By Maxim Tamarov, news editor

Junior journalism and marketing major Megan Haas was elected to be president of the Massachusetts Alliance of College Republicans (MACR) less than a month ago. Her antithesis, senior political science major Marvin McMoore, was elected in April to be the president of College Democrats of Massachusetts (CDM).

This is the first time both groups are headed by students of Northeastern. Both Haas and McMoore are involved in the university political groups Northeastern University College Republicans (NUCR) and Democrats (NUCD), of which they were presidents, respectively. And they have both emphasized mutual respect and the willingness to work together.

“Because we’re both politically interested, we do have a lot in common with [NUCD] despite our parties,” Haas said. “We had a debate a month ago, and we have another one planned for after the election season.”

And since there are platforms that are common to both parties, the two NU politicos are conscious of the work they can accomplish through unity.

“We’re planning, after the election, to do things we can be bi-partisan on. As far as veteran affairs and community-based things,” McMoore said. “But right now we can’t — right now we have to focus on our elections.

NUCR and NUCD are also uniting to bring speakers to Northeastern. On the state level, there has been little to no interaction between the democratic and republican groups. Haas and McMoore both admit to being too focused on their own campaigns. MACR and CDM are constantly busy with supporting their respective candidates — whether by phone-banking or by door-to-door advocacy.

“This Thursday we’re helping Scott Brown and the other CR’s up [in N.H.] for one of his debates,” Haas said. “We’re going down to Cape Cod next weekend — and all our transportation and food and everything is paid for — to help door knock for candidates down there.”

Just because they are situated in a “blue state,” does not mean the CDM aren’t putting in effort.

“We’re very engaged with the campaigns,” McMoore said. “Back in 2012 we went to New Hampshire and we would knock on doors in New Hampshire … From there we went straight into Senator [Ed] Markie’s campaign … from there we went to the mayoral race and here we are again for the governor’s race.”

McMoore, who co-oped with the Kostas Research Institute for Homeland Security in spring of 2014, said that Northeastern’s co-op program certainly aids the political adeptness of its students. Besides the two presidents, many members of CDM and MACR are Northeastern students. CDM’s Environmental Caucus Chair is third year environmental studies and political science major Austin Williams, LGBT vice-chair is senior psychology major Joshua Trowbridge and senior finance major JT Kelly serves as MACR’s finance chair.

“If you’re in political science, you’re going to co-op in a political environment, so our college dems come back as people who are seasoned in politics,” McMoore said. “We tend to always have the most engaged and politically-active students … we work in our professions [beginning] sophomore year.”

McMoore served as black caucus chair at Democrats of America and hit the ground running when he came to CDM. When he ran for president, the caucus system was his platform — along with making the organization more grassroots and more hands-on. With the help of his vice president, Chelsea Carrier, McMoore was successful in launching five caucuses and increasing the CDM three-fold.

“We decided we would start off with black, hispanic, women, LGBT, and environmental caucuses,” Carrier, a senior at Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, said. “Those are what we thought were the most relevant in Massachusetts. We launched them through a social media campaign … we reached out to student organizations … from there we were able to have a campaign to recruit applicants for the [new] positions.”

Carrier and McMoore also went on to launch a Labor Caucus, on Labor Day, with the intention to address ballot question four: a proposed law that would entitle employees in Massachusetts to earn and use sick time according to certain conditions.

“He definitely keeps me on my toes. He has tons of ideas,” Carrier said of working with McMoore. “It was actually really great to come into this position and have him have so many ideas and be really willing to hear what anyone else had to offer.”

Carrier also noted McMoore’s courage in pushing the CDM members to be activists, not just passive democratic party members.

Haas was originally MACR secretary, but was elected to her position when the former chair, Ted Dooley of Boston College, moved up to the national committee in Washington. Although Haas only recently attained her position, she has been busy helping other college branches find their ground.

“It’s a very open and diverse group,” Haas said. “We accept any opinions. We have Democrats in our club that come just because it is a place to be open-minded.”

In fact, Hillary Clinton once was a member of the MACR executive board, according to its website.

“People hear these things in the news and they’re just like ‘oh you’re a Republican this is what you believe’ or ‘this is how your are’ — and I think it’s really sad because I think if people had a more open mind it would be very different,” Haas said.

She further explained that certain politicians in the media cast a poor light on the conservative viewpoints that MACR and similar groups are advocating.

“I think you can say that about either party,” Haas said. “You always have those nuts that you’re like ‘how were they elected’ or ‘how did they get so far?'”

It is a presumptuous belief that Republicans do not support gay marriage — this is not true of Haas, her candidate Charlie Baker or of many other conservative allies. Haas did point out, however, that she doesn’t necessarily consider the MACR socially liberal.

“Obviously there’s going to be a difference between a Republican here in Massachusetts and a Republican in say Arkansas or Kentucky,” McMoore said. “But I also would argue that there is a difference between a Republican who is 60 and a Republican who is 20.”

MACR finance chair Kelly agrees there are discrepancies between the social issue platforms of Republicans on the east coast and those in the midwest and southern states.

“Rick Perry cannot get elected in a state like Mass… he is typically seen as a strong conservative,” Kelly said. “When you think of a typical Mass. republican you don’t think of Perry.”

McMoore explained that conversely, the Democratic party is united regardless of age or geographical location.

“If you ask a Democrat in Arkansas whether he or she supports marriage equality, they would say ‘yes’ whether they are 60 years old or 20 years old,” he said. “You can’t say the same about [the Republican] party.”

Photo by Maria Amasanti.

Correction: In the original article, published on Oct. 23, The News credited Marvin McMoore and Megan Haas with launching a Labor Caucus. The Caucus was founded by McMoore and Chelsea Carrier.