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Millennials Up on the Presidential Primary

Virginia’s primary election, coming up on Tuesday, is many things, but one thing it is not, is a snooze.  Many young voters say they’re excited about the race. They hear candidates staking out clear positions on issues that affect them. Robbie Harris talked with some who will be voting in their first presidential primary.

OK, this is a group of very tuned in college students. And our conversation is far from a scientifically balanced survey.

All four of the young students I met with are studying political science at Virginia Tech. So perhaps in a way, we can think of them as a an informal group of political pollsters with eyes and ears on their peer groups.  Here’s Jenny Lemley-Loudon

“This is my first presidential primary season that I’ve really followed, but I never expected to be able to talk to any single one of my friends and them know exactly who they were voting for, these young voters that people don’t expect to be so politically involved and we all are very informed and educated on the policies and what the candidates stand for and are very passionate why we’re voting for who we’re voting for.”

Even though she hasn’t voted in a presidential primary before, she’s studied previous elections and she sees this one taking a new turn.

“I think it’s interesting because in previous presidential elections they’re kind of fighting to be the most moderate of the bunch and this year everyone’s fighting to be either more progressive or more conservative and that is appealing to a different voter base than has been appealed to before and I think that’s why were’ seeing a lot more polarized people in our generation.”

Amy Ackerman identifies her self as a Hillary Clinton supporter.

“I definitely think that this election you are hearing a lot more about policies. You know we have these hysterical candidates like Donald Trump, who, you know, that’s just who he is, but the policies are very important in this election, like with Donald Trump and building a wall, that’s a policy issue and when I talk to someone, I ask why are you supporting Hillary or why are you supporting Bernie, they name policy issues; I’m supporting Hillary because I believe in her plan for me to be able to pay off my student loans, refinance them, pay a low interest rate based on my income.  Those are specific policy things.”

Julia Billingsley, who does not identify herself as a supporter of either party -- she’s the Virginia Tech Coordinator of the non partisan Virginia 21 which works to register students to vote – says the clear issue positions, the polarization among the candidates is a good thing for young voters looking to make their decisions.

“And I think when you see policies like free or affordable college education, paid family leave, those things are very important to young voters.  Especially young single parents, young college students struggling with student debt, when you see issues like that on the table that are finally having policies that make a real difference, that’s when young voters start to become more active.

Here’s Jake Tully: “I also think how mutable these primary votes have been kind of inspires people to want to vote too. Coming into it, a lot of people had a defeatist attitude in certain respects where they would see you know, big name on one side big name on the other side.  Jeb Bush was a favorite for some people and now he’s gone. On the Democratic side the gap between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton has closed dramatically in recent months so I think people, what they once saw as kind of a foregone conclusion is now something they think their voice can be a part of.”

For Tully, a big issue is the Supreme Court vacancy, which he suggests is more clearly tied to the vote than this time than in the past.

“I am a big judicial junky and the Supreme Court has always been something that’s really interesting to me.  The balance of the Supreme Court is, I think, a really important issue to a lot of people.  Because when you think about it, you know, the Supreme Court really makes so many policy decisions for the American people.”

A young man named Zach Kemp couldn’t make it to our round table discussion but wanted to weigh in. He’s a neuroscience major, but he is as passionate about his politics and this primary as the others.

He first supported Ben Carson but is for Marco Rubio. Kemp wrote in an email that he thinks above all, millenials want to elect someone ‘they can trust.’  He goes on to say that he thinks the reason young voters are not flocking to Hillary Clinton is because of a lack of trust. 

Kemp describes himself as an evangelical voter and says, he believes, quote “that the breadth of diversity and viewpoints on the Republican primary ticket demonstrate how the GOP is the party of the 21st century, which is why we will win in November.” Un Quote.

Jenny Lemley-Loudon who describes herself as a Hilary Clinton supporter has a different take on why young people, young women in particular have, not voted strongly for Clinton

“People, I think assume that young women would be gung ho about Hillary Clinton and statistics are showing that they’re not necessarily and I think that goes to show that our generation isn’t  --- you’re not seeing young women voting for a woman because she’s a woman. I think it’s just going to show they’re disregarding who it is, what their gender is, what color they are and it’s really about what they believe in and who aligns with that the most.”

Robbie Harris heard from a small group of millenials as they consider the upcoming vote.  As we mentioned earlier, this mini-focus group is not a scientific survey.  Just a couple of people talking politics….

Robbie Harris is based in Blacksburg, covering the New River Valley and southwestern Virginia.
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