Walz visits College Dems
Gov. Tim Walz and other DFL candidates visited Minnesota State University, Mankato Thursday aiming to touch on the importance of the youth vote this election.
With no more than a week to plan the event, College Democrats President Storm Novak touched on the climate of this year’s election.
“Get involved in not just the major big ticket elections, but also the small ticket elections, because those are the ones where your voice makes the most difference,” Novak said. “It’s important to vote in every single election and engage in your civic duty to participate in democracy.”
Gathering Mankato community members and MSU students, the event featured Marcia Stapelton, who is running in district 22B; Jeff Brand running for house district 18A;, Luke Frederick running for house district 18B, Nick Frentz for senate district 19; and Jeff Ettinger for the first congressional district; and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Each candidate voiced their stances on various topics such as climate change, abortion and student loans.
“This is fundamental. What happened with Roe vs Wade, we cannot live having one or two positions where they [the person elected] could cost you your health care access, cost women their lives and the freedoms we care about,” Walz said. “My mother and wife have more rights than my daughter who is 21 has. Think about that.”
Climate change was also one of the main items on the table this year.
“It’s about damn time,” Walz said. “There is a frustration that it hasn’t been faster and the sense of urgency isn’t there. It is, and the system moves slowly. We need to get re-elected.”
Ettinger alluded to the influx of voters that may take place this November due to the young voter turnout and proximity.
“Students are in a position to make a difference and we’re hoping that is going to happen,” Ettinger said. “We’re going to gain 5,000 of those 200,000 votes because of students. They weren’t on campus [in August] and around Southern Minnesota.”
On Monday, the popular political news site FiveThirtyEight showed Walz was up by less than 10% over his opponent, Republican Scott Jensen. Election Day is Nov. 8.
Header Photo: Governor Tim Walz visited Minnesota State University, Mankato to talk to the College of Democrats last Thursday. (Dylan Engel/The Reporter)
Write to Julia Barton at julia.barton@mnsu.edu