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Democrats Rally In State College For Tuesday's Election

photo: Kristine Allen, WPSU

The Centre County Democrats held a get-out-the-vote rally Saturday at their headquarters in downtown State College.  And they brought out some star power.

Three Democratic judicial candidates spoke at the rally, including Judge Dwayne Woodruff, a former Pittsburgh Steeler, who is running for a seat on the state Supreme Court.

The featured speaker was Michael Blake, one of several vice chairs of the Democratic National Committee. Blake was director of African American outreach for Barack Obama’s campaign. He’s a New York State Lawmaker, who also has experience as a preacher.  And he used his preacher's cadence to fire-up the crowd.

"Democrats are fighting for all of our people," Blake said, "One hundred percent of communities.  Not just the top one percent.  We stand up for women all of the time.  We won’t be silent when you have sexism & mysogony trying to destroy our country."

Blake addressed a crowd of about 60, who skipped a televised Penn Sate football game to gather at Democratic Headquarters downtown.  And several of them were college age.  Blake addressed them specifically.

"2018 will be the first year on record that millenials will be the largest voting block in this country," Blake told them. "So you have an opportunity to change the course of history for the next 40 plus years."

One of those young Democrats was Jacob Ryan, a senoir at Penn State. 

Credit photo: Kristine Allen, WPSU
Jacob Ryan (left) and Allison Ameola, two Penn State seniors. at the rally.

“Last year’s election wasn’t what I wanted," Ryan said. "And so I want to make sure I can do what I can to help out and make sure this election goes a bit better.”

"I think it’s really important to be involved in local politics," said Allison Ameola, another PSU senoir. "I think it’s really really important to pay attention to all levels.”

Democrats hope their voters will get that message and head to the polls on Tuesday.

Kristine Allen is Program Director of WPSU-FM. She also files feature stories for WPSU on the arts, culture, science, and more. When she's not at WPSU, Kris enjoys playing folk fiddle, acting, singing and portrait-sketching. She is also a self-confessed "science geek." Kris started working in public radio in college, at age 17, and says she "just couldn't stop."