Although they tend to have low student turnout, there are several student organizations on the Salisbury University campus that focus on political matters. The College Republicans club was led by recent graduate Patrick Kerr, who is now going on to pursue a career in teaching and delve into a fresh leadership role as the President of the Wicomico County Republican Club.

“I do look forward to graduating and starting the next chapter of my life because, as fun as school has been, I’ve always kind of looked forward to this moment of being able to have a full-time career and go on into the next thing,” Kerr said in late May, reflecting the feelings of many graduating students.

His experience in student politics at SU extends three years. At a local Wicomico County political event in 2021, Kerr met one of the only other young guests in attendance, who happened to be a fellow SU student and then-president of the College Republicans. Kerr began attending meetings and stepped into the role of president the following year.

“Really, our main thing is just holding regular meetings where we talk about politics. I’m really big into analytics,” he said. “Because I love talking about poll numbers: what they mean, who they polled, how they polled them, and how that relates to the bigger picture.”

Kerr’s primary reason for becoming involved in student politics at SU stems from a long-held desire to make a positive impact in the community.

“Politics for me is about being active in the community and wanting what’s best for the community, and on a national level, I haven’t always agreed with the Republican Party,” he said. “On a national level, I find a lot of the infighting to be destructive.”

Kerr’s interests are rooted in the smaller components of government, the functions of local politics as opposed to the political theatrics that occur on the national stage.

“I’m a big believer in small government and I’m a big believer in, I would say, Christian morals more so than anything,” he said. “I [also] believe that people have a right to do what they choose and [to] personal freedom.”

Throughout the states and particularly at the national level, people with more moderate conservative leanings are being increasingly outpaced and outspoken by those on the hard right. Kerr has noticed that some Republicans are wary of him due to his comparative moderation.

“It’s the people [who] want you to be just a carbon copy of themselves, when in reality, there’s no one vision of a Republican Party,” he said. “There’s just the loudest vision, and that’s the Trumpian Republican. However, there [are] still small government conservatives like myself who exist.”

“There’s still people who want to lower your taxes, who simply just want to shrink the government and get it out of the way, and not have it in everybody’s everyday life.”

Kerr has hosted several events for the College Republicans featuring speakers, such as Delegate Carl Anderson and other politicians. However, overall involvement in the club and its capacity to organize activities was greater prior to the COVID pandemic, which caused the memberships of the College Republicans, College Democrats, along with several other organizations to plummet.

In the SU community, there also exists a notable lack of Republican or right-leaning students who choose to express their views, organize demonstrations, or use student media as an outlet to share opinions, which progressive students have proven both willing and capable of doing.

Salisbury University lies in the heartland of the Eastern Shore, which is a considerably red region, and contains the largest right-leaning population of any other institution in the state of Maryland. Why, then, are conservatives so silent?

Kerr believes the discrepancy is caused by an underlying fear of being mischaracterized.

“I think people a lot of the times are afraid of their words being spun around. I think people are afraid of being assumed they’re something they’re not when they’re simply trying to advocate for an issue,” he said.  “I would say that a lot of people on the right would rather vote for something than advocate for it.”

“They may want to kind of go about their business and vote, and I think that might also be an outgrowth of feeling like they don’t have [mainstream] support or that their words are going to be twisted.”

With the conclusion of his tenure in the smaller world of Salisbury University, Kerr is now diving into the larger pond of local politics in Wicomico. Only a few months ago, he was elected to be the President of the Wicomico County Republican Club, which thus far has been a valuable learning experience for the young man.

 “It’s a unique endeavor; I’m grateful for the opportunity because it’s a challenge, and I really like challenges,” he said. “I feel like if I’m not challenging myself, I’m not growing.”

As a relative newcomer to a group made up mostly of old-timers, Kerr owes this latest leadership endeavor both the connections he has built over the past few years and the many hours of volunteer work he has poured into the community.

“I like to think that the reason people nominated me [for president] more so than me running for a nomination was that they saw the hard work that I was willing to put in, the way I was willing to volunteer and help out in every way I could,” he said.

He intends to improve the club’s social media presence and recruit younger members to stimulate further growth. Kerr will be balancing his ambitious goals for the Wicomico County Republican Club with his entry into the field of secondary education, which will give him the opportunity to stimulate young minds in a neutral, apolitical environment.

“I know my future is probably in education and not in politics,” he said. “That’s if I had to guess. But I could look back at this interview thirty years from now [laughing] and, you know, be in a political position.”

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By COLIN McEVERS

Featured image courtesy of Colin McEvers

Contributor: Phil Nguyen