Kamala Harris Excites the Youth

This post was originally published on this site.

As a child, I vividly remember going to the polls with my mother on election day. I would wait in line with her, peer over her shoulder in the voting booth, and leave with an “I Voted” sticker attached to my collar. She always enforced the idea that voting was powerful, and as I get ready to cast my first vote in a presidential election, that sentiment is fresh in my mind.

Before President Biden dropped out of the race, I was faced with a choice that left me feeling unconfident and frankly disappointed. Most notably, the age of the candidates concerned me. We were faced with two of the oldest candidates in history: both of whom have frequent vocal slip-ups when it comes to policy and personal conversations alike. Age, and more importantly the cognitive decline that can come with it, is an increasingly important factor in politics. My expectations were not high, but after watching the first debate in June, it solidified my belief that Biden was unfit to run for a second term. This sense of fear and disappointment was something many young voters felt. I was unexcited, uninspired, and scared of what the next four years may look like.

When Vice President Kamala Harris stepped up to the plate and announced that she would be running, many of those feelings were rectified. Rather than feeling sad, I felt optimistic and excited for the breath of fresh air that a younger, more cognizant candidate would bring to the race.

Many of the reservations that I held towards Trump and Biden about age, consistency, and record, I don’t bear with Harris. Just last month, I attended her campaign rally in Arizona alongside my mother and my aunt. It was my first time at a political rally and I found the speakers compelling, but perhaps more impactful was observing the diverse crowd. People of all ages and many different backgrounds packed the stadium. The overall theme of unification and hope gave me comfort. The energy of that event was contagious, but more important than the appearances, are the politics.

Issues like reproductive freedom, the cost of living, climate change, and student loan debt are top of mind for many young voters like me. The environment is paramount for me as I look towards my future. The cost of living is important because I would love to be able to buy a house someday and afford rent while also being able to eat and grow savings. The rising cost of higher education is something that currently impacts me and many of my peers. We are forced to make choices between paying off student loans, managing bills, and buying groceries. These are frequent stresses that the average American college student faces. 

As a scholarship student at a highly selective, financially demanding institution, I face these impossible situations every day, and on top of the stress of classes and jobs, these issues are extremely salient in the minds of so many of my fellow classmates. 

Representation is also an essential part of this election, and seeing how the Republican ticket has been characterizing Harris has deeply disappointed me. From calling her a “DEI hire” to questioning her racial identity, I have found this rhetoric disturbing and deeply damaging. Rather than attack her for her policies or even her character, they have moved towards her identity. Trump’s comments at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention either stem from a place of ignorance or maliciousness, and I believe it’s our job to curb them through affirmation of mixed individuals and their communities. We must extend everyone the privilege to identify how they please on their own terms.

These comments directly influence the sphere in which I’m viewing this election and speak deeply to the character of those who want to be our face on a global scale.

Harris referred to Trump’s comments as “divisive” and while I completely agree, I also see them as inherently denigrating and dangerous. These attacks are meant to discredit her and scare people who may feel that identifying with multiple ethnicities is “impossible” or in some way makes her less credible. It also seeks to diminish her membership in either community. As a college student from a mixed background, I hope that my classmates and educators recognize race not as distinct categories that can’t be transcended, but rather as something abstract that can be moved between, is not visually definable, and is able to be expressed in many different ways.

I see Harris’s ancestry as a strength, just as I see my mixed heritage, and I greatly appreciate how she embraces herself and her culture. No election exists in a bubble, and paired with the unprecedented nature of this race and the real impacts the outcome will have on my life, I am fired up to cast my first vote.

Neither presidential candidate is perfect in my eyes, and I hold a growing amount of distrust towards political personas in actually following through on their judgments and promises. As misinformation runs rampant and politicians fudge the truth, it’s hard to get to the root of the issues. While I am excited about the prospect of a Harris presidency, I’m also looking toward local politics in order to ensure that my interests in the community will be heard.

I’d like to remind first-time voters that while voting for the president is important, it is essential to vote for candidates up and down the ballot to enact real change. Participate in local and state elections, and make sure the first vote you cast this November is not your last, but just the start of exercising your constitutional rights.

When voting this upcoming November, I am thinking of the issues yes, but also the mannerisms and values that each candidate possesses- on and off screen, as well as the precedents they will set for our country’s future. 

Mia Vesely is an undergraduate student at The University of Pennsylvania.