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Democratic Party leader encourages SU students to register to vote

College students should become more active in the political arena and get aggressive about registering to vote, State Sen. Karen Carter-Peterson told students at Southern University on Monday.

 

The chairwoman of the Louisiana Democratic Party told about 200 students and faculty that they should not “become complacent and comfortable,” encouraging them to vote in the Nov. 6 local and national elections.

 

The Democratic Party leader urged the audience gathered in the lobby of Higgins Hall to support President Barack Obama, suggesting that in a second term, the president would push “an even bolder agenda” than he did during his first term.

 

Carter-Peterson’s presentation was part of the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs “Activism Through Education” lecture series. Carter-Peterson, 42, is the first woman and the second African-American to lead the state party. She represents the New Orleans’ 5th District in the Louisiana Senate.

 

Carter-Peterson said that, while the state will probably be carried by the Republican Party in the November elections, she and the Democratic Party plan to shift the political tide in a couple years. “We will have a whole state of candidates” in time for the next gubernatorial race, she said.

 

Her biggest challenge to the heavily student audience was that they do all they can to register and get friends to register to vote in the Nov. 6 election. She suggested they make a big voter education-registration push as early as this weekend.

 

Carter-Peterson is a 1991 graduate of Howard University’s School of Business, where she received a degree in International Business and Marketing. She is also a graduate of the Tulane University Law School.