Longwood University put itself on the political map by hosting the vice presidential debate before the 2016 presidential election. However, that is not the only political activity on campus. There clubs for both Democrats and Republicans at Longwood, along with other political organizations like the Hispanic Latino Association.
Matthew Carpenter is the newly elected president of Longwood’s chapter of the College Republicans. The sophomore was formerly the club’s new member chair, but ran in a special election for president after the former president, Megan Garrett, vacated the position.
Carpenter’s parents are Republicans, as well, and he has aligned himself with the Republican Party and its conservative ideals for as long as he can remember. His brother was more politically active than him in high school, and it was not until the twilight days of high school and early in his higher education that Carpenter took a more serious interest himself.
“I would always agree with (my brother), but I didn't really want to talk about it,” Carpenter said. “But once I got into college, I was just really paying attention a lot more…I think I really just started talking about it more in high school and then here.”
He believes that the College Republicans of Longwood University deserves a large amount of the credit for his political education, saying that he owes “a lot of it to the club and the organization.”
Carpenter found the College Republicans at a turbulent time: the 2016 presidential election. The constant political drama from Washington and the campaign trail left Republicans like himself wondering if the now-President Donald Trump could actually win. However, Carpenter had always suspected that Trump would be the victor.
“I've always kind of thought that he would,” said Carpenter. “But that was just me being hopeful, I guess.”
Now that Carpenter has learned so much about politics, he has a chance to give back as its president. After the election, the attendance dropped and Carpenter needed to find out a way to increase interest in the club.
“We have almost 80 people on our email list, but we only have maybe 10 people coming out to meetings,” Carpenter said. “So my biggest goal is to get people to come to the meetings and want to be involved.”
His strategy for that is to incentivize attendance by making the meetings more fun and exciting. Carpenter makes sure that meetings will often have patriotic games to play, like American jeopardy and American Pictionary. He also plans to go on more events outside of Farmville, such as the trip the organization is taking to Lynchburg in March. They will be listening to a speech by a GOP candidate running for election in the U.S. Senate. Some of these trip are paid for the national College Republicans organization, like going to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Longwood’s College Republicans actively help their preferred candidates win elections, as well. This past fall, they went on one of their all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C. to stay overnight in a hotel and campaign for Republican candidates. Previous candidate that they have campaigned for include Barbara Comstock in her re-election to the Virginia House of Representatives and Ed Gillespie in Virginia’s 2017 gubernatorial election.
Carpenter has been told that he would make a good politician, but he is unsure about whether running for office would be in his best interest.
“I tell myself I don't want to be a politician, but I've always been told I have the...likability factor,” said Carpenter. “I don't know, opportunities just keep coming at me and I don't want to take them, I don't want to be a politician.”
Despite this, Carpenter said of politics that “it's a fun time. I love it…I'll see what happens.” He added that he aspires to make political activism something that he can be involved in on his spare time. As for Longwood’s College Republicans themselves, Carpenter’s next excursion with them will be in the winter, when they go to a convention of conservatives down in Florida.
