Pennsylvania

Ten Young People, Ten Varying Priorities for Election

Hillary Clinton and her running mate Tim Kaine visited seven cities as part of the “Stronger Together” bus tour to tout the candidates’ job creation plan.

Along the way, I met ten young people who came out to see the candidates. Asking each what their major priorities are in this election, all had different answers. Here’s what they shared:

DOUG HELLMAN, 27
Philadelphia, Pa.
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Criminal Justice Reform

 “I support her position in the Truth in Sentencing Act. I think she’s going to be great for criminal justice reform. I think she’s progressive, but she knows how to get things done and she’s going to be a phenomenal president.”

LAURA MILLER, 31
Columbus, Ohio
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Education

“I teach at an independent school and I feel that I’ve had a lot of positive response to having no set curriculum that I have to teach. So I’d be curious to see what we’d be able to do with the public education system in terms of improving curriculum.”

MINA HOFFMAN, 21
Akron, Ohio
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Gender Inequality

“Gender inequality has always been this oppressive force and everyone’s afraid to talk about it, are very scared of it. [Hillary] just being in it, that is starting the conversation and that is the most important thing.”

CHRISTIAN MOORE, 25
Vineland, N.J.
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Brutality and Racial Bias Among Police

 “As we’ve seen over the past couple years, there are definitely some faults in our legal system. Police are here to support us…We shouldn’t fear them because they swore to protect us. I feel like if the president addresses this, people who look like me can feel safer in their community.”

JASON TKATSCHENKO, 17
Johnstown, Pa.
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Economic and Geopolitical Stability

 “The way I see it, I enter the workforce and I enter the economy in a year, so I definitely need somebody like Hillary that is going to keep my taxes from going insane. And somebody that isn’t going to plunge my country into war.”

DEIRDRE COSGROVE, 27
South Philadelphia
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Mental Health Reform

“I’m a mental health professional so I work with people in a lot of need so I think that’s really important to get more funding.”

DREW MILLER, 32
Columbus, Ohio
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Xenophobia

“The hyper nationalism and violent nationalism that’s coming out of the Trump campaign is really dangerous not only short-term in this election, but also the next four and 40 years. It’s agains the core of America’s values. Domestic terrorism is a huge thing too and creating an angry mob out of a bunch of down on your luck people is as dangerous as runaway states in far away places.”

MARY VILLAGEOIS, 19
Montgomery, Alabama
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Student Loan Debt

“College is getting way too expensive and not enough people are going to college because of that.”

CHASE WOODARD, 18
Montgomery, Alabama
Supports: Undecided
Issue: Unemployment

“We just need the economy to start growing. I think [we need] job stimulation. That would be awesome.”

ERIC JOHNSON, 25
Columbus, Ohio
Supports: Hillary Clinton
Issue: Climate Change

“An unstable climate will create more poverty…A lot of people that live on the coasts, and especially people that live on islands, these islands are going to start disappearing. Places where humans can currently inhabit now, we will not be able to, and the continent will shrink smaller and smaller creating a lot more competition. And it’s a pretty Earth and we want to preserve that for the most amount of people possible.”


NBC10's Vince Lattanzio and David Chang are on the road with the Clinton-Kaine campaign as they tour Pennsylvania and Ohio by bus. Follow their travels on FacebookTwitterInstagram and NBC10.com to get dispatches from the trail and behind the scenes views of what it's like to cover a presidential campaign.

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