Former DLCC intern encourages young people to vote
By Allison Desy
With the midterm elections on the horizon, 19-year-old Nadia Nugent, a film and media arts major at American University, is eager to fill out her absentee ballot. Plus, she is encouraging her peers to exercise their right to vote too.
“I feel like civic engagement for people our age is so incredibly important,” the New York native and registered voter said. “Because we don’t think our voices matter, so we tend to stay away from voting.”
Nugent interned for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee (DLCC) last semester and said that voting local is the best way to be heard about issues close to home.
“My big thing is vote local… Because that’s what affects you the most,” said Nugent.
Nugent says that climate change is an important national issue and that a candidate with a strong environmental platform is likely to get her vote this midterm election.
“I’m actually in environmental science this semester, so I’m hoping to learn more about that [climate change] and be more informed about that,” she said. “But I think on the base level, just acknowledgment of climate change and looking for more sustainable ways to find energy is a huge thing I’m looking for in candidates.”
According to Nugent, a candidate’s support for Trump is not a major concern for her, as she says most of the representatives in her state are against Trump.
“I’m from New York, so most of my representatives are pretty liberal, and disagree with Trump… Even our Republican candidates seem to not be a fan of Trump,” she said.
Despite what she says is a general consensus against Trump in her home state, she says she worries about the tension between major political parties and what it could mean for the future.
“The most important issue…. I think in terms of our country as a whole, socially rather than politically, it’s, again, the divisiveness of politics and that we’re losing trust in our reliable news sources. I think that is a terrible state to be in, especially for democracy…”
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