Every four years, a little town with a population of 5,000 is one of the most talked about places in the country. There is usually a wide range of reporters from various news outlets with their camera crews to broadcast what goes on at a little college in the middle of nowhere. What goes on is something that can alter the course of history: the Presidential Campaign. The candidates passing through are vying for our country’s highest office, and staff who run these campaigns acknowledge that history can either carry the candidate to the office on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or into the corner of the forgotten. The people who decide whether the campaign will reach new heights, or new lows, sit not only in New Hampshire, but in this special town of Henniker.
The New England College community is blessed to have presidential candidates come through the doors of the Simon Great Room. NEC has hosted many politicians ready to bring their vision of this great nation to this small town. Many candidates are good at describing that vision, but some are not ready to face the questions of students, faculty and community members. Either way, we witness history in the making every four years. Clinton, Trump, Sanders, Biden, McCain. All of these political giants have come here, not only selling a vision but searching for what the people of this swing state have to ask them. They are seeking to refine their campaign in order to succeed in the largest horse race on earth, the American Presidential election.
This election cycle NEC have hosted a variety of candidates that you will see on national television debating each other in June, such as Tulsi Gabbard, the representative for Hawaii, John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado, and John Delaney, the former representative of Maryland. But alas, there is more to come and some may visit the little town of Henniker a second time.
The students that put on these events are political warriors. Civicorps is a club that breeds ambition and personal drive. Without these political animals donning their blue vests, we would have no circus in town. And the reason why these prominent candidates stop by our little town is because of the community who attend these events.
This is just the beginning of political season on campus, and the time is better than ever to get engaged in the civil society our founding fathers constructed.
