Feature Post

Whitman County has turned blue—a rare spectacle considering it is historically a conservative community. Glance at a state map that is coded with election results and you will see that Whitman County is the only speck of blue in Eastern Washington. So what or rather who has been responsible for this drastic change of color?
A key component in this change of political leaning is Washington State University student Alex N. McDonald. The Field Organizer of the Ninth Legislative District of Washington for the Obama Campaign for Change, McDonald organized Whitman County residents and college students.
“I had one day training in Seattle and from there I was expected to set up this operation in Pullman. I have been a very involved student, so I had a lot of connections in the community. I recruited volunteers and we began phone banking, canvassing, and registering voters,” McDonald said.
To be a WSU student is to know Alex McDonald. He has either stopped you on your way to class to ask you to register to vote or obtained your cell phone number and sent you repeated text messages reminding you to vote.
“I would describe Alex’s commitment to the campaign as extreme,” Jarmyn D. Kramlich, a volunteer for the Obama Campaign for Change, said.
McDonald originally became involved with the Obama campaign when he
co-founded WSU Students for Barack Obama in January 2008. He became an official employee of the Obama Campaign for Change in August 2008.
“Alex has been very successful. This is one of the few times Whitman County has gone blue and it had a lot to do with student voters. He organized and motivated students to vote,” Dan B. Wandschneider, a volunteer for the Obama Campaign for Change, said.
The operation McDonald set up in the downtown Pullman, Whitman County Democrats office is responsible for registering 1, 679 voters.
“The biggest successes of our operation was winning Whitman County and registering voters,” McDonald said.
The political environment of Whitman County seems an accurate microcosm to the overall trend in the 2008 election. The youth registered to vote and in spite of the skepticism that they would actually turn out, they chose their candidate and participated in democracy. In Whitman County the students have spoken.
McDonald said he was overcome with joy when Obama won and shed countless tears.
As for the challenges of the next four years McDonald said, “We, the American people have to use the resources the Obama Administration provides. Obama is opening a window, but we have to climb through it.”