Threat of rain derails College Democrats’ trip to Charlotte 
Skies were clear in Charlotte, N.C., early Thursday evening, but the threat of rain still forced President Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech to be moved from the open-air, 75,000-seat Bank of America Stadium.
Instead, he spoke in the 15,000-seat Time Warner Cable Arena, leaving room for only delegates in the much smaller venue.
Among the would-be attendees shut out from the convention was a group of more than 50 USC students who had planned on attending the event with the College Democrats.
“We started planning the trip as soon as we got word that the campaign was going to try to get college students tickets,” said Morgan Lowder, a third-year political science student and president of College Democrats at USC.
“We worked hard to get students signed up, and we got over 50.”
When news broke Tuesday that the venue for Obama’s speech would be changed and that only delegates would be allowed in the arena, Lowder and many other USC students who had planned on hearing Obama’s speech were upset.
“I was disappointed, but I’m still fired up,” said Mary-Elizabeth Phillips, a first-year anthropology student who planned on attending the convention.
With such short notice, there was little time to adjust plans.
“It was a surprise,” Lowder said. “At that time, we didn’t know what we were going to do.”
Luckily for the group, the South Carolina Democratic Party invited those with convention credentials from across the state — including USC students — to a watch party at the Columbia Metropolitan Conference Center.
“We won’t let thunderstorms dampen our spirits because we are still fired up and ready to go to reelect President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket,” the SCDP wrote in a release.
Democrats from around the state turned out for the party, including Alex Papadopoulos, the Obama campaign’s state director, and Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin.
The College Democrats planned to be active in the campaign to reelect Obama, starting with a “Day of Action,” registering voters in Fayetteville, N.C., on Sept. 15.
“Instead of just sitting back and talking about Democratic politics — which we’ll still do — I want to get students involved and active in the political process,” Lowder said.