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At 17, Alessia Babouche can’t vote or run for office in Pennsylvania. But she has already found a way to make her voice heard in Harrisburg. While balancing her high school education, she worked on the congressional campaign for U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Chester County, and served on the youth advisory council for state Sen. Katie Muth, D-Chester County. She’s also the co-founder and co-president of the Downingtown STEM Academy High School Democrats Chapter.
Babouche believes her generation is in charge of driving a change in American politics. Pennsylvania’s future voters may still be coming of age, but several who spoke to WHYY News said they already know what they want from their elected officials.
While working on Muth’s youth advisory council, Babouche attended a Senate hearing focusing on immigration. She said the discussion diverged to focus on transgender women and women’s sports. Republicans in the state Senate and House have advocated for the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which would restrict transgender women from participating in women’s sports.
“That was the whole discussion the entire time. But in reality, nothing ends up coming out of it. I really got to see that a lot of … our money and our time is wasted on the issues that I believe are not our main priority,” Babouche said.
Babouche instead points to affordability as a top issue for young people. As a high school senior applying to colleges, she said she’s worried about the rising costs of higher education and how that will impact her future.
“I’m not making enough money to be able to afford all these insane prices,” she said. According to studies conducted by Harvard and CIRCLE, the economy is the top concern for the majority of young voters.
Babouche also wants to advocate against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s presence in Pennsylvania communities.
“[ICE is] tearing apart families, targeting minorities and marginalized groups, and also this [is] blatant racism that exists in our politics,” she said.
Henry Betman, a college freshman and the fundraising director at Penn State University’s GOP, will be voting for the first time in the upcoming midterm elections. He also said immigration policies are a top concern for him.
“There’s definitely a lot of things that I think have gone wrong … pertaining to the border, especially open immigration policies, [which have led to] a lot of illegal migrants coming in,” he said. “I do think that the most important thing for America and that [President] Donald Trump is trying to [tackle] is the open border policies and trying to secure that for American sovereignty.”
Betman also cited men’s mental health and youth substance abuse as major election concerns.
“Politicians should absolutely work on cracking down on the drug problem. At the very least, if someone’s going to do that they should be educated on what the risks are,” he said.
Betman points to his own university, where 14 individuals were charged with running a large-scale cocaine trafficking ring from off-campus fraternity housing in August.
“I think men’s mental health is especially undervalued if you look at it enough. I think that it absolutely should be something the politicians focus on,” he said. “I think, at the very least, it should just be talked about more.”
“It should just be that men should have more access to private counselors.”
Betman said he is unsure if he would support Democratic policies such as “Medicare for All,” which would provide universal mental health care, because he does not know how it will impact the economy or taxes.
“That’s something I really aspire to know more about and to be able to formulate a better opinion on in the next coming years,” he said.
