From the president
Dimitri Chernozhukov is a junior at Lafayette College majoring in Government & Law and Economics with a minor in Data Science. Dimitri is passionate about inspiring his peers to mobilize for causes they believe in by canvassing, registering voters, and volunteering for political campaigns. He is Student Director of Lafayette Votes!, Vice-President of Bi-Partisan Coalition, and President of College Republicans. Dimitri has also been involved in research on peer mobilization through the Peer2Power Project, where he organized a competition tracking students’ ability to encourage political campaign volunteering in midterm elections.
Personal Statement
The start of my serious political involvement at Lafayette occurred when I assumed the Presidency of the Lafayette College Republicans as we were moving into the 2022 midterm elections. As President, I rebuilt a robust relationship with the College Democrats in joint watch parties of the State of the Union Address and Midterm Elections. But while important, these partisan political clubs serve only a tiny slice of the greater campus community. The greater foundation for political engagement is being informed and able to vote. This year, I am one of two Student Directors of Lafayette Votes, the non-partisan voter registration and education organization on Lafayette’s campus. Lafayette Votes registered over 200 students to vote in the fall of 2023 alone. We organize faculty panels and watch parties to help inform students of the issues. However, the national turnout among college students was only 66% (Tufts NSLVE) in 2020. At Lafayette, we had an 82.9% turnout due to the prior work of Lafayette Votes. As we hurtle toward the 2024 election, my foremost goal remains to empower fellow students to exercise the most fundamental right of our democratic republic.