How students choose candidates

By Lilly Kujawski
Editor

What issues matter most to students?

In her voter outreach work on campus, Alysha Rossetto, a 19-year-old political science major and student co-leader of the WCC Votes initiative on campus, noticed many students feel strongly about the issues that are affecting them personally right now.

“Climate change, healthcare, and some of them are worried about the immigration system, but what I also hear a lot is gun control,” Rossetto said.

Other students fit that bill, citing many of those issues as major concerns. For 19-year-old political science major Max McNally, healthcare is a top priority.

“I don’t think that anybody should have to go into debt over medical bills or any medical circumstance, which definitely still happens in our current system,” McNally said. McNally is a member of the WCC Students for Bernie Sanders organization on campus, the only political campaign-based student group active this semester.

Pablo Garcia, a 19-year-old pre-engineering major, is the co-president of the Organization of Hispanic Latin American Students at WCC, and has similar thoughts about healthcare.

“Everyone should have the right to access a good healthcare plan,” Garcia said.

Julio Roque, a 20-year-old neuroscience major is the other co-president of the group. He said corporations have a lot of political power in this country and that power should go back to the people.

Roque and Garcia both listed healthcare, worker’s rights, support for low-income communities, education, immigration and environmental protections as some of the issues they consider most important. Roque is also an officer of the WCC Students for Bernie Sanders group.

Roque and Garcia also put significant emphasis on access to high-quality education for all.

“We can see it here in Ann Arbor, how schools are better than Ypsi schools and they get more money,” Garcia said.

Jahi Watson, a 30-year-old engineering major, cited education as his number one concern. He said he looks for candidates that advocate for the public school system and push for more funding to be allocated for arts and music programs.

Watson said there is a lack of representation for the black community in the candidates running for president. He also said there is very little urgency in the candidates to address the injustices the black community faces and he doesn’t feel his interests are being represented.

When it was between Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in the 2016 general election, “that left no real choice for someone like me,” Watson said.

Black Student Union co-president Anaya Bass, 17, said some people think black voters are only interested candidates whose main focus is the black community, but she said she looks for a candidate who is invested in improving all communities. Bass will be able to vote in this year’s general election. She said she’ll choose a candidate who is well-rounded in their ideologies.

Bass said she enjoys watching the news and discussing candidates with her grandmother, because even though they have different opinions, they understand and respect where one another comes from.

Brooke Shubel, an 18-year-old forensic science major, said one of the most important issues to her is foreign relations. She said Trump has burned bridges with other countries and those relationships need repairing. She also considers environmental issues, food security, healthcare and support for homeless populations to be priorities.

“Helping people who aren’t as privileged as I am” is what it boils down to, Shubel said.

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