The state director of President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign was one of the speakers who talked to Indiana student Democrats at Ball State on Saturday.
Ball State University Democrats hosted the College Democrats of Indiana convention in the Art and Journalism building.
The convention started at 9:30 a.m. and included guest speakers, workshops and an election for state office positions. The CDIN concluded with a social ending a nearly 12-hour agenda.
This was the first time Ball State hosted the CDIN. Indiana University hosted the event last year, according to Chris Griffith, a senior and outgoing College Democrats membership director.
Elections for the Democrats of Indiana also took place at the convention. These positions included president, vice president, finance director, political affairs, communications director and membership director. Four Ball State students were elected this year.
Mitch Stewart, director of Organizing for America and the state director of Obama's 2008 campaign, spoke about his role in electing Obama as president and the importance of ground level volunteers and Obama's likely Republican competitor, Mitt Romney.
"I mean - this is unbelievable, this is unprecedented - no candidate has ever come out of their primary like this," Stewart said about Mitt Romney's approval rating in the Republican Party.
He also spoke about his life during the 2008 presidential campaign.
"I probably have between nine and 13 meetings a day," Stewart said. "I wish this was sexier or cooler than it is. It's not like I'm rolling on Air Force One and talking strategy with the president."
Other speakers at CDIN included John Gregg, the Democratic nominee for governor, along with his campaign staffer David Galvin. Stewart spoke about the importance of bipartisanship in Indiana government.
"Two of the years I was speaker, our chamber was divided: 50 Democrats, 50 Republicans," Gregg said. "In Indiana, the whole time I was speaker of the House as a Democrat, we managed to pass legislation, we managed to work together - pass a balanced budget, increase funding for public universities, K-12 - in a bipartisan way."
Gregg was a particularly important speaker this year because of his familiarity of Muncie and college campuses in general.
"I know John Gregg is a pretty special guy around here only because he used to be the president of Vincennes [University], so he kind of understands higher education," Griffith said. "Also, the last time he was in Muncie, I'm pretty sure that the amount of people at Democratic Headquarters weren't as many as we had today, so that was exciting to have a larger group."
Galvin said he felt on-foot volunteers have made some of the biggest differences in previous campaigns he had worked on.
"I worked for Frank O'Bannon in 2000, we had less money than [former congressman] David McIntosh." Galvin said. "I think we were outraised by almost $5,000,000 at that time, and then we ended up beating him because we found that congressman had missed a whole bunch of votes on his own campaign."
Griffith said he was pleased with how the event went overall.
"I think that overall, the organization of it and the energy ... it had a good impact for all the participants," he said.
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College Democrats of Indiana leadership board
President - Brittany Brown, Indiana University
Vice president - Steve Walsh, Ball State
Finance director - Tyler Hempfling, Ball State
Political affairs director - Johann Osbakk, Earlham College
Communications director - Emily Rodriguez, Ball State
Membership director - Drew Farrington, Ball State
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