How college students in swing state North Carolina are trying to convince their peers to vote for Biden or Trump

• The past several months of the pandemic, economic recession, police shootings, and anti-racism protests have prompted college voters to "really see what's at stake."
• Some college students are encouraging their Gen Z peers to vote through video calls, social media campaigns, phone banking — and for some young Republicans, even door-knocking.
• College students could be a key voting bloc in the election: Seven in 10 students said they were "absolutely certain" they will vote in a Knight Foundation/ College Pulse survey.
• Three college students in swing state North Carolina told Business Insider how they're trying to convince their peers to vote.

Roughly an hour's drive apart, two college students in North Carolina are trying to convince their peers to vote. Julian Woods and Chase Gaines are on different sides of the political spectrum — the former's a Democrat, the latter's a Republican. But they both know how crucial young voters could be this presidential election.

Woods is a sophomore at North Carolina A&T State University, and Gaines is a junior at NC State. Although the pandemic upended campus life and they now spend more time swapping between Zoom screens than running to lectures, the past several months of economic and public health crises coupled with police shootings and anti-racism protests have taught them more than a poli-sci 101 class ever could.

"I think young voters really see what's at stake," 19-year-old Woods told Business Insider.

College students could be a crucial voting bloc this election

College students have emerged as an increasingly engaged voting bloc. A little over 40% of students voted in the 2018 elections, leaping from the 19% who voted in 2014, according to a survey of 10 million college students from Tufts University.

This election has made politics more palpable for college voters who are just starting out their lives as adults. A survey of 4,000 college students from the Knight Foundation and College Pulse conducted in August found that 71% of students said they were "absolutely certain" they will vote in the upcoming election.

"We have a direct stake in it because we're the generation that has to live with the repercussions," Rupi Jain told Business Insider. A senior at the University of North Carolina, Jain is busy leading the "Young Democrats" group. "We are the generation that's going to be impacted the most. It's not going to be the boomers, it's not going to be the older folks who are currently running — it's us."

For a swing state like North Carolina, votes from college students could be critical. As we near the 2020 election, students are squeezing in time between courses to get their peers to vote.

"The fact that everything has been put out in the open for young people to see how government can directly impact your life is going to activate young voters," Woods said. "It's now our job as leaders, whether you're doing partisan work or nonpartisan work, to make sure folks are now registered, make sure folks are informed."

College Republicans are canvassing in person and virtually, but young Democrats are entirely online

Gaines said that after news that President Donald Trump and several key Republicans tested positive, it's "business as usual" for his chapter of Young Republicans. They're continuing to canvass in-person.

Wilson said the Young Democrats have not been doing any in-person activities and that "there are no plans in the near future" to do so.

"We're not really doing a ton of in-person work because it's not safe, obviously," Jain told Business Insider.

Campaigns have been skeptical if they can still reach college voters in this election because most of their social and political hubs — the university campus — are now scattered across laptop screens of Zoom lectures. But Gen Z voters have mastered the Internet, from Zoom to TikTok.

Now that Woods typically no longer has to "be at" classes at a certain time, he'll usually try to get started on his coursework around 11 a.m. When the English major is not busy writing papers or looking for summer internships, you can find him in virtual board meetings planning virtual town halls.

"Sometimes you can kind of feel the Zoom fatigue," Woods said.

He said he's had to get creative with engaging his peers who might be lying in bed or who turn their camera off when they're in a virtual town hall. Now, whenever he organizes a Zoom speaker event he blasts music as people hop on the call to avoid the dreaded "awkward couple of first few moments."

Apart from dropping off sample ballots and early voting schedules around campus, Jain's group's efforts are mostly virtual, as well. They host weekly phone banks, virtual speaker events, and make social media posts to encourage voter registration.

Zoom is their meeting venue and Slack is their workspace.

Gaines has been canvassing both virtually and in-person for Republican candidates during the pandemic.

"We wear a mask, gloves. We step six feet back. We knock on someone's door," Gaines said. "Democrats in 2018 were knocking on doors. This year, I don't think they've knocked on any doors."

Gaines saw the difference in campaign strategy as a sign of an "enthusiasm gap."

Devonte Wilson, the president of the Young Democrats of North Carolina, told Business Insider that they are focusing on text and phone banking, "since that is the safest and most effective way to reach all of our voters this year."

North Carolina has more than 219,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and at least 3,637 deaths from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In a Politico/Morning Consult poll released last month, 63% of voters nationwide said they "feel apprehensive about encountering canvassers outside their door."

Why they do it

Woods said the pandemic has acted as a wake-up call for his peers that "things that I kind of take for granted" like healthcare and education are "actually very much impacted by the folks who are in office."

"For juniors and seniors who are going to be graduating or folks who just graduated in May, they're realizing that this economy is not working as we know it can," Woods said.

Dubbed the "class of COVID-19," college students and recent graduates are struggling to secure internship and job opportunities in the pandemic.

One of the most important issues for Gaines is law enforcement "to protect our people and protect our communities."

Calling for "law and order" is a common refrain among many Republicans, especially Trump, since demonstrations protesting police brutality and racism swept the nation after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd in May.

"Here in Raleigh, we've had a few protesting that turned into riots in the past," Gaines said. He noted that a CVS "right down the street" was burned down.

While many conservatives have called for expanding police presence in response to protests, many progressives have advocated for the defunding of police, arguing that more community investment and other ways of interventions including medical and social workers would handle situations like mental health crises more safely.

"I just want to see our people ... to have a conversation with one another and not be in a heated fight or be mad at whole monoliths of law enforcement," Gaines said. "I think it gets dangerous. I think people need to be able to talk to one another."

With fewer than 30 days until the election, Gaines, Woods, and Jain will be "Zoom"-ing and calling their peers. Before their classes break at the end of November, they have one big assignment: getting their peers to vote.

• Read more:
• Biden campaign desperate for digital access to students as college campuses remain closed and students don't know where they'll be on Election Day
• The suburbs have changed a lot since 2016. They could be the determining factor between Biden or Trump.
• 'I made a horrible mistake': Suburban women are rallying against Trump and slamming his belief that they'll vote for him
• 80% of Gen Z college students say they're voting in 2020 — and they've singled out student debt as their biggest concern