TRANSCRIPT:
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Luis Hernandez: As the election comes to a close, we’ve been talking with young voters about what’s behind their voting decisions. This week and next, we’ll be checking in with five undergraduate students at Johnson & Wales University. We’ll hear what they’re thinking about before the election, talk with them throughout election night, and in a week, we’ll get their take on the results. Joining me now is 21-year-old independent William Bonanno of New Jersey, William, it’s a pleasure. Thanks for being with us.
William Bonnano: Hey, how you doing?
Hernandez: Also joining us is 21-year-old Democrat Darlene Gonzalez of Texas. Darlene, welcome.
Darlene Gonzalez: Hi, thanks for having me.
Hernandez: And joining us is 20-year-old Mason Franklin from New York, who is unaffiliated. Mason, great to have you.
Mason Franklin: Hi, how are you?
Hernandez: And joining us too is 22-year-old Independent Kay Allen of Pennsylvania. Kay, welcome.
Kay Allen: Thank you.
Hernandez: And finally, 21-year-old Independent Jonathan Charles of Massachusetts. Jonathan, it’s a pleasure.
Jonathan Charles: Hi. Thank you for having me.
Hernandez: Thank you again for all of you being here. I appreciate it. Got plenty of questions for all of you. I want to start with this. Are you excited about voting this year? Why or why not? William, I’m going to start with you.
Bonnano: I would say I was excited about voting this year because it’s the first election that I have the chance to vote. So, I think that’s a pretty big milestone as an American I would say.
Hernandez: Darlene, what about you? Are you excited, yes or no?
Gonzalez: Yeah, I am. It’s a very important election. And coming from a border city, I think it’s very important.
Hernandez: Coming from El Paso, Texas.
Gonzalez: Yes.
Hernandez: Where, of course, immigration is a huge issue, and we’ll get to that too, as well. Mason, what about you? Are you excited? Why or why not?
Franklin: I would say I’m kind of somewhere in the middle. I probably won’t be voting this year because I’m pretty busy with a bunch of stuff. I’m not really too excited or not excited.
Hernandez: Kay, are you excited, and why or why not?
Allen: I love voting. I love civic duty type stuff. This specific election, I’m a lot less excited. Being from a swing state and a swing-county, it’s very stressful, and I hate it. But the voting process in general, I love doing it. It’s one of my favorite things. I can’t wait for jury duty.
Hernandez: Yeah, your county and your state are going to be in the news a lot, I’d imagine, for sure. And then, of course, Jonathan, what about you? How are you feeling?
Charles: I’m neither excited or sad to vote. I’m not planning on voting this year. I’m more so like an independent type of person. I have a brother in the military. I talk to him all the time. I’m like, if something was to happen to you – he’s training to become an Army Ranger – if something was to happen to you, the president don’t care about you. Politicians don’t care about you. They ain’t going to come to the house and try to talk to mom. I just don’t, I don’t see the point, really.
Hernandez: I wanted to ask you, Jonathan, and Mason, you had also said that you’re not sure if you’re going to vote, right?
Franklin: I’m probably not going to vote.
Hernandez: Okay. Well, let me start with the two of you on this. I’m curious, what would it take to hear, what would you have to hear from the candidates to be convinced of voting? Mason, I’ll start with you.
Franklin: Well, to be honest, I probably would vote for Trump if I was to vote, but I don’t really want to participate in the mail-in process. If I was home, I probably would vote for Trump because I do believe in what he’s saying more, because I believe he is the best candidate. But yeah, I probably won’t be voting this year, just because I don’t really have the time. I have a lot going on and I don’t really want to do the emailing process.
Hernandez: And Jonathan, I mean, you were just talking about your feelings. And I’m wondering the same question to you, would any of the candidates be able to convince you otherwise?
Charles: Yeah, if, instead of arguing with each other about whatever is going on, why don’t they come together and say, okay, let’s find a solution to fix these problems. Because I spent all this time arguing and going to polls and all this, they could have just come together, all sat in a room, let’s fix these problems. Make it open. Let’s see what the problems are with this country. The immigration situation, I feel like that could have been solved easily, if everybody just put their heads together. Okay we have acres of land in this country. We have places we could send these people. These people know how to build infrastructure. Why are we over here splitting the country into two halves? That’s why, I just don’t know, I’m not with that. If we want to make a difference, to make a difference, you don’t have to split a country into two halves to make a difference.
Hernandez: William, let me come to you on that question. Have you already decided? And if not, what would you want to hear from the candidates?
Bonnano: I would love to hear a straight answer from both parties. I watched both debates. J.D. Vance, I thought he could articulate very well what he was saying but he never gave a straight answer either. Same with Tim Walz, Kamala Harris, she doesn’t really ever give a straight answer, and so does Donald Trump. So I would love to hear their plans on what they want to do, like not save the country, but better the country for every single American.
Hernandez: And Kay, what about you? Do you need to hear something from the candidates to convince you?
Allen: I would love to have a candidate that I support. I’ve already voted for Harris as a harm reduction. There are a number of things they could say to genuinely gain my support – like in the debates, when they were both arguing about who loves Israel more and who loves fracking more, I would do a backflip if one of them said, “let’s stop abusing the environment for money,” or “let’s stop obliterating children just because,” I’d feel ecstatic. But I don’t foresee that happening.
Hernandez: Darlene, you’re the only one who is affiliated with a party, and so I’m wondering if you were you’ve already made your decision. Have you already voted?
