Penn’s two largest student partisan political organizations, Penn Democrats and Penn College Republicans, have both reported noticeable increases in membership and participation in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, in which Pennsylvania is a critical battleground state.
Penn Dems
Penn Dems records participation in general body meetings. In fall 2023, the club told The Daily Pennsylvanian it had an average of about 25 attendees per meeting — this semester, it reported tripling its attendance to 75 people.
College junior and Penn Dems President Ellie Goluboff-Schragger noted exceptional participation from first years.
“I think we’ve seen not just increased attendance at events, but increased commitment from, especially, the freshmen this year who seem really, really excited,” Goluboff-Schragger told the DP.
Earlier this semester, Goluboff-Schragger said the club's focus would be to increase recruitment, as membership numbers typically decline in non-election years. Since then, the group has organized more events to cater to the new students.
”To accommodate [the increase in turnout], we want to provide people with different forums, different mediums to then act upon their interest in a meaningful way,” College junior and Penn Dems Political Director Lucas Eisen said.
"We probably wouldn't be having this many events if there wasn't the attendance to go with it," Goluboff-Schragger added.
The group has hosted several speaker events in the past semester, including with Pennsylvania attorney general candidate Eugene DePasquale and United States Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), 1984 University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School graduate Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), and sole grandson of former President John F. Kennedy and Vogue political correspondent Jack Schlossberg.
Penn Dems has seen an increase in activity in previous election cycles. In 2022, it registered 615 Penn community members to vote through tabling events, which placed it as the top college Democrats organization to register students to vote in Pennsylvania.
College Republicans
While the College Republicans were unable to provide exact figures, its executive board has noticed a “massive increase in applications and engagement.”
”[W]e’re adding anywhere between as low as two, but up to 10 or more members each week, ever since the start of the school year,” a College Republicans spokesperson told the DP.
They specifically noted the participation of attendees, especially moderates, to learn and converse. The club’s goal is to give members unbiased perspectives and access to information.
”[A] lot of people who are a little bit more moderate … really are just trying to engage with people on both sides of the spectrum,” the spokesperson said. “We’re also always happy to refer them to someone that we know in Penn Democrats so they can learn about the opposite viewpoint.”
The group also noted an increase in events and event participation, mentioning collaborations with different Penn organizations to bring people to Penn — such as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and U.S. Senate candidate for Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick.
According to Penn Leads the Vote, Penn’s voting rate has trended about 10% above the national average since the 2018 midterm elections, but with a clear jump in on-campus voting rates in presidential election years. In 2020, 76.7% of students voted on campus, but that rate dropped down to 43.1% in 2022.
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