ELECTION 2025: VCU students, orgs work to drive up vote ahead of tightening races
Feminist-majority-foundation.jpg - The Feminist Majority Foundation tabling in front of the Ram Horns Plaza. They are one of the many organizations tabling on campus. Photo by Burke Loftus.
Sal Orlando, Staff Writer
Every day on VCU’s Monroe Park Campus students can be seen tabling for candidates ahead of Virginia’s gubernatorial election on Nov. 4 — when voters will choose the next governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and House of Delegates representatives.
Virginia is a “bellwether state,” one of a few states that hold odd-year elections that serve as predictors for midterm elections — when, halfway through the president’s term, Americans elect new senators and Congressional representatives.
VCU, and Richmond as a whole, has been a major Democratic stronghold in Virginia. In the 2024 election, between 80-95% of people living near VCU and its surrounding precincts voted Kamala Harris for president, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.
The national Democratic Party said in a September X post they are organizing on college campuses across the country ahead of the 2025 and 2026 elections — featuring a photo of VCU’s Compass plaza.
In 2020, former President Barack Obama spoke in the same Compass on behalf of Democrat Terry McAuliffe’s campaign for governor.
“Don’t boo, vote!” Obama told the crowd after referencing then-Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin’s policy proposals.
Numerous student organizations have been advocating in Monroe Park and outside the Commons asking students to vote this year.
Every year the nonpartisan VCU Votes program — both a class and a student coalition — works around campus to drive up the vote, according to faculty advisor Kelsey Jones.
“Voting is a really great way for students to take that first step towards being heard,” Jones said. “It’s a really good entryway point for a lot of students as they build what being an advocate in their own life looks like.”
Roqia Ali, a third-year political science student and officer for VCU Votes, stated there are many ways for young people to get involved with the election other than voting.
“You can volunteer with local campaigns, help register voters on campus or even work the polls on election day,” Ali stated.
VCU’s Young Democrats chapter has held voter registration drives, tabling events with the coordinated Democratic campaign and canvassing events in the Richmond area, according to their political affairs director Rebecca Weil.
May Nivar is the Democratic nominee to be the next state delegate from House District 57, which makes up parts of Henrico and Goochland County — one of many districts Democrats are looking to pick up this year to strengthen their House majority. They lost the district by just over 1,000 votes in 2023.
Now Nivar is asking young people to vote to protect health care, reproductive rights and progressive climate policy.
“That’s why civic education and student engagement are essential,” Nivar stated. “When students understand how government works and why their voices matter, they’re empowered to vote, volunteer and stay involved.”
10% of voters aged 18-29 turned out for Virginia’s 2021 gubernatorial election, according to Tufts University research.
“When young people don’t vote, then politicians don’t care about what young people have to say,” said Alex Keena, an associate professor of political science at VCU.
Keena noted that in the past, the campus has been a stopping place for candidates’ campaigns, but gubernatorial candidates have not visited during this election cycle.
“I honestly think the [VCU] administration has been very fearful of engaging with campaigns because of the chilling effect of Trump and executive orders trying to limit left-of-center ideas on campus,” Keena said.
President Donald Trump sent a letter on Oct. 1 to nine universities, including University of Virginia, to enter into his “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” If a university accepts the invitation, they pledge to uphold the Trump administration’s policy priorities, so as to not risk losing federal funding.
The compact asks universities to maintain “institutional neutrality,” stating all university employees and representatives must abstain from speech or actions in relation to political and societal events that are not in direct impact of the university.
VCU’s impact on local and state elections, especially for Democrats, will only be seen if its students and faculty turn out at the polls, VCU political science professor David Kerr said.
“VCU students and faculty may be liberal, but they have to be motivated enough to vote,” Kerr said.
Virginians can participate in early voting until Nov. 1. Election day is on Nov. 4. Voting information, locations and hours are available at elections.virginia.gov.
Molly Manning contributed to this article.
