High School Volunteers in the Hoosier State
A few weeks ago, I profiled the efforts of Brian Griffin, a campaign intern for Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, and other high-schoolers who lent a hand to one of the two Democrats vying in yesterday’s closely watched Indiana presidential primary.
Griffin saw the victory by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in a broad context. “It was upsetting that we worked so hard here and we didn’t actually see the percentages being higher,” he said, referring to the roughly 2-point margin over Obama. But he added, “You can’t get too upset when you see that she hasn’t actually advanced her cause,” referring to the fact that Clinton appears to have lost ground in the battle for pledged delegates.
Griffin got an excused absence from school yesterday to work for the campaign. Beginning at 4 a.m., he and some of his friends from Plainfield Students for Barack Obama were out hanging signs on people’s front doors, showing the location of their polling place and urging them to vote for the Illinois senator. And he watched the election returns last night at a sports venue in downtown Indianapolis, with some of Obama’s Hoosier state staff.
Griffin’s thinking about going to neighboring Kentucky – which holds its contest May 20 – or making phone calls to voters in states holding upcoming primaries from home. And he’s hoping to get involved in the general election. He thinks that will be easier once he’s in college next fall.
“I’ll definitely work for Barack Obama again, if he ever needs me to,” Griffin said.
