Posted on 10/13/2016 5:46:48 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Because they are only 19, Grace Danby and Courtney Trudeau are preparing to vote in their first presidential election.
The Ohio state students who play for the women's club hockey team are part of the millennial generation, loosely defined as 18-34-year-olds, that is predicted to be one of the largest voting blocs in the 2016 election.
They also share another trait: they identify as libertarians.
"Any of the third parties I would consider would take away votes from Donald Trump," Danby said while also expressing dislike for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. "I don't have a lot of time to think about this, and realistically, there's only two parties.
She and Trudeau were waiting for the Republican nominee to take the stage at the Renaissance Center in Downtown Columbus this afternoon. He spoke to a crowd of about 500 both seated and standing, comprised mostly of students from Ohio's several universities.
Trudeau said she had liked Trump throughout the Republican primaries, but ultimately, he earned her vote because another primary contender, Sen. Rand Paul from Kentucky, didn't make the cut.
And as for Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson, "He almost seems more liberal than libertarian," Trudeau said of the former New Mexico governor.
Christian Henderson, 24, an organizer for the College Republican National Committee, supported Rand Paul in the primaries, too. Issues such as free market economics and non-interventionist foreign policies are what drew him to Trump after Paul dropped out.
Henderson said if the Constitution and Bill of Rights are examined, the role of government is limited. "Big government will always fail," he added.
Mariah Daly, 23, who is an Ohio State student at the Mortiz College of Law, said she recently decided to be more open about her support of Trump.
"I was never going to vote for Hillary in a million years," she said, adding that she considered herself part of the silent majority.
She views Trump as a maverick, she said, and likes that he says what he wants. She, too, considers herself less traditionally Republican, more so "socially liberal, economically conservative."
Daly said she thinks more millennials would support Trump if they weren't scared what their peers would think.
"They don't want to look like they're a bigot," she said, attributing that persona to the media brainwashing millennials. "With millennials, they don't know what to think."
Kevin Kvasnicka, 22, a student at Cleveland State University, called this phenomenon, "millennial hive mind," adding that his generation is always trying to be more politically correct than the next person.
Kvasnicka admires Trump for his "America first" policies. "We should be focusing on our nation," he said.
Despite supporting Gov. John Kasich in the primaries, Kvasnicka said he "disavowed" Kasich now for the "great disservice he is doing to Republican politics," by aligning himself with the Washington elite.
Kodi Mercurio, 20, an Ohio State student as well, supported Kasich in the primaries, but when it came down to choosing someone to vote for, Trump was it.
"I'm not going to support someone who can't win," Mercurio, who is also a member of the Army National Guard and the ROTC program, said.
Mercurio said he has a group of friends that all share similar views, but when he engages with people outside of his friend group, who are not Trump supports, it can be frustrating.
"They don't know Hillary's policies," he said. "With them, it seems like it's a lot of empty talk."
HOORAY Grace, Courtney, Mariah, Christian, Kevin and Kodi.
HOORAY Trump
True...most of my friends are socially libertarian, because we are used to gays. We know what the government is doing with money and that is why we are fiscally conservative.
BUMP! BUMP!
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