Hillary Clinton makes this season’s first campaign swing through Tennessee on Friday, dropping in at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis and Fisk University in Nashville.
The Democratic front-runner has been holding events at historically black campuses
around the country in an effort to lock in what was a reliable base for her husband and President Obama.
The announcement of Clinton’s appearance came too late for many Fisk students to change their Thanksgiving travel plans. Samara McGraw was one of those with her bags packed Thursday, catching a Greyhound bus back to Pittsburgh. She says her friends haven’t been following politics much anyway at the moment.
“I just know people don’t want Donald Trump to win,” McGraw says. “That’s the one thing I am sure about.”
Most college students haven’t voted in a presidential election before. But many were old enough to recall the excitement among young people for Obama.
Tre Faulkner of Memphis says he was watching four and eight years ago.
“I’m going to assume maybe [the excitement was] for a first black president, so that would make sense,” Faulkner says. “I mean, there’s a woman candidate, so I would think it would be just as exciting.”
Faulkner says he hasn’t made up his mind, so he is staying in town to meet Clinton.
While she may not have Obama’s buzz on college campuses, Clinton is far ahead in polling among Tennessee Democrats. She even won the state’s primary eight years ago. But her campaign staffers say
they’re taking nothing for granted.
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