BY STEPHANIE RENNER
How did Rob Portman manage to win the Ohio Senate election by more than a million votes?
By enlisting MHS students for his campaign.
A group of juniors at MHS, Cassidy Bollman, Danielle Bryan, Alex Wilson, William Weston, Alexandra Kauffman, Molly Mysogland, Jackson Northrop, Hannah Coates, and Matthew McGrory, dedicated the last 6 months to getting Rob Portman elected.
What they do is strictly volunteer work, but they enjoyed doing it and gained a lot from it, like experiences stepping out of their comfort zones and working with a variety of people around Cincinnati.
“It’s really fun because we get to do so many different things,” says Will Weston. “We have been a part of countless parades, called thousands of people, knocked on hundreds of doors, drove to Cleveland to be a part of the Republican National Convention, and we have meet Mr. Portman a countless number of times,” he explains.
One of the main things they did was work in Portman’s office in Terrace Park by making phone calls and polling.
“I’m one of those annoying people who calls your house in the middle of the day who asks you to answer surveys,” says Alex Wilson. “I like over the phone because it doesn’t feel as personal when people (who are) angry at the establishment cuss you out,” he says.
Molly Mysogland agreed about the rudeness of some people. “We make phone calls at the office most of the time, and a lot of people don’t really liked to be called,” says Mysogland. “During the parades some people will boo us or give us weird looks, but it’s been mostly civil,” she says.
On election day, the group was working as hard as ever on the phones. “We logged voters so we can use the information and call people who hadn’t voted yet to try and persuade them to vote, and specifically to vote for Rob,” says Hannah Coates.
Matthew McGrory enjoyed the door-to-door campaigning over the phone calls. “It’s more personal and you really get to hold conversations with people and get to hear their opinions,” he says. “I will admit that there are more nerves associated with going door to door than there are when you make the calls,” he says.
Many of them started volunteering for Portman because of recommendations from their friends who had been doing it already.
Alexandra Kauffman started volunteering because of Mysogland. “Molly asked me to march in a parade with her for Portman on the 4th of July, and after that I decided to go work at the actual office,” she says.
Danielle Bryan caught the Portman “bug’ from Kauffman. “I just ended up really liking the atmosphere and what they were all about over there so I continued to come,” says Bryan. “In the end I met a ton of amazing people and learned a lot beyond the senate race. I was very glad I did it,” she says.
Jackson Northrop joined the team because of Will Weston. “I have always been interested in politics,” he says.
As a result of being on Portman’s campaign team, all of them agreed that they benefited from the experience in a positive way and they were glad they did it.
“It was a really great experience because I stepped out of my comfort zone and it led to something super fun and cool and I made relationships that’ll hopefully last for a long time,” says Cassidy Bollman.