Gonzalez: Actually, when you asked me if I was excited to vote, I should have reiterated that I was excited to vote, but my election office did not receive my request for my mail-in ballot in time. So I will not be able to vote, because going home to vote is not an option for me, as it’s expensive and stuff, but if I were able to, I would have voted for Harris.
Hernandez: Darlene, if you could elaborate for me, why Harris? Why vote for her?
Gonzalez: I’m not going to lie. I don’t agree with everything that she has said, but right now, I think that she is the best option. I want equal rights for everyone, women’s rights, those are just some very core beliefs that I have.
Hernandez: A lot of people, not just your generation, but a lot of people of all generations are a bit anxious about this election. And I wanted to hear from each of you, you know, and I know some of you said you’re probably not going to be voting, but how are you feeling about this election? Do you have hope? Is it more anxiety? Do you have expectations? Jonathan, I’ll start with you.
Charles: When it comes to anxiety and hope, definitely with this election, one of the major things that come to my my mind is the abortion act, when I see states and how they try to put a structure on abortion, like the ability for women to get an abortion depending on what situation she’s going through, and saying that that’s not possible. From a male’s point of view – from my point of view, because I only can talk about me, from my point of view – I don’t think I have the right to speak on a woman’s body or the opportunity if she could get a abortion or not, because she’s bringing life to this earth. I don’t know how it is to get pregnant. I don’t know how it is to carry a baby for nine months. My mother carried me for nine months. I love my mother to death. I would hate to put my mother in that position, if something were to happen she would have to have me and her life would be at risk, or she would have a baby in a situation where she didn’t really want to have a kid and she’s not prepared to have a kid. You know, that’s one of my big major things. And then I do hit the immigrant status a lot too, because I was an immigrant coming here. I came here in 2010 after the earthquake in Haiti. I came here for a better life, which I was able to build a better life compared to when I get texts or phone calls from my family back home in Haiti. If you keep up with the news, you know that it’s in the civil war right now. So when we talk about immigrants, I look at immigrants as hard-working people, as the backbone of America.
Hernandez: So these sound like, to me, some of the expectations of things you hope to see. Do you feel any anxiety, or do you feel more hope?
Charles: I’m always a hope person. I always feel like no matter what goes on, what happens, people’s eyes are going to open. You’re going to see what truly matters in society. It’s not splitting this country into two halves. We’ve got to come together and put our heads together and find a solution.
Hernandez: Kay, what about you? What are you feeling going into next week’s election?
Allen: It’s definitely the anxiety. If Trump wins, I foresee Harris doing the thing that every other presidential nominee who’s lost will do, and acknowledge that the election was lost and move on. If Harris wins, I foresee Donald Trump doing the same hissy-fit he’s been doing for the past four years now. Jan. 6 was a clear show of the Republican party’s lack of care in the electoral process. They were chanting to kill the vice president [Pence] and then were encouraged by the president [Trump]. I have an incredible amount of anxiety that if Harris wins, we’re going to see the exact same thing. We’re going to see even more of – maybe this isn’t the most polite word, but – these “deranged” people, going with an active intention to harm democracy purely because they cannot accept that they had an unlikable candidate.
Hernandez: Darlene, same question to you, is it hope, is it anxiety, expectations? What are you feeling?
Gonzalez: I think it’s a bit of both for me. You know, when Biden stepped down and Harris stepped in, I definitely saw a lot more people flip their votes, and it gave me a little bit more hope. But again, like, that anxiety always comes in. And like, what if Trump does win? You know, he’s planning to do a mass deportation, and that affects my hometown and like other people. And also, just as a woman, I don’t plan on having my own children. But what if something happened and I had to get health care access, or what if in the future I did decide to have children? I am queer, so I would have to use IVF with my partner and donors. So if Trump wins, he’s planning to take all of that away.
Hernandez: William, question to you: hope or anxiety?
Bonnano: I would say I’m kind of in the middle of the spectrum of hope and anxiety. Whoever wins, I believe that I’m still going to have to go to work the next day. I believe that life is still going to go on. I don’t really want to see Donald Trump win. I believe that state and religion should be separate. There’s a lot of, like, Christian influence that goes into this election.
Hernandez: Mason, the same question to you: hope or anxiety, expectations? What are you looking at?
Franklin: If I was to say, I would say more hope, but I’m somewhere in the middle for sure. Like William said, no matter who wins I’m still gonna have to go about my life the same way. That’s another reason why I probably won’t be voting because my one vote I feel like won’t really change necessarily the outcome. I do think that things need to change. And when Biden became president, I noticed a big change in the economy, which I think is definitely big for us at this age. To start building our lives you need a healthy economy, and right now, it’s not that.
Hernandez: I’ve been speaking with Johnson & Wales students William Bonanno, Darlene Gonzalez, Mason Franklin, Kay Allen and Jonathan Charles. I really appreciate the time with all of you. Thank you so much for being very open and frank with me about how you feel about the issues and about the upcoming election. Thanks again.
All: Thank you.
Hernandez: You’ll be hearing from all of them again throughout our live elections coverage Tuesday night, and in a week, we’ll get their take on the results.
The opinions expressed by these students are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Johnson & Wales University.
Early voting is underway in Rhode Island and continues through Nov. 4. While the voter registration deadline has passed, the state allows for same-day, in person voter registration – but you will only be able to vote for president and vice president. Find more of our elections coverage at thepublicsradio.org/2024elections, including voting guides for Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
Election 2024 coverage by The Public’s Radio is sponsored in part by Ascent Audiology & Hearing, Providence Picture Frame and Rustigian Rugs.
