NJHSD: Blue and Better Than Ever
by Ritwik Tati, features editor
The New Jersey High School Democrats have a long history with HSDA. From HSDA’s inception, NJHSD has been a prominent force in youth politics. In addition, a large majority of NJHSD chairs are ranked in InsiderNJ’s 100 Millenials as the youngest members of the list. Three former NJHSD chairs have served as national chairs, and members of NJHSD have gone above and beyond in their communities following high school involvement.
However, NJHSD has hit some bumps in the road over the past few years. The state staff hadn’t necessarily kept in close contact, resulting in high inactivity for local chapters. However, with new NJHSD chair and national outreach director Alex Moskovitz, the new staff vows to change that.
“We currently have 26 active chapters,” Moskovitz mused, who is listed on this year’s 100 Millenials by InsiderNJ. To accommodate that large quantity of chapters, the executive board has created three new positions on the state staff: the regional coordinators for North, Central, and South Jersey. Each coordinator is required to have frequent “chapter support calls” with the chapters in their area to increase activity and unity across the state.
To increase communication, Moskovitz and Laurence Fine, vice-chair of NJHSD, implemented a GroupMe chat for local chapter leaders so they could converse with the state staff and with other local politically active youth. This was done in an attempt to make up for the lack of communication and lengthy response time that past NJHSD administrations had seen.
NJHSD has a significant amount planned for this year. “We have some short-term goals and long-term goals,” Moskovitz stated. “We would really like to work with the Young Dems to organize our statewide summit, Preparing to Lead.”
To NJHSD, working with other political groups serves as a useful way to establish NJHSD as an influential organization. For example, they plan to work with the Teenage Republicans for a joint event in the future. “It’s important to note that Republicans might have opinions that are ‘wrong’, but it is important to acknowledge their views and strive for bipartisanship,” Moskovitz remarked. Laughing, he says, “Republicans aren’t evil.”
NJHSD proved their dominance in youth politics with their canvassing and voter registration drives for the November 2019 election, turning towns, districts, and counties blue for the first time in decades. NJHSD members from across the state knocked on thousands of doors, made thousands of phone calls, and distributed thousands of campaign literature, creating waves in NJ politics. Vice chair Fine also notably led a days-long paid canvassing endeavor for the election.
NJ is commonly misconceived as a reliably blue state, but that is certainly not true. “We have red, blue, and purple areas, and they aren’t concentrated either, they’re usually mixed throughout the state. The purple areas flip very frequently, meaning that we as Democrats have many opportunities to make a push and claim those areas,” Moskovitz remarked. New Jersey has a certain “sway” nature to it that makes youth involvement in politics that much more important. The state isn’t reliably Democrat and for that reason, New Jersey youth have an obligation to strengthen blue areas.
Currently, NJHSD has the third-highest quantity of local chapters out of other state chapters, at 26. It has had multiple national HSDA chairs and a long history with HSDA as an organization. With its strong base as a state organization, NJHSD is ready to ride out the blue wave into the 2020 elections.
Here are the NJHSD state staff as well as their contact info. Be on the lookout for these future political leaders:
Chair — Alex Moskovitz (amoskovitz@hsdems.org)
Vice Chair — Laurence Fine (lfine@hsdems.org)
Membership Director — Maya Karkhanis (mkarkhanis@hsdems.org)
Communications Director — Aaron Friedman (afriedman@hsdems.org)
Political Director — Lexi Abrams (labrams@hsdems.org)
Finance Director — Alison Araten (aaraten@hsdems.org)
Regional Coordinator: North — Patrick De Meulder (pdemeulder@hsdems.org)
Regional Coordinator: Central — Rachel Gurevich (rgurevich@hsdems.org)
Regional Coordinator: South — Ritwik Tati (rtati@hsdems.org)
