Editor’s Note: This post is one of two featuring the Penn State College Democrats and College Republicans. You can read our conversation with the President of the Penn State College Democrats, Baybars Charkas, here.

Election Day is almost here, folks.

With Tuesday, November 5, drawing closer, it’s important to know what students around Penn State are doing to prepare for the 2024 election. We sat down with Ryan Klein, a fourth-year student studying political science and history in the Schreyer Honors College and president of the Penn State College Republicans, to learn more about what the club has been doing during election season.

Onward State: For the folks who don’t know, what are the Penn State College Republicans?

Ryan Klein: It’s an undergraduate student group here on campus, and we’re the official student arm of the Republican Party here. Yeah. So we bring candidates to campus, we host political events, we do debates like we did last night. We talk in front of all forms of press about our party, our vision, and what we’re doing here on campus. So we’ve become a leader, not just on Penn State’s campus to promote our values, but across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We do events all over the place. I’ve mentioned before about a Pittsburgh deployment, we’re knocking doors in Pittsburgh this weekend, or at least, we set up a whole event. So we have over 80 kids coming from across the country, four different states, to knock doors for President Trump, Dave McCormick, and a local congressional candidate. So it’s really cool to see that we’re not only just here on campus, spreading our values, but we’re going across the Commonwealth and flipping voters and changing people’s minds.

OS: How do the College Republicans get involved and interact with students on campus?

RK: I think it’s gone really well. Our focus when we’re bringing specific candidates and speakers here is that we’re not trying to bring somebody who’s just going to inflame the audience and throw bombs. We brought Dave McCormick to a tailgate, for example, and we’re doing it again for Ohio State. We brought most local people who are running on the ballot. So our congressman Glenn Thompson, our State Auditor General Tim DeFoor, and our local Representative candidates in an effort to educate voters and give our members, and anybody who wants to be involved, the opportunity to hear directly from their candidates. And I think that that’s a really strong point of what we’ve done. And now with President Trump coming, I mean, we’ve definitely played a small role in facilitating that. We’ve connected the university and the campaign. This is something that we’re proud to have done. I’m not saying we’re the cause of this by any means. We’re certainly not. But we’ve been able to play a role. We’ve been able to say, ‘Hey, we want to see this.’ And it’s great to see that it’s happening. And you know, even just to be there as our organization is a huge accomplishment.

OS: What’s the most important role, generally and right now, of the College Republicans?

RK: To educate voters. Oftentimes, there’s a focus to really only talk about Democrats on certain college campuses, not this one, but I think our job is to inform people that, hey, we do have a presence on this campus. We do have candidates who want to represent you and your issues. And so how can we best do that? And so bringing these candidates here to engage with our student body is super important. Glad we’ve been able to do that, but also with the debate that I did last night, it was a really good opportunity to educate our students on, what’s somebody their age, who believes in the Republican Party and our values. What am I saying? What are our organizations saying? And it was a really good opportunity.

OS: Is the group doing any work to increase voter turnout?

RK: Just spreading information. I think that’s a big thing, but I think that ultimately, a lot of these campaigns are helping us do that work. Dave McCormick showing up for a tailgate. Donald Trump now and his campaign, realizing that they need to win Centre County and holding a rally here. Whether we’ve had any direct influence on that or not, it’s good to see that they’re coming and investing their time, their money, and their personal resources into getting the student body to vote for them. And so we’re working with those campaigns, and it’s great to see that through whatever partnership and whatever degree that is, they’ve invested in this community.

OS: What are some of the goals you have as an organization here at Penn State?

RK: I think we want to increase voter turnout, for sure. And we’re going to be tabling on Election Day with our candidates to drum up support. So that’s going to be one key pike of that. But also just growing our membership. We want to see that we have more members, more people who are willing to identify as a Republican. We’re really working on that, and we’ve seen great gains in that.

OS: How do the College Republicans interact with candidates during election season?

RK: We’re knocking doors first and foremost. I mean, both in Centre County, and, as I mentioned, in Pittsburgh. We were in Scranton last weekend to knock doors for that congressional campaign up there as well. So, I mean, we’re taking to all over the state to get people to flip to the Republican Party, learn about what we’re doing. The tabling is also part of that. We’re spreading our values there too. But also facilitating with these campaigns coming onto campus. So it’s like when you’re reserving an event, we have to look at the space for that. We then need to advertise that through our PR and so it’s super important that we’re doing that and making sure that students are aware of what we’re doing. And I understand that every single thing that we post is not going to reach every single student. That’s an unreasonable expectation. But for people who want to stay informed and who follow us on social media, who are in our group and in our announcements chats to see what we’re doing, we’re making sure that they have every opportunity to meet these folks.

OS: What case do you make for Donald Trump in this campaign when people ask?

RK: Right now, the biggest issue that I’ve really tried to talk to people about is the economy. We are going to be moving out of college, whether it’s in a year from now or a couple of years from now, depending on your age. The economy is not good. Rent is up 22%. Gasoline is up 51%. Those are numbers that should scare every person who’s about to go and move on into the real world. When you have jobs being outsourced and shipped overseas instead of here in America, that’s a problem. And I think Donald Trump had a stronger economic record. And so I think that that’s a really strong quote for us.

OS: How can students at Penn State get involved with the College Republicans?

RK: They can follow us on social media and see what we’re doing. All of our meetings are open to anybody, so anybody who wants to come by, who wants to engage with what we’re doing, they can come to our meetings, they can come to any of our events, and they can take part.

OS: What’s your relationship like with College Democrats through all this?

RK: That’s been great. We don’t see eye to eye on pretty much every policy position, but that’s what you would expect. Yeah, before I was president, before Baybars [Charkas] was president, which we came in at the same time, the relationship between our organizations was pretty bad. There was a lot of demonizing on social media. There was a lot of name-calling. There were a lot of personal, political attacks where now, Baybars and I have led by example. We’re friends, and we’ve showed that last night on the debate stage. We can disagree on everything, but we can still joke with each other. I mean, beforehand, he and I were saying we should be stand-up comedians rather than political figures because we had people in the audience laughing at things we were saying. Because we’re friends, we want to really tone down the rhetoric of it and just be normal college kids with a normal set of values.

OS: As per Onward State tradition, if you could be any dinosaur, which would you be and why?

RK: A T-Rex because they’re badass.