[media-credit name=’JAKE NAUGHTON/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]With the Republican National Convention in full swing just one state over, the University of Wisconsin’s McCain supporters are eagerly observing the red, white and blue festivities.

But after all the excitement ends, all of them are hoping to ride that wave of excitement onto campuses across the state.

“I think it’ll be a good starting point to get people really motivated,” said Katie Nix, a UW senior and Students for McCain state chair. “I think right now people aren’t taking the campaign seriously yet, and the convention will get people ready to make a significant effort.”

McCain announced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his pick for vice president Friday morning, already setting the convention media frenzy in motion.

And as the convention closes out, UW’s Students for McCain chapter will gather to get those students “pumped up,” according to Co-President Allison Nelson, who added the announcement of John McCain’s running mate helped.

“I think people [were] kind of tired of hearing about just Obama and just McCain, so it should bring a whole new mix of people into getting politically involved on campus.”

College campuses, particularly the larger UW campuses at Madison and Milwaukee, pose a challenge for GOP campaigns to tackle, according to Nix.

During Wisconsin’s hotly contested February primary, Students for Obama and Students for Hillary drew a record number of students to the polls, but a Students for McCain group was not yet a presence on campus.

In a liberal-leaning age and education demographic, and at campuses where extremely large College Democrats groups dwarf College Republican membership, the primary aim for Students for McCain is just to open a conversation and be heard, Nix said.

“Liberal politics can be kind of rabid, and people can say some nasty things if you don’t agree with who they support,” Nix said. “We want to get a dialogue going where people can actually share opinions and respect each other. That’s one of our goals.”

Nelson added her group recognizes that Madison is a liberal stronghold, but said she thinks there are conservatives who are “a little afraid to come out of the woodwork.”

Nix and Nelson both said partnering and coordinating their work with other conservative campus groups like College Republicans would be essential to the task that lies ahead.