Last Updated:5:53 PM EST 12/2/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Boris Sapozhnikov Senior Jordan McNamara travelled to Ohio for six days to help the Obama campaign.

While the rest of us were parading around in our Halloween costumes and stuffing our faces full of candy, senior Jordan McNamara was helping set Barack Obama on the road to victory.

From Oct. 31 to Nov. 5, McNamara was in Ohio campaigning for the now president-elect. He and other volunteers did canvassing, which involved knocking on doors, handing out literature and talking to people in order to drum up support for Obama.

Armed with an extensive list of names and addresses, McNamara would head out for what might be a 20-hour day of electioneering. For each person on the list, he would fill out various pieces of information, such as whether or not they were registered to vote.

That information would be entered into the computer later that evening, and a new list of names would be generated for the next day.

"That took up most of the night," McNamara said.

McNamara said he became enthusiastic about Obama after hearing a speech he gave during the South Carolina primaries.

One message in Obama's speech that he found particularly inspiring was that whether we are black or white, we are all Americans. McNamara felt this message was "important at this time in our history."

This fall was not the first time McNamara campaigned for Obama. After some spring break plans fell through, he spent part of February and March in Ohio campaigning during the primaries. He decided to make the six-hour trip again in October.

McNamara's experience with politics goes back even farther than this year's presidential election. In November of 2007, his father, Scott McNamara, ran for Oneida County District Attorney. McNamara said that he and his family spent most of 2007 campaigning, and while it was "not as intense as Ohio", it still took a toll on the family.

He said that in politics, "there are things you see that make you cynical about the process," such as backstabbing. He also said that his dad was away all the time and that family dinners were rare.

"I really didn't like that side of politics," McNamara said.

After his father's election, McNamara promised himself that he would never again be involved in politics; but that promise was short-lived.

He said that his "dad's election scared [him] away from politics" for a little while, but he "jumped back in" for Obama.

A dual History and Political Science major, McNamara plans to go to law school in the fall and graduate in the spring of 2012. He then hopes to land a job with Obama's re-election campaign.

When asked to sum up his experience campaigning for Obama in one word, McNamara at first joked, "exhausting," but after some thought concluded, "worthwhile."
Worthwhile it was indeed.

Ohio was a critical state for both candidates, because no Republican had ever won a general election without winning Ohio. Obama ended up winning both Ohio and the presidency, and he has volunteers like McNamara to thank for his success.

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