University students are feeling the BERN: Grassroots engagement in the 2020 Sanders campaign (Tori Ford)

With a platform that champions the elimination of student debt, Bernie Sanders is no doubt the unofficial candidate for the average college student. Not only is Bernie the most popular choice among Democratic college students, but they are also his campaign’s primary mobilizers.

            Among the first questions on a volunteer sign-up form for the campaign site is “Are you a student?,” and a page dedicated to volunteer engagement has an option specifically for campus mobilizing. When you look at the page dedicated to Bernie’s political stances, one of the top platforms is “College for All.” For such a candidate who could become the oldest President ever elected to a first term, Bernie has no trouble appealing to a young crowd.

            Bernie’s campaign is ever-proud of its 100% “grassroots” fundraising and engagement, and from the look of the campaign website, this pride is well-founded. Though his claim of a 100% grassroots-funded campaign may be misleading, Bernie employs more grassroots engagement methods than other candidates. The campaign’s options for volunteering are almost all interpersonal, even down to the framing of these options.

            Instead of saying “download our official campaign app,” the campaign site says to “Organize your friends: Persuade your friends, family, and neighbors to join our movement using the official Bernie 2020 app.” Other opportunities for engagement are making phone calls—which the campaign calls “phonebanks”—and hosting campaign events, knocking on doors, sending texts, and campus mobilizing.

            What’s unique about Bernie’s campaign is its combination of reaching young voters and promoting traditional forms of volunteer engagement. Canvassing, making phone calls, organizing events, participating in protests, joining local associations, and word-of-mouth lobbying are all pretty traditional forms of advocacy for such a young target audience. On the page for volunteer engagement, there’s no mention of Instagram, Twitter, or other mediums college students are most likely to use. Social media and predominately digital tactics do not seem to be the priority for Bernie’s campaign, but rather creating strong ties which not only mobilize students, but also create long-term loyalty.

            There are a couple of theories that could explain this unorthodox use of traditional engagement to mobilize college students. Since I am only looking at the campaign website, it’s possible there are other platforms using digital engagement, like social media. An Instagram feed, which offers limited but more widespread ways to engage—such as resharing a campaign post—may be used to direct students to the campaign website, where stronger ties can then be established. If someone is going straight to the campaign website, it’s likely that they’re looking actively for those ways to engage with the campaign, more than a student idly scrolling through Instagram.

            Alternatively, this use of traditional engagement could be interpreted as a weakness in Bernie’s campaign website. Is he missing out by not pushing more digital engagement to his student supporters?

            In either case, Bernie’s frame of grassroots mobilization has the goal of making people feel valued and engaged. The campaign slogan, “Not me. Us.” projects an image of collaboration with the “common man.” The language of “we”, along with encouraging potential volunteers to join with “thousands” of Bernie supporters, motivates people to join a large community that needs you.

Based on the following of supporter-led websites such as Feel the Bern and Bernie Sanders Grassroots Family, it’s clear these communities are following that same grassroots mission with success. While these traditional forms of engagement don’t guarantee room for creativity, Bernie’s nurturing of grassroots groups helps local teams utilize resources in creative ways. Grassroots group websites post their own local updates and are credible, well-attended, and accessible in ways that an official campaign site can’t always assure.

While “grassroots” approaches are somewhat of a “gold standard” and difficult to actually accomplish, Bernie’s campaign gets closer than most. His campaign’s website pushes traditional engagement and tries to help foster communities of voters—especially students—around a shared cause. His campaign website shows us that while grassroots tactics are almost impossible to adhere to perfectly, they can still be used well to get honest support.