KU News Release

Graduation stories: KU senior focuses energies on Hawkin’ the student vote

Marc Langston

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas senior Marc Langston thinks young voters should be an active part of the political process, even if it means a few surprises here and there.

For Langston, one such moment came in December while campaigning in the snow for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in the New Hampshire primary and being chased out of a front yard by the homeowner’s pet donkey.

The Wichita senior and honor roll student, who will graduate with bachelor’s degrees in political science and art history, hopes to attend law school and prepare for a public service career.

“Marc has been one of the most politically engaged students I have met on campus,” said Keith Yehle, director of federal relations at KU. “Very active in the Dole Institute and taking part in the opportunities to expand his education by experience. I enjoy his enthusiasm for politics. It’s fun talking with him about what is going on in Washington and how he is a part of it here in Lawrence.”

His parents, David and Karen Langston, both attorneys, are KU and Washburn Law School graduates who met in court representing different clients. Although he’d never been to Lawrence before enrolling at KU, Marc Langston arrived with a scholarship from being one of two Kansans selected for the U.S. Senate Youth Program in Washington, D.C.

“Probably that was the most influential event in terms of making me dedicated to public service,” Langston said. “It was impressed on us that we were guardians of the future of the country. We heard policy addresses from the President, Supreme Court justices, legislators and all branches of government in Washington.”

At KU, he became a student senator, joined Young Democrats and served two years as its president as well as being president of College Democrats of Kansas. Prior to becoming a Dole Institute of Politics student intern this year, he participated in a study group with Steven Jacques, former Dole Fellow and former associate interim director of the Dole Institute.

Before coming to KU, Langston helped manage his two campaigns for his mother when she ran as a moderate Republican for a Sedgwick County judgeship. She won one and lost the other. Seeing both sides of campaign success over the years has made Langston determined to learn as much as he could about how to engage voters, particularly through innovative ideas, personal networks, internship training and national seminars or conferences.

Even in high school, he said he was more driven not by personality but by issues and a candidate’s electability, something he particularly thinks young voters need to consider.

“Hundreds in their first political experience get engaged in a campaign doomed to fail,” Langston said. “It may sour them on politics for the rest of their lives. They may never vote again or at least not vote for a long time. I get disappointed in candidates who give students false hopes that they alone can swing an election.”

Based on what he learned at a civic engagement conference at Harvard, Langston said, “Young people are voting more and donating more to campaigns — 16 percent contributed to 2004 campaigns. It was empowering to hear. Candidates court us. If we’re showing up, it’s time we took our rightful place at the table. I took the lesson to heart and have never forgotten it. I came home and started calling legislators.”

Langston thinks students should seek opportunities to get to know candidates, legislators and other elected officials. With help from Jacques, now senior advance lead for the Obama presidential campaign, Langston quickly organized last August a KU Facebook group he named Barack Chalk Jayhawks and arranged for these students to meet Obama at a Kansas City, Mo., rally. They got Obama’s attention.

Several years ago through KU Young Democrats, Langston met U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., who grew up next door to Langston’s father. Moore promised to come to Langston’s Delta Chi fraternity house to give a talk before he graduated from KU. This April, Moore not only talked to the group but provided impromptu guitar accompaniment for a “This Land is Your Land” sing-along.

“I can’t imagine going any where else besides KU,” Langston said. “Opportunities I have had here, mostly due to the Dole Institute, make students I meet from Yale and Georgetown jealous.”

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The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.