MCC students weigh in on VP debate and their hopes for the 2024 election

Monroe Community College students gathered to watch the Vice-Presidential debate on Tuesday night.

WXXI’s Education reporter Noelle Evans joined them to get their perspectives as some prepare to vote in their first presidential election next month.

The transcript is below:

ANGELO ROMERO: Thank you guys so much for coming. Hi, I'm Angelo Romero, President of the Student Government Association here at Monroe Community College, and I am studying political science here as a student. So right now, we're in the Brighton campus to basically go out and watch today's vice president debate.

EVANS: Have you decided who you're going to vote for?

ROMERO: I don't know yet, just because I just, I don't, I'm not really a huge fan of either candidate. This might change how I feel, maybe — or maybe in the next few weeks. I don't know. I just want someone who can represent me. I'm not going to vote on party line. I'm going to vote who I think is the best candidate in my opinion. And I might even write in third party, because maybe that's who I trust.

ROMERO: You guys can grab some pizzas, get some drinks.

JJ MORGANO: Hi, I'm JJ Morgano. I'm a second-year student at Monroe Community College, and I'm studying political science and philosophy.

EVANS: Will this be the first time you're voting?

MORGANO: Yeah, well, actually, I just registered last month, and I didn't vote in the midterms. I wasn't politically active then, but now I'm registered. I'm very eager to vote for the first time.

EVANS: So, you're registered to vote now, okay, your views so far, and just like how this election cycle has been kind of coming together?

MORGANO: I think it's been a disaster. I mean, it's been about as polarized and as divisive and messy as I expect it to be, but, I mean, the assassination attempts are even a little more wild than I would have expected. But it's, yeah, I'm nervous, I'm scared, but I'm not scared enough to turn away from watching and kind of try to be engaged. I think that's the most dangerous thing you can do.

EVANS: What are you scared of?

MORGANO: The world is a mess, and just with war and climate change, and just seems like things are at such extremes, and it's hard to find a middle ground on most things. It seems like there's no middle ground that can be found.

EVANS: Hi.

ELIZABETH TACKITT: Hi there. My name is Elizabeth here at the vice-presidential debate,

EVANS: You said 2020 was the first time you voted. When was the first time that you felt politically aware?

TACKITT: Probably when I was 15 in high school. I was very motivated by Donald Trump's politics. At the time, I was very excited about him. I grew up in a rural town, and I wasn't exposed to many different viewpoints. It was meeting more diverse voices — talking to more people of color, you know, queer people, where I realized that these people are not abstract political ideas, but human beings that deserve rights. And soon enough, I realized that I was also one of those people.

EVANS: That shift to becoming aware of other people is not as these abstract concepts.

TACKITT: That was in 2016 actually. It was, in fact, election night. I was able to meet a black conservative, and at that time, I admit that I was slightly racist, I met this person and realized that those ideas were not only unfounded, but hurtful. That's something that got me to gradually deradicalize.

EVANS: I really appreciate you bringing this up like how influenced you were by your surroundings and your environment to then that shift for you as you grew up.

TACKITT: I have the benefit, some would say, of having lived both as a cis white man and a trans white woman. And it's interesting, having seen it from both sides, how men are seriously just given more rights than women. Myself, as a transgender person, I'm sort of also concerned about my rights as a trans person and a queer person.