As the two Democratic presidential candidates continue to battle for their party’s nomination, the effects of a long primary have rained down on the staffs that move their campaigns along.

“I’ve never worked so hard in my entire life,” Jason Lindsay, a field organizer for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign and a senior in political science, said. “The only time I’ve worked this many hours is when I was deployed.”

Lindsay has said his time in Iraq as a reservist motivated him to support Clinton, and working for the campaign has changed his daily schedule significantly.

“It’s like I’m living in another world right now,” he said.

He gets to Clinton’s Raleigh office at about 7:30 a.m. each day, working from 8 a.m. to midnight, and returning home for brief sleep and a shower.

“I don’t have a life,” Lindsay said. “I live, eat and breathe campaign.”

Sen. Barack Obama has kept a strong lead in pledged delegates and the popular vote since a string of 11 wins in February, but Clinton has stayed in the race, awaiting the decisions of superdelegates. These party leaders may ultimately decide the winner, since it is mathematically impossible for either candidate to gain the 2,025 delegates needed to lock up the nomination.

The North Carolina primary is May 6, and Lindsay said while campaigning has been difficult, Clinton’s adversities in the race have kept him motivated.

“I just want to work that much harder to make sure she wins the nomination,” he said.

On the day of the Pennsylvania primary, April 22, Lindsay said staffers called about 700 Pennsylvania residents to urge them to vote.

A big primary day gets the staffers “pumped,” he said.

While Lindsay said the life of a campaign staffer is much different from a volunteer, Ryan Walker, a sophomore in political science, said volunteering for the Obama campaign was immediately difficult.

“I work on never-ending phone banks and I don’t have enough time to call everyone on the list,” he said.

According to Walker, if Obama wins the nomination and progresses to the general election, he will stay on board.

“It gives you a real sense of purpose and you can interact with all sorts of people,” he said. “And the best part will be to see the outcome of the election.”

Lindsay said he has invested too much in the campaign to leave it if Clinton moves on to the general election.

“I drank the Kool Aid. I’m knee-deep in it,” Lindsay said. “If they need me somewhere…it’d be hard not to go with them.”

And the primary season’s length actually brought Walker into the Clinton camp.

“The length of the campaign has gotten me more into the election because everyone is now concentrating on North Carolina and I have gotten more involved,” he said.

Lindsay also said he hopes his work with the Clinton campaign can help him pursue a career in national politics.

But for now, Lindsay said he will continue with the long days, meals at his desk, working for what he hopes is the “first woman President’s campaign.”