By: Jeffrey Reed, Lion’s Eye Editor, jmr6915@psu.edu
With the upcoming Democratic Primary election fast approaching, students all over the Brandywine campus have been hotly debating everything politics; from gun legislation to healthcare, no debate is off-limits. Over the past week, some students have participated in a survey – providing their thoughts on the primaries. The survey asked two simple questions: “What is the most important issue in the upcoming primary,” and “who is your favored candidate.” The survey, which consisted of 25 Brandywine students, 15 male and 10 female, all aged between 18 and 22, should not be considered a campus-wide consensus; however, it may serve as a sneak-peak at what is to be expected at Brandywine’s upcoming mock primary event. So, what did the results say?
The overall winner of the poll was Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with a total of nine votes out of the total 25. Second came businessman Andrew Yang with six votes; former Vice President Joe Biden placed third with five votes; fourth place went to the South Bend Indiana Mayor, Pete Buttigieg and to round off the voting, California Sen. Kamala Harris and former Texas Senatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke received one vote each, leaving them in fifth place. Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, New Jersey Senator Corey Booker, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren and former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro each received 0 votes; while one participant chose not to vote.
While Sanders is the clear front-runner in the overall polling, things become much closer when considering whether the participants would or would not be voting in the upcoming primary. Out of the 25 participants, 16 said they would be voting, eight said they would not and one chose not to answer.
When only counting those who would be voting in the primary, Sanders’ nine votes become six while Biden’s votes stay at five, making it a tight race. While Sanders’ three lost votes hurt his lead, the second-place candidate Andrew Yang drops down to a tie for fifth. This would put Yang in the lead among non-voters with five choosing him, three choosing Sanders and one choosing not to answer.
When considering gender, the overall placement of the candidates does not change much. Among females, Sanders holds the lead with three while Biden and Yang tie for second with two apiece. Harris and O’Rourke stay at one vote each while Buttigieg joins them with only one of his two supporters being female. Among males, Sanders again holds the lead with six, but Yang manages to sneak into second place with four votes, just one ahead of Biden’s three. Buttigieg again holds one vote placing him in fourth while Harris and O’Rourke received no votes from any males.
On the question of the most important issue, the students were asked to choose one of the following: the climate, free college, debt forgiveness, gun policy, immigration, healthcare, the economy, foreign affairs, or the participant could have chosen other and listed their own most important issue. Of these, six answered the climate, four healthcare, two foreign affairs, three free college, one debt forgiveness, four gun policy, two the economy and three immigration. While each issue holds a different amount of importance with each individual, this survey shows that among those polled, the climate, healthcare and gun policy are the three most important issues in the upcoming primary.
Among those who considered climate to be the most important issue, three of the six support Sanders, while the other three who thought climate was the most important issue supported Biden, Yang and Buttigieg. Of those who saw healthcare as the most important issue, two supported Biden, one supported Beto and one chose not to answer. Those who thought gun policy was the most important issue voted for Yang twice, Biden once, and Buttigieg once. In the categories of free college and debt forgiveness, Sanders made a clean sweep, while Yang did the same with the economy voters. Sanders held the majority support of those who thought immigration was of the utmost importance with two of the three supporting him and the one who did not support him chose to support Harris instead. Finally, among the two who participants who chose foreign affairs as the most important issue, one chose Biden and the other chose Yang.
All of these results could very well change over the proceeding months with more debates, tweets and “hot takes” sure to change the public view of the candidates for better or for worse. Be sure to keep an eye out for Brandywine’s upcoming mock primary so that you can have your voice be heard. And make sure to get out there to discuss and debate, because as Jesse Jackson once said, “Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of our democracy.”