Students get inside the campaign trail

By: Isabel Mascareñas

St. Petersburg, Florida - The Florida Primary is just two weeks away and some USF St. Petersburg students are hoping to go inside the campaign trail just as they did in New Hampshire.

The political science class called The Road to the White House went on the road for 10 days and behind the campaign scenes in New Hampshire.

Students compiled a journal, blogged each day and made a scrap book of their favorite moments and they all got to meet their candidates.

18-year-old Damaris Escalera worked on the Clinton campaign, “Meeting Hillary, Chelsea and Bill, seeing them in person made everything we worked for and staying up late worthwhile."

Freshman Damaris Escalera and her classmates say they worked as hard as the candidates' regular staffers.

"The commitment of everyone is so passionate they spend all their time there, staffers never get any sleep,” says Escalera.

Damaris helped build campaign signs and stood out in freezing weather at 6 in the morning, trying to draw in the vote.

"We ran on little sleep, a lot of coffee, spent hours working. It should have been miserable, but everyone had a great time,” says 25-year-old senior George Meehan.

Meehan worked for Mitt Romney's campaign. He handled the phone banks.

"There were a lot of undecided voters. Hopefully we made a difference on the campaign,” says Meehan.

Junior Shadi Fackih helped set up two dozen radio interviews for Ron Paul. Of all the students, Fackih spent the most time with his candidate.

"I talked to him. Some his issues, after he explained it for me, I understood them a lot better, it made more sense," says Fackih.

The USF St. Petersburg students got the kind of access few are allowed. Fackih says the trip surpassed his expectations and he will continue to work on Paul's campaign.

"Working there gave me the knowledge I needed to get more involved," says Escalera, the 18-year-old student that will vote for the first time in this election.

Why do these students support their candidates?

Damaris Escalera on Hillary Clinton: “Hillary is the one person that knows what she wants and knows what to do to get it. She can fix our country.”

George Meehan on Mitt Romney: “His approach on stopping the spending spree in Washington DC, economically he can put us back on track and his family values are important to me.”

Shadi Fackih on Ron Paul: “He wants to restore our country back to what our forefathers wanted it to be, give us back our civil liberties, our constitutional rights for everyone, not just for some people.”