HARRISBURG, IL (WSIL) � We're a day removed from former President Donald Trump's victory over former Ambassador Nikki Haley in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary. The win puts Trump one step closer to a rematch of the 2020 election against current president Joe Biden �
But can either candidate (Trump, who is 77, and Biden at age 81) convince young voters, that they have the best vision for their future?
"Philip Converse said it best, it's human nature to not want to get interested in politics,� said Southeastern Illinois College political science professor Matt Lees.
Recent polling out of Harvard indicates a decline when it comes to the number of young voters for this year’s presidential election.
"I do a hundred percent understand when people my age just kind of don't want to get involved cause it seems so touchy and that's, that's completely understandable,� said 20-year-old SIC student Jillian Womack
But for the students with Southeastern Illinois College's Model Illinois Government Debate class, being engaged in politics means shaping the country's future.
"It's important to have your voice out there,� Toby Hamblin, a student at SIC. “It's important to be represented. I mean, this is your future. Our future. And if you don't participate, you're left out."
Now that the New Hampshire primary is over and Trump is declared the winner, Lees says it's going to be hard for Haley to unseat Trump for the GOP nomination.
"Trump has won both Iowa is when, when New Hampshire, and historically that hasn't happened since 1976 and Jimmy Carter,� Lees explained. And, most importantly, if you look at those two electorates, they couldn't be any more different. So it just tells you that Trump has broad base support going forward."
For Womack, this is the first time she will vote in a presidential election.
"Now that I am getting older and able to vote and those kinds of things, I've definitely paid a lot more attention just so I can see kind of cause it affects everyone, but it also affects me,� said Womack, “and as a woman, a lot of the laws lately have not reflected things that we always thought that they should."
And despite allegations that have put more than 90 indictments against Trump and several states wanting to remove him from the ballot, Lees says Trump's legal issues have seemed to help shore up his base
“Trump had a couple of election cycles where [the] Republican party didn't do well,� Lees said. “Several of his candidates didn't do well, but the party galvanized around him after that first indictment. So at that point, it became inevitable.�
And for a young voter like Womack, it's her generation that will inherit what today's politicians leave behind. And she says her involvement now will hopefully help shape tomorrow's decisions.
“At the end of the day it's going to be us, we're the ones that have to live with the consequences of what happens now,� Womack said. “We're the ones that are eventually going to be making those decisions. So I don't think there's so much of a stay out of politics as much of a put-off politics until, you know, we kind of have to.�
