Thomas: Hi, I’m Lucy Thomas and welcome to my podcast. Today, with the election just about nine weeks out, I will be talking to students about what matters most to them in the election. We will explore the different candidates and issues on the ballet, as well as the role students play in this election.

Joining me today are three students: junior William Hanna, freshman Izzy Middlebrook, and junior James Welsh. I’ll start by discussing the election and key issues with James and Izzy, and then we’ll shift to William’s perspective on student involvement and the steps you can take to make a difference.

A short bio on Izzy and James: is that James is volunteering for the DFL. He follows the news, in his words, “pretty closely” with his Google News for its variety of sources. Izzy follows politics through the New York Times and the local Minneapolis newspaper the “unicorn riot.” She is also a member of the Youth in Government club here at SPA.

How are you feeling about the current state of the election?

Welsch: I think it’s going to be close. I think there’s a lot of momentum right now swinging left, but it also swing back right just as easily.

Thomas: And Izzy, how are you feeling about the current state of the election?

Izzy: Better than I did, like a couple months ago. I guess I feel like I feel like it was just kind of miserable a couple months ago, like I feel like there was just, a lot of that feeling going around because of our candidates. But I think with the change of candidates and Biden endorsing Kamala Harris, I feel like a little more hopeful, I guess.

Thomas: And, which issues are most important to you in the election and why?

Welsch: Reproductive rights, gun safety and support for our allies. reproductive rights, there’s no reason that the government needs to tell you what you can do with your body. That’s just completely ridiculous. Gun Safety, more children die of gunshots in the US than any other cause, which is frankly ridiculous. We still have more guns than people, which just doesn’t need to happen. We have the highest concentration of guns in the world and support for our allies. Our allies were there for us after September 11, we need to be there for them.

Thomas: Thank you, James, what issues are most important to you Izzy?

Middlebrook: I think abortion rights have become increasingly important to me because I’m female-identifying, and so like access to abortions is important, I guess, like for all women, or like for people who would need that. And so that’s become increasingly important to me. So that’s kind of like, what that’s one of the reasons, like, why I like, if I could vote, I would vote for Kamala Harris, and I guess equality. And, like, you know, civil rights, I guess, and just basic human rights that I feel like have been increasingly just like, pushed aside, I guess.

Thomas: And do you believe that the current political candidates are representing your views?

Welsh: Generally, yes. It’s one of those things you’re never going to fully agree with everything a candidate says. But if you believe in the people that they have in their cabinet and generally, I’m blanking on the word, but like the general, like morals, like if you think that they’re just a good person, then that’s what I look for.

Thomas: Do you have opinions about the candidates, whether it be for president or vice president?

Middlebrook: I’m a big Tim Walz fan, because he’s governor of Minnesota. So, like, that’s great. Well, current governor, but like, it’s crazy that Minnesota is like, getting out there, and I think it’s just, it’s apparent how much he’s done for Minnesota. And so it’s really cool to see that can be out there. And I think just like, he’s like, it’s clear that he’s very patriotic and he cares about his country, and like he wants to better it, and so I love Tim Walz. I think he’s awesome.

Thomas: Now I am going to pivot to talking to William Hanna about the student role in the election, as well as student advocacy, and where to start. William is very involved with politics and volunteered with the Betty McCollum campaign. They received their news from a variety of sources, including the New York Times Daily and Ezra Klein show, The New York Times newspaper, as well as Cook and Media, and they use 538 for polling information.

Thank you so much for being here today, William. My first question to you is do you believe students can make a significant impact on the outcome of the election?

Hanna: I do. I think that a lot of what campaigns need is just people, people to knock doors, people to make phone calls, all that kind of stuff. And we are great at that. You know us as young people, we are very energetic. We have a lot to say. We have a lot of things that we very deeply believe in, and we are what often times campaigns need in order to succeed. And so don’t feel like you can’t make a difference just because you know you’re not experienced, just you being there can make a big difference.

Thomas: Do you plan on doing any advocacy work or getting involved?

Hanna: Yeah, yeah, I spent my whole summer phone banking and door knocking and in partnership with a lot of State House candidates and kind of Commissioner candidates and people like that. You know, fall’s busy with school, things like that, and so I probably wont be as involved as I was over the summer but I’ll try to get out, you know, knock as many doors as I can. But I also want to help as many people as I can here at school.

Thomas: My next question is, what do you suggest for other students trying to get involved?

Hanna: Yeah, so it is a weird and confusing system, and I understand that, and that’s why a few other people that, like, intern with candidates, we’re gonna figure out how we’re gonna do it. If campaigns don’t know that you’re interested in volunteering, they often won’t reach out to you about volunteering, which is hard if you haven’t gotten into it yet. And so we’re going to try to, just like, collect as much information as we can about upcoming volunteering shifts, and so that if people want them, if people are interested, they can come to us who are people in their community that they know and have easy access to, rather than having to, like, hunt down things on like, the bottom of campaign websites and things like that.

Thomas: Thank you so much, William, and thank you so much for the listeners tuning into my podcast today. I hope everyone learned something!

This story was updated on Oct. 6 to include a hotlink to the feature with William Hannah published on Oct. 5.