Anna Troutt ’24 is a government major from Spartanburg. After getting involved with the Cunningham campaign and seeing the rewards first-hand, she decided that political campaign involvement will be a large part of her future.
“Growing up in Spartanburg, I am used to people disagreeing with me on my beliefs,” Troutt said, “but I don’t hold any animosity because those are my family, my church, my school.”
After her Congressional internship this summer, she started work as a campaign intern for Joe Cunningham’s South Carolina governmental campaign. He is running as the Democratic candidate for the 2022 election.
Her specialization is event planning for the campaign, which came in handy for planning Cunningham’s college tour stop at Wofford College.
Caroline Payne ’23, a biology major from Columbia, also serves as a campaign intern for Cunningham. She started her work in July 2022, spending most of her time educating her peers on the importance of political involvement and spreading information on Cunningham’s policies.
The night before Cunningham’s stop at Wofford, the 48th Vice President of the United States, Mike Pence, spoke as a part of the Van Hipp lecture series.
Although both interns were concerned with how the community may perceive the events being back- to-back, they ensured that it was a sheer coincidence. Troutt even at- tended the Pence lecture and said he did a “great job.”
“We finalized the date of Cunningham’s stop the night before we got the email about Mike Pence coming to campus,” Payne explained. “Originally, we chose another date, but we were going to be on fall break.”
Wofford College Democrats was also involved in the planning of the Joe Cunningham event, specifically interacting with Emma Sutton ‘23.
“(Payne) and (Troutt) told me (Cunningham) could come to campus exactly a week before the event,” Sutton explained. “It was a huge accomplishment to pull off this event in a safe way while still attracting a large crowd with very quick turn-around.”
Troutt said that it worked out for the best and that she was pleased with every aspect of the event.
“Although it wasn’t planned, I think it was important to offset one political party’s speaker with a speaker of a different political party,” Troutt said. “It is truly representative of the liberal arts education that Wofford stands for.”
The turnout for the event exceeded their expectations, especially considering the event that had taken place the previous night.
“We started the night having the curtains down in Leonard to lessen the space because we were anticipating 50 guests,” Troutt said. “We ended up having to draw the curtains back to make room for the 70-80 guests that showed.”
Sutton said that students were told to arrive 30 minutes before Cunningham was set to speak because the campaign wanted to give students ample time to get settled before the event started. This proved to be a good strategy, considering the turnout.
Troutt believes that the event would have likely had more of an audience if it were not during lunchtime and if they had been able to advertise it better and for more time.
Payne explained that she spent countless hours before the event sending the graphic into every GroupMe she was a part of, spreading the word by mouth and doing everything in her power to ensure that people knew he was coming.
Of course, many of the attendees, since it is a college campus, are from out of state. By default, they cannot “Vote for Joe,” as the campaign said.
Even still, Payne and Troutt saw great importance in bringing his campaign to Wofford as a way of exposing the student body to a different political perspective and because many of his policies will affect those who are residential students in South Carolina, even if they do not reside in the state year-round.
“Especially being in the red state that South Carolina is, I think it is important to hear the perspective of a democratic candidate,” Troutt explained.
“Some of his policies that will affect those who attend school in South Carolina would be the raising of minimum wage if they work in the state, legalization of marijuana and (abortion rights),” Payne explained.
Sutton added to this by explaining that some of the policies he discussed were not “South Carolina specific.”
“I think a central theme in his cam- paign is his criticism of McMaster as a career politician,” Sutton explained.
Part of this was a quote from the event in which Cunningham stated, “McMaster has been a politician longer than I have been alive.”
Sutton explained that this sentiment applies to numerous politicians in other states and regions as well.
Election Day is Nov. 8, and Payne, Sutton and Troutt encourage everyone to vote, regardless of their political party.
Troutt especially emphasized the importance of sending in an absentee ballot or participating in early voting, since Wofford College is still holding classes this Election Day.
