Last night’s CNN Republican presidential debate covered the issues that matter to the American people: national security, combatting ISIS, and immigration. However, the issues that matter to young Americans were omitted from the discussion.
Besides the issue of shutting down parts of the internet, matters that pertain to millennials like college affordability, were not discussed among the candidates. In a recent article CNN asked millennial voters what they seek from the candidates. Elizabeth Belsky, 23, said, “I got into some pretty good universities, both public and private. The reason I eventually chose to attend Brooklyn College? It wasn’t because it was one of my top choices — I simply could not afford to enroll at any of the other schools I got into, even with scholarships, loans and financial aid.”
“I graduated with significant student loan debt, due to my status as an out-of-state student for most of my time at CUNY — I wasn’t eligible for in-state aid and had to take out loans to cover what I couldn’t pay out of pocket,” Belsky added.
If the GOP wants to appeal to young voters, the candidates will need to expand their talking points so that every issue that matters to Americans can be assured.
Issues covered during last night’s debate included protecting the border from illegal immigrants, which became a contested battle mainly between Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Cruz attacked Rubio for sponsoring the “Gang of Eight” comprehensive immigration bill. However, Rubio hit back and accused Cruz of supporting amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Another issue that was heavily debated was national security, especially regarding combatting Islamic State terrorists and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.
“If we topple Assad, the result will be ISIS will take over Syria and it will worsen U.S. national security interests,” Cruz said. Rubio disagreed and said Assad is basically an “anti-American dictator.”
The front-runner, billionaire businessman Donald Trump, remains on top. According to a Monmouth University poll on Monday, Trump has 41 percent support. A poll from The Washington Post and ABC News conducted after Trump proposed banning Muslims from the country lists support for Trump at 38 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents — up six percentage points from the last Post/ABC poll in mid-November.
According to a millennial poll by the College Republican National Committee conducted live during the debate, young Republican voters are split on how they feel about Trump’s proposal — 44 percent agree, but 55 percent disagree.
