State of Democra-Z: the Wednesday after Super Tuesday

CATHY WURZER: We're turning now to the presidential primary results and Nikki Haley's announcement that she will suspend her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. Haley lost to former President Donald Trump in an all Super Tuesday contest, except for Vermont. Here in Minnesota, Nikki Haley received 28% of the vote, former President Trump almost 70%.

In the Minnesota Democratic primary, President Biden won with 70%, or 171,000 votes. Uncommitted voters were 18%. These are voters who wanted to send a message to Biden, demanding a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. Minnesota DFL Congressman Dean Phillips came in third statewide with 7% of the vote. In his own congressional district, he finished second behind Biden and 84 votes ahead of uncommitted. By the way, Dean Phillips just announced that he is suspending his campaign and will endorse President Biden.

There's a lot to talk about. So, joining us right now for our series, the State of Democra-z, are two of the 40 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 27 who are eligible to vote across the country this year. Cori Stockard is a junior on the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota, president of the College Democrats at the U. Addie Raum is a sophomore at Saint Olaf College in Northfield. And they're both active in politics. They've been following the campaigns. Welcome back, Addie and Cori.

CORI STOCKARD: Hello.

ADDIE RAUM: Thank you.

CORI STOCKARD: Good morning. I'm happy to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks. Addie, I'm going to start with you because some of our listeners may remember you helped campaign for Nikki Haley in New Hampshire. How are you feeling this morning?

ADDIE RAUM: Yeah, you know, it's disappointing. I think a lot of us were expecting it. It's the normal time for campaigns to-- in a normal year, when you'd have a lot more campaigns running, after Super Tuesday is a time when a lot of people drop out and start to acquiesce around one candidate. So it's not surprising that she chose to drop out at this time. It is disappointing because we hoped for a better showing on Super Tuesday. Disappointing, but at the end of the day, not surprising.

CATHY WURZER: Do you think she's had any impact on the campaign?

ADDIE RAUM: Yeah, that's a great question. I think that what she's really done is show that the future of the Republican Party is going to exist. And whether that is a splitting of the Republican Party into two factions, a faction that is represented by more old school, conservative fiscal policies, and then more of this populism that Trump represents, or whether it's going to split more along whether you like Trump or not, I'm not sure. But it's definitely representing that not everyone is just willing to go along with what's happening.

And so, I think that that is the most important thing that her campaign has represented, at least in the Republican Party, that some people, although they may not be able to derail the momentum and power that the Trump campaign has, are not also willing to sit by and do nothing and watch it take over the psyche of the entire Republican Party.

CATHY WURZER: So, Cori, did you vote yesterday?

CORI STOCKARD: Unfortunately, I was unable to. I'm registered to vote in Georgia. In order to register here, even though Minnesota has the great sort of same-day registration and that sort of thing, I would have had to have a state ID for Minnesota, or I would have had to have, relatively far out in advance, get a absentee ballot, which I have done for previous elections, but I did not do for this election.

CATHY WURZER: Don't want to assume anything, but would you have voted for Joe Biden?

CORI STOCKARD: I would have absolutely voted for Joe Biden.

CATHY WURZER: Say, what do you make of Dean Phillips bowing out of the race as of about 20 minutes ago?

CORI STOCKARD: Yeah, this was news to me. It's unsurprising, I think. I have to admit, I really did not understand, for the length of his campaign, what Dean Phillips was really angling for.

It didn't seem like he really had a clear idea of what his campaign was supposed to be, whether that was if he was trying to primary Joe Biden from the left or if he was trying to primary Biden from a more moderate angle, or if he was just trying to be a sort of similar to Biden, but trying to sort of emphasize the fact that he was younger. I just felt like his campaign didn't really have a sort of core theme. So it is very unsurprising to me that it ended the way that it ended.

CATHY WURZER: Say, I'm curious here with one of the other big headlines being that 19% of Minnesota DFL voters chose uncommitted, that movement to check the box to protest the president's handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Have you talked to some of your peers who might have voted uncommitted? What do you think of that whole movement?

CORI STOCKARD: I have not talked to anyone. I've talked to people who have given me opinions about the Israel-Palestine conflict. And a lot of people have said that they are not satisfied with Joe Biden's handling of the situation, but I haven't met anyone who has told me that they would voted uncommitted in a primary or whatnot. But I definitely echo the fact that I have heard people express disappointment in Joe Biden's handling of the situation.

CATHY WURZER: Addie, with your preferred candidate out of the race right now, gosh, have you decided what you're going to do in the general?

ADDIE RAUM: [LAUGHS] Yeah, hands down, Joe Biden. It's not a hard decision for me. I find Trump's policies to be not representative of the kind of direction that I want America to go, and also not representative of a true conservatism. And it's obvious to me that Joe Biden is the better choice between the two.

CATHY WURZER: And Cori, you voted in that race in Georgia in 2020, I understand. And polls show that former President Trump's ahead of Joe Biden there at the moment. What are you hearing from maybe some family and friends in Georgia about how that race is shaping up down there?

CORI STOCKARD: Well, I have to admit, I do certainly live in a sort of bubble in which a lot of the people that I know are going to, again, vote for Joe Biden. But we have to remember that this election, the 2020 election was very, very close in Georgia-- well, across the board, but in Georgia.

And essentially, all of the elections, including, I guess, the Senate elections, the Democrats managed to eke out a victory because of just this overwhelming feeling of the disgust against Republican candidates, including Trump in the election. And it's certainly a possibility, especially with the way that the polls are showing now, that the Democrats lose those gains in this upcoming presidential election in Georgia.

CATHY WURZER: So, Addie, when last we talked, you made a good point about saying the issues that are most important to young folks are not really what older people are talking about. I think you talked about inflation. Younger people are like, yeah, OK. Other younger voters are into some other issues. What are you going to be looking for here in the next weeks and months going to November when it comes to the issues that you really want to hear more about?

ADDIE RAUM: Yeah, I think, for me, the foreign policy is a huge one. Right now, we are in a extremely tumultuous world state. We have conflicts brewing all over the world. And knowing that our leader in office will take our role as America-- as the power that we have as America seriously is incredibly important to me. And so the discussion around foreign policy will be something that I'll be really, really tuned into and really focused on.

Additionally, being really focused on-- so, the people that are being placed in the cabinets, I think, is something that I'm looking for right now. I'm concerned that Trump won't be able to get anyone serious to put in his cabinet, that he's burned a lot of bridges, and that we're going to see people that are very, very far right or very, very just random names that a lot of mainstream people haven't heard of. There's some talk of who is even going to be his vice president. And so I think that who makes up these cabinets are also a huge issue for me and knowing that the cabinet is just as important as the president.

CATHY WURZER: Cori, real quick, what issues are you going to be watching for?

CORI STOCKARD: That is an interesting question. I think foreign policy, of course, is going to be, sort of, of elevated importance here. And in addition to that, I think that abortion, again, is really going to be a sort of key issue in discussion. And inflation, true. And then the other main one that I would say, even though this is sort of a broad category of issues, but I would say that social issues generally, sort of LGBTQ+ rights, and that sort of thing are going to be on people's minds.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Cori and Addie, thanks so much.

CORI STOCKARD: Thank you for having us.

ADDIE RAUM: Yes, thank you for having us.

CATHY WURZER: Cori Stockard is a junior at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. Addie Raum is a sophomore at Saint Olaf in Northfield. And it's been great having them share their thoughts on the young voter roundtable. It's called the State of Democra-z.