WHY I AM VOTING FOR DEMOCRATS
The author, far left, with other C2C volunteers and Rep. Ricky Hurtado, 2020
My name is Chloe, and I am a 20 year old college student at Vassar College. I spent my entire life growing up in Chapel Hill and Carrboro attending the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.
Like many people, I got involved in politics after 2016 because I was so afraid of what Trump’s election would mean for the United States. However, I have stayed involved because I came to understand the egalitarian goal of the Democratic Party to improve the lives of all, regardless of their annual income, their zip code, their gender or race.
After the election, I started listening to political podcasts like Pod Save America, watched late night shows, and then in the 2018 election, I began volunteering with County to County. I was only 16, but I was able to learn about what people across the state really cared about in conversations at their doors and on the phone. Through this experience, politics became something personal and individual, not just something that was done abstractly in Washington or Raleigh. I will be forever grateful to C2C for giving me, and other young people, the opportunity to have real, on the ground learning about politics at such a young age.
Coming from a liberal blue bubble in North Carolina, the politics of the rest of the state have always affected me. The first time I remember the impact of the Republicans was the Bathroom Bill (or HB2). Most of my teachers were against the bill, but I remember that in Social Studies class my teacher praised the bill in the middle of my friend’s presentation on women’s rights. Immediately, I was shocked and saddened, and I had to leave the room. It was no surprise that it was the same year that Trump was elected to office as he had created an environment where prejudice was no longer something that had to be hidden.
More recently, healthcare, reproductive freedom, and climate change have become very big issues for me. The makeup of the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA) plays such an important role in how these issues will be handled. With the end of Roe by SCOTUS, it would only take a couple more Republican members of the NCGA to end protections for people seeking abortions in NC. Republicans have also failed to expand Medicare in NC, which has us falling behind many other states. On the other hand, if Democrats could get a majority in the NCGA, it would allow Governor Roy Cooper to do more to protect our coasts from the hurricanes that each year get worse with rising sea levels.
Young people are worried about their futures, and voting Democrat is the best way to create a world in which healthcare is affordable, women have control over their own bodies, college is affordable, and the challenges of climate change can be more aggressively addressed. North Carolinians across the state, not just those living in the Triangle, deserve progressive policies. Go knock some doors in Alamance County. I promise you, it’s not that hard. Even a 16-year-old can do it!
We need legislators who will work to help their constituents. Vote for Democrats up and down the ballot!
