement possible in Texas.
Update: It appears from a comment by one of the University Democrats that the club has cancelled the U.S. Senate endorsement meeting. No work yet on the reason, though it's reasonable to assume the recent pronouncements by Sen. Hutchison on her new belayed resignation timeline have cancelled the urgency to hold an endorsement meeting before the students are gone on break until late January. I expect it will be moved to the regular joint pre-primary endorsement meeting with the Central Austin Democrats held annually after the filing period. |
