Organizing for America hosted their kickoff meeting for the Barack Obama reelection campaign Thursday night.

Around 50 people, an even mix of college students, community members and the town’s mayor, attended.

“You, the college students, are the future,” Mayor Loretta Clawson said at the event. “One day we’re going to turn it over to you and we want you to be ready to carry on, so I’m loving it.”

Zachery Halpern, the field organizer for Watauga County and the university, organized the event.

Halpern said their main goals are voter registration and phone banking, calling people and informing voters on the key differences between Obama’s campaign and Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign.

“North Carolina could be the decisive factor in this election,” Halpern said at the event. “And I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the youth vote.”

At the meeting, senior English education major Lynea Vandruff said she’s not happy with Romney.

“I feel like pell grants are an important thing and I feel like he kind of has a vendetta against helping students who really need it,” Vandruff said. “I don’t know if I’m completely happy with Obama, but I’m definitely more happy with him than with Romney.”

Romney seems to think education is reserved for a certain group of people in a certain part of society but Obama fights for us, Halpern said.

“‘Let’s just cut education’ is kind of a terrifying concept,” said Shahdi Montazeri, a junior international comparative political science major and fellow on the Organizing for America committee.

Story: LINDSAY BOOKOUT, Intern News Reporter