Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a get out the vote organizing event at Great Bay Community College on Feb 6 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Credit: Courtesy of TNS
Over the last eight years, the College Democrats of Ohio have worked tirelessly to support President Barack Obama’s agenda and protect his legacy. From organizing phone banks to supporting the Affordable Care Act, to marching in parades and gathering signatures as the president fought for marriage equality, to defending the president’s remarkable record of job creation, to registering tens of thousands of college-aged voters — we’ve been on the front lines of progressive change.
As the six previous presidents of the College Democrats of Ohio during the Obama administration, we unanimously believe that Hillary Clinton is the best choice to defend the hard work of the last eight years and to continue that progress.
Now, we realize that six millennials supporting Clinton flies in the face of the media narrative, but our experience has been that the young people who have actually been on the ground fighting, who understand how hard-won every victory has been, recognize that it’s Clinton who has the necessary experience to achieve real progressive change. We all have many different reasons for supporting former Secretary of State Clinton.
Some of us appreciate her fighting for LGBT rights across the globe as secretary of state. The Human Rights Campaign has endorsed only one candidate for president, and that is Clinton. While our country won a landmark victory in June, there is still a lot of work to do to ensure our LGBT friends and family have their full rights and protections. We believe, like the HRC believes, that Clinton is the progressive capable of winning these reforms.
Others are drawn to her achievable plan to finally tackle college affordability. Right now, there is an entire generation of Americans being stifled by the weight of student loan debt, which now exceeds $1 trillion in the United States. We need to elect a president with a track record of getting things done so that real reform is obtainable. That is why we support Clinton’s New College Compact, which will make community college free and enable students to attend in-state public colleges without incurring any tuition debt.
Still others know that in a dangerous and volatile world, Clinton’s deep foreign policy experience and sound judgement put her in the best position to keep our country safe. No other candidate can match her record as the secretary of state who restored America’s leadership in the world, after it was badly eroded by eight years of the Bush administration’s go-it-alone foreign policy.
And of course, if Clinton’s first run for the White House left 18 million cracks in its glass ceiling, some of us are truly excited to see her break through and finally make history as the first female president, eight years after our generation helped elect our country’s first black president.
So while our reasons may differ, we all agree that Clinton is the best choice for Ohioans on March 15 and the best choice for America’s future.
Signers: Six most recent former presidents of the College Democrats of Ohio: Lauren Duncan, Amy Groya, Taylor Myers, Daniel Rajaiah, Sara Valentine and Dustin White
