BYU professor seeks to improve local political outreach

Looking to reform local political efforts in Utah County, Darin Self has a community-based approach to getting people involved in politics.

Self is the chair of the Utah County Democrats, as well as a political science professor at Brigham Young University and faculty advisor for the BYU College Democrats.

As chair, he has a vision for reforming his party that includes getting out there and connecting with people.

Self shared his opinion on the state of party politics in the United States, explaining what problems currently exist.

I think a critical weakness in parties in the United States is their lack of local engagement and local presence. You see them doing ad wars and spewing vitriol at each other at the national level, and then that trickles down. I think a lot of that is due to the fact that they don't engage with their communities, he said.

Self explained that Americans have less trust in parties than ever, and that trust should be regained through intentional community outreach efforts.

I want to help reimagine what parties can and should be in democracy, and really focus on building relationships with people at the local level, Self said.

Part of his goal for the Utah County Democratic Party is to expand these relationships through service and interfaith efforts at the party level.

As faculty advisor for the BYU College Democrats, he believes in students ability to reach out and be a real part of politics, something he is pushing for as part of his plan to improve local outreach.

One thing that I want to do is create an interfaith interview group within the party itself. This was something that I was trying to do, but with the demands of recruiting candidates and organizing caucuses, it's been really challenging I think students, especially in Utah County, are interested in this kind of thing, he said.

Some BYU students feel that, though politics are important, political groups arent doing enough to put themselves out there in front of students.

Alec Harlow, a BYU student studying psychology, agreed with Selfs assertion that local outreach is lacking.

I don't feel like I have any connection to or have heard any outreach from political parties locally I have no idea what they're doing, no idea where their headquarters are. That's why they need better outreach, Harlow said.

To improve this outreach, Selfs plan takes a holistic, interpersonal stance.

I think parties should be way more than just putting up candidates and trying to win elections. I think political parties should be doing service activities, hosting and working with Union events, he said.

Madeleine Christensen is a psychology student minoring in civic engagement at BYU. Through her minor, she said she hears about some events, but also agrees with Harlow that more outreach to students is crucial.

I think that something that's super unexplored (is that) students don't really know that they can vote in Provo but they should have a voice, she said.

Though there is still much to be done, Self said that strides have already been made by the Utah County Democrats to reform and improve party outreach.

In previous years, they've only held one caucus location in the county. We were able to build that to eight We were (also) able to recruit candidates for most offices in the county, which hasn't been done for a long time, he said.