Students get front-row seat to caucuses

Students have already met presidential candidate
Barack Obama in Iowa.

By TIM YOVICH

VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF

LORDSTOWN — While so many people interested in politics are viewing the Iowa caucuses through the eyes of the media, 26 Lordstown High School students have a front-row seat.

“It’s definitely exciting,” senior Zach Hall, 17, of Highland Avenue said during a Wednesday telephone interview as he was attempting to get people out to caucus for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Deanna Rios, 17, of Robinwood Drive, said she decided to travel to Iowa because she’s too young to vote but wants to help in some way.

The students arrived in Davenport, Iowa, on Tuesday and will return Friday. Half of them are manning the phones for Romney, the other half for Democratic hopeful John Edwards.

High school teacher Terry Armstrong was teaching the students in class about the primary election process. At one point, Armstrong asked the students if they wanted to participate, and they were up for it.

Through community donations, $4,500 was raised to pay for the buses and motel rooms, and the students each took $50 with them for expenses.

They are working for the Romney and Edwards campaigns because they also made donations.

The students, along with Armstrong, school principal A.J. Calderone and school board member Mark McGrail, made the 9 1/2-hour bus trip New Year’s Day to Davenport.

On Tuesday after arriving, they went to a rally attended by Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

Those working for Romney were to meet him Wednesday.

“That was very interesting. It was cool. I got to shake his hand,” Rios said of meeting Obama.

Hall was also impressed with Obama.

“He was a very emotional speaker. To me, that’s important,” he said.

In making the calls to get people out to caucus to support Romney, Rios said she talked with one old woman she couldn’t understand “and another who hung up.”

Generally, the two students said others they called were nice to them.

Other students who skipped a part of their winter break went door-to-door, held signs and worked at candidate events to learn what a grass-roots campaign is all about.

Rios said she’s interested in politics but wants to eventually become a park ranger.

Unlike Rios, Hall will be able to vote in Ohio’s March primary since he turns 18 on Feb. 3.

Hall said he’s not sure what he wants to study in college, but he knows for sure now that he doesn’t see a future in politics.

yovich@vindy.com