With RJ Reynolds seniors’ first election coming up, they are looking to vote in what some say is an election that could change the course of American politics. There are an estimated 17 million new voters in the 2020 election, one of the largest increases in history. Between millennials and Generation Z, they make up close to 30% of the voter population: baby boomers represent 31%. To say that they will impact this year’s election is an understatement. 

“He [President Trump] won each and all of those three state’s [Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan] Electoral Votes by winning the popular vote in each of those states by a margin of about only 20,000 votes per each state,” civics and economics teacher Joshua Campbell said. “20,000 votes is the equivalent of all the undergraduate students at UNC-Chapel Hill voting.”

For many seniors, this will be their first vote. Many feel a lot of excitement around this event as a huge milestone in their adult life. 

“I am excited to vote,” senior Julia Whiting-Bryant said. “The current political climate can make someone feel helpless, but I know by voting I can make a change.” 

Many new voters’ top issue is climate change. This is because they feel that the climate has taken a backseat in politics and that no one in the government is working to protect the future of the youth. 

“I feel the most pressing issue for this upcoming election is climate change,” Whiting-Bryant said. “This issue affects everything and everyone in the world. We can still solve this issue if we become more sustainable now. The youth should be looking for someone who keeps our future in mind; someone who cares about the world we will have to take care of when we are the ones in office.”

While the presidential election is at the forefront of many people’s minds, there is a  more important election for the RJ Reynolds community: the North Carolina governor’s election. This year democratic incumbent Roy Cooper is being challenged by Dan Forest (R) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“I think the governor’s election will be particularly important this year and either candidate would have a huge effect on what is happening in our state,” senior Rand Parrish said. 

Dan Forest has made a large platform of his campaign the idea of sending students back to class so that parents can get back to work; this would be a dramatic change to the school year. However many North Carolinians feel that rushing back may not be the best call for the state. 

“I for one am quite thankful that Governor Cooper has taken a more cautious and data-driven approach to reopening our state…” Campbell said. “Lieutenant Governor Forest has done himself no-favors this campaign: he initiated what just about everyone saw as a purely politically-motivated lawsuit to block some of the Governor’s virus containment measures that was rather embarrassingly thrown out of court by the judge; and Forest has continued to hold large, mask-less and not socially-distant campaign events, in direct and wanton defiance of the Governor’s state-wide mask mandate, that have generated a lot of criticism in local and state media.”

Regardless of the polarized American political climate, Reynolds students are looking forward to making a difference in their communities and taking this huge step into adulthood.