The members of the EIU College Democrats said people should expect more involvement with local township elections, election of local officials in April and the upcoming school board election.

President Frida Arellano said the members are going to work at pushing more bills through the local government, and they are reaching out to statewide democrats.

“We are also going to start focusing on pushing bills that are going to be pushed forward, and trying to be lobbyists overall,” Arellano said. “We’re trying to either promote a bill that most favors the community, or going against bills. We’re going to be focused on that something that affects us more locally.”

Arellano also said the members have reached out to democrats at University Of Illinois.

Both of them are making plans to do charity events with the UICC Global Cancer Control, sponsored by them and the Illini Democrats. Several members said the country is divided drastically.

Arellano said this is because of the results from the presidential election’s popular polls, and how Americans are lying about their votes. Not only did the members say the country is divided, but also the Democratic Party is divided.

Treasurer Samuel Reiss said the former Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton’s politics are outdated. As a result of this, the members have different views on who should run for the Democratic Presidential Nominee in the 2020 election.

Christopher Pickard, the vice president of the organization, said First Lady Michelle Obama should run in the 2020 election.

However, Arellano said she wants Vice President Joe Biden to run for the presidency. Reiss said the newly elected senator from California, Kamala Harris, is a charismatic leader that would be a great candidate for the Democratic Party.

According to the members, the future 2020 democratic nominee needs support from Sen. Bernie Sanders in order to win because of his results from the polls.

“General millennials voted for Bernie Sanders a lot; he wiped the board with millennials,” Reiss said.

The millennial Reiss is referring to is Generation Y, which are those born from early 1980s to mid-1990s and early 2000s. In the 2016 presidential election, Sanders was the most popular candidate among millennials.

In the primary phase, Sanders had more votes from Generation Y millennials than Trump and Clinton combined. Reiss and Pickard agree that Sanders’s endorsement is needed to win the 2020 election.

Reiss said he thinks Sander’s endorsement is going to be very climatic, and the candidates of 2020 will be begging him for an endorsement.

“We can control this next election better. More so than we did this one, and Bernie is the poster child for millennials. So if that candidate wants a block of votes, then they’re going to need to be on Bernie’s nice side,” Pickard said.

Jordan Boyer can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].