The Daily Gamecock

Moore hopes everyman appeal will win top spot in SG

‘Here to represent the students’

 

Two garnet otters perch on either side of his name and “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd roars on, a testament to the star-spangled American South.

He catches and cradles a football on the Horseshoe — his shaggy golden locks peeking out from a backward trucker cap — and cuts to the Williams-Brice Stadium stands. He could be celebrating a Gamecock touchdown or mourning a fumble.

Regardless, the passion is there.

Josh “Otter” Moore’s campaign video, released Saturday, is an all-telling, two-minute tale of Moore: who he is and what has sparked his political passions.

It closes with the lasting image of the furry aquatic mammals that act as a moniker for the presidential hopeful.

Four years ago, at First Night Carolina, Moore wore a T-shirt that read “Otter.” He was a freshman, and no one knew his name. “Otter” stuck.

Now, the fourth-year junior is pushing to get that nickname on the official presidential ballot. It’s how people know him.

Wearing a zip-up camouflage jacket and a camo “Cocks” hat Sunday, Moore said he’s running for student rights. He is the good old boy who surfs and hunts and slips a curse word into every few sentences.

“I’m sorry. I have a problem with my censor,” the history student said, halfway through an interview.

Moore is from Tampa, Fla. He grew up between Florida’s Cocoa Beach, Pawleys Island and his family’s farm in Evington, Va. The farm is 1,000 acres, 500 to his direct bloodline. It used to pen ponies, but the ponies had to go when they started biting the cows, Moore said.

When he was 3 years old, the born-and-bred Floridian started to stand up on his boogie board. It didn’t go so well. His mom bought him a surf board, and he started from there. It went better.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging or anything, but I’ve been pretty much the face of surf club for the past three years,” Moore said in a Daily Gamecock endorsement meeting.

The university’s surf club — which Moore said has been around since the ’50s — has gone through a few riffs over the decades, Moore said. In the ’90s, there was a divide between those looking to sport surf and those wanting to soul surf.

Moore is a soul surfer.

He will go to Cocoa Beach and surf all day, only getting out to apply sunscreen every five hours, he noted. It helps him clear his head.

If elected president, Moore would tweak the allocations process for student organization funding. For organizations like the surf club, the current process doesn’t allow for more spontaneous planning throughout the semester.

“It’s extremely hard to plan around hurricanes,” Moore said.

But campus safety is the defining part of Moore’s platform. 

His dad worked as a deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, and after two of his fellow officers were shot and killed on a weekend job, a 6-year-old Moore asked his dad not to go back to work Monday.

A week later, his dad left the department and became a teacher.

It’s a memory that sparked Moore’s emphasis on safety. College is about having a good time, he said, and Moore wants to make sure safety concerns don’t hinder any student’s experience.

He said he appreciates the “nostalgic darkness of the Horseshoe,” but wants to add bigger, brighter lights and call boxes to the heart of campus, as well as fish-eye mirrors in the parking garages.

Moore wants to hear the student voice — he wants to be the student voice. He is opposed to the university’s smoking ban and wants more students polled to more accurately gauge opinion.

“I’m not a part of Student Government, which I think is actually a plus,” Moore said. “I’m here to represent the students.”

Comments