Huntsman Decides to Run, Students Decide to Support
about the author
Jordan J. Frasier is a staff writer for NextGen Journal. He’s a senior at George Mason University studying political science and journalism. Jordan is a news editor for Connect2mason.com and is a network news intern in Washington D.C. Connect with him on twitter @jordanjfrasier and at jordanjfrasier.com.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman will become the latest Republican to enter the 2012 presidential field when he announces his candidacy today at an event near the Statue of Liberty.
Speculation that Huntsman, 51, would make a bid for the White House has been rampant since he stepped down as President Obama’s ambassador to China at the end of April. Since then, Huntsman has made moves toward a run, including delivering commencement speeches in important campaign battleground states South Carolina and New Hampshire.
Then just last week Huntsman’s team announced that the former governor’s formal campaign announcement would come today, followed by a ten-day, 18-city fundraising tour.
For a base of college students who were passionately urging Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to run for president in 2012, Huntsman has become the next best candidate, after Daniels decided against a run last month.
The Students for Daniels political action committee became the Students for Solvency PAC after Daniels announced he would not run. Now many of the student organizers with Students for Solvency have shifted their support to a Huntsman run, although the PAC itself will not endorse a specific candidate for at least the duration of the summer, according to the group’s Facebook page.
Huntsman’s college student support was on full display at a fundraiser in Washington, D.C. recently where Huntsman’s college-aged daughter introduced her dad to a room of young politicos.
Dan Horning, a junior at George Washington University who headed GWU’s Students for Daniels chapter, was at the fundraiser. He now sees Huntsman as a candidate underestimated by the national media who has similar qualities as Daniels.
“I gave him $50,” Horning said. “I have to like him to some degree.”
Huntsman talks to D.C. students at his recent fundraiser, Photo Courtesy of Sam Dulik
For Horning and other former Daniels supporters, Huntsman is a fresh-faced candidate who can appeal to moderates, even if he might struggle with certain parts of the far-right GOP base.
“For your average household Republican, it won’t be a problem,” Horning said of Huntsman’s seemingly more centrist position.
Huntsman did not participate in the first New Hampshire GOP debate last week that featured all of the major players to enter the race thus far. After watching that debate and meeting Huntsman in person, Horning said he looks forward to seeing the newly minted candidate participate in upcoming debates because he isn’t prone to being what Horning called “a partisan bomb thrower.”
Also making news over the weekend, Huntsman made a strong second place showing in a Republican Leadership Conference presidential straw poll held in New Orleans on Saturday. Ron Paul won the poll with 612 votes, followed by Huntsman with 382 and Michele Bachmann with 191. Politico reports that Huntsman had been scheduled to speak at the conference but backed out, citing a cold. Politico also said a conference rumor pegged the Huntsman campaign for paying supporters to attend the conference where the straw poll was conducted, but the campaign had no comment on what the spokesman called “internal strategy.”
For college students like Horning, much of Huntsman’s appeal comes from a desire to fix the national debt and currency issues faced by the country. And unlike Daniels, Huntsman has the added bonus of his experience as American ambassador to China–a country with ever growing importance to the American economy.
