One question that young voters ask when looking at the presidential candidates is: Why aren’t there any young people running.
As of right now the two candidates who are running are 60 and 78, which could be argued ‘too old’ in some people’s opinions.
Through conversations with current college students on their opinions on the current political age, a number showed concern, doubt and confusion.
Maddie Belk is a current first-year student at Wilkes University, on track to graduate in 2030 with her degree in pharmacy.
“I think we have a younger generation who have different problems than the older generation like people Trump and Kamala’s age,” she said “I feel like it’s important for younger people to be in office because we know what we’re struggling with and what they don’t know.”
Wren Haze, a current student at Arizona State University, is majoring in English and lives in the Wilkes-Barre area.
“To an extent, I feel like they are too old. I feel like the fear is that they could be thinking or aiming toward the political past and trying to overturn what is currently in place. Whereas Kamala is looking to make sure we have a safe and positive future.”
Other students had similar feelings.
“Thirty-five is too young,” said Liam Duill, a first-year sports management major at Wilkes University, referencing the minimum age for a president. “They haven’t hit midlife and they haven’t had all the experiences yet. Like right now if I was 35 and was super rich I could run.
“You need to have lots of experience to really understand the country.”
Dr. Andy Miller, a political science professor at Wilkes University, expressed how, for many people, getting into politics can be very hard as a young person.
“It’s hard to break into politics so a lot of times you’d have to volunteer with one of the parties for a long time. If you graduate and get a job or whatever it’s gonna be, it can be difficult to dedicate 20-40 hours a week to just volunteering in a political party.
“But often that’s how people break into politics.”