Although presidential elections get a lot of attention, College Republican Treasurer Paul Duncan said the upcoming midterms are the most important.
The midterm elections will be Nov. 4 and will be focusing on local and statewide issues and candidates.
“That stuff’s going to affect us as much as anything the federal government is going to do,” Duncan said.
Now is the chance to vote out those such as Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine if people don’t like his vision, Duncan said.
Voting often is important to College Democrat President Emily Garcia, but she thinks the midterm elections can affect local communities much more than the presidential elections.
“I’m a firm believer in voting any time and every time you can,” she said. “It’s one of the rights as an American that everyone should be involved in. Every election no matter how big or small will make a difference.”
Garcia said because Ohio is split politically, the elections could go either way.
The College Republican President Nick Detz, however, said he is confident Governor John Kasich will keep his position. He attributed this to Kasich’s accomplishments as governor.
“You’ve seen so much success in the last four years. You’ve seen balanced budgets. He cut the small business tax, and I think small businesses are what drive this country so for me I love that,” Detz said. “All of what Kasich has done has wowed Republicans; he’s wowed Independents and I think even some Democrats are going to say he’s done a fairly good job.”
Duncan said the House and Senate will also see Republican success. He predicts that Republicans could likely take Congress in the midterms.
If the Republicans do take a majority in Congress, Duncan said the “ball will be in Obama’s court.” If Congress were to be a Republican majority, he said they could be “cranking out bills like it’s nothing” and it would be up to Obama to veto them or not.
“If the Republicans win Obama’s essentially a lame duck,” Duncan said. “He’s powerless unless he’s willing to compromise with Republicans.”
One of the issues Democrats have been running on during the midterm elections is minimum wage, which Garcia said most people are for. She said the problem with it is that most people agree with it being raised, but there is a lot of disagreement about how to
enact it.
She said minimum wage policies shouldn’t be put into action drastically, but should be a gradual change.
“Minimum wage is an interesting subject just because our president has come out openly for minimum wage and states like Washington have raised the minimum wage,” she said. “It has the potential to bring undecided voters to the Democratic side, but I don’t think it holds as much weight as they think it does.”