A Saint Anselm College senior has won the race for Chairman of the New Hampshire Federation of College Republicans, a group that aims to support students with their political needs on college campuses across the state. Joe Alexander, a politics major from Concord, NH, ran for the chairman position after having been chapter president of the Saint Anselm College Republicans for two years, as well as District 1 Vice-Chairman of the New Hampshire College Republicans.

“I’m really grateful to have this opportunity. I’ve noticed before coming chairman that there needs to be a stronger voice for young Republicans on college campuses because there is not enough support for them currently.”

Alexander stated that as chairman his primary focus is to ensure that every chapter in New Hampshire is supported by him, and that in turn they can support the state federation for the upcoming year. When asked about his path to this position, he said that he needed the support from other chapters in New Hampshire, not just his own at Saint Anselm. Through a small-scale campaign, which mostly involved visiting the six other college campuses in the area which have chapters, he was able to win the bid for the ballot and win the overall election this past May.

As chairman, he plans to focus mostly on the millennial demographic in NH, influencing them to become active political members of society. Alexander recalls that the federation has been zoning in on social media this year, and said that this is the best place for the federation to build its platform to attract millennial voters.

“The federation has found that the more positive we are with our social media posts, the more likely we are to get interaction on sites such as Twitter, and it help us reach more millennials.”

As chairman, Alexander says he has become much more aware of how crucial this U.S. presidential election is becoming. Startling statistics, produced by MTV insight and MSNBC show that if no millennials vote in November, Republican nominee Donald Trump will win the election by three points. On the other hand, if all current millennials vote, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will win the election by five points.

When presented with these statistics, Alexander stressed the importance of the college vote during this election. He also reiterated that this is why the Republican organization has built such a strong organization to be instituted on college campuses, because they understand the importance of the college vote more than ever.

Alexander quoted part of the NHCR’s mission statement, which begins by saying “Empower college students across New Hampshire. To create future leaders of the Republican Party.” Alexander knows that at the end of the day, that is his top priority as chairman.

Alexander said that although he is not the first Saint Anselm student to hold this chair position, he hopes that he can leave a lasting impact on the organization while upholding this mission statement.