As the primaries rage on and the Democratic presidential candidates continue to rally and campaign for voters, one student heavily involved in civic engagement has decided to help.
On campus, David Benoit served on the Student Government Association (SGA) as a senator and currently holds a position in the executive board as the Association of Student Government Liaison, which “coordinates advocacy events, forums, trips for government outreach.”
He also serves on the Student Democracy Coalition (SDC) which is a non-partisan organization on campus which focuses on getting students civically engaged providing voter registration and an on-campus voting location.
Benoit is a political science and international studies major at Western Carolina University. He’s supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president. For two weeks in early January, Benoit campaigned and organized for her in Iowa.
David Benoit holds Warren sign. Photo provided by David Benoit
Benoit says he supports Warren for president because of her past track record. He says he loves the work Warren has done, especially for economic America. “Sen. Elizabeth Warren . . . is the product of the many opportunities that America offers people,” Benoit said.
Warren has humble beginnings growing up in a small town in Oklahoma to becoming a Harvard professor and now a presidential candidate.
In summer 2019, Benoit “worked on a faction of the DNC (Democratic National Committee) called Organizing Corps. [It] is an opportunity for college students . . . to learn how to be organizers and community leaders in order to do political work and electoral work,” Benoit explained. Through this experience, he got the opportunity in Iowa.
He called the experience “fulfilling” and said that the “biggest connection to that sort of area was living in Appalachia, North Carolina.”
While in Iowa, he saw some of the issues his candidate is fighting for such as poverty rates and opioid abuse.
As a political science and International studies student, he thinks that the biggest issue facing America today is foreign policy and affairs.
Benoit spoke about the frenzy that social media and the political world went into following the attack on Iran, which killed a prominent Iranian leader earlier this year.
“People want integrity of America to stay safe for the next four years,” Benoit said, adding that when he met Warren, this was one of the biggest issues that she focused on also.
Benoit adds that Warren isn’t “just promising empty promises.” He spoke about how Warren has become known as the “I have a plan” lady, which he believes reflects how invested she is in the campaign. According to Benoit, it demonstrates that she’s doing her research.
Warren became known early on for having a plan, most notably her taxation of rich Americans and businesses. Warren plans to start taxing after $50 million of income or revenue, claiming with two cents per dollar could lead to universal early childhood education (pre-k) and universal free four-year college tuition. Warren also plans on bridging race relations in America and is one of the few candidates that would de-criminalize illegal border crossings.
She’s also in acknowledgement that without the African American community, she could not win. Benoit agrees.
“So many black advocates are stepping up and saying, ‘how are you going to not only break systems of oppression but restructure and reform what America has put in place to better serve black people and people of color, people of the LGBTQIA+ and so many small minorities that have been marginalized for years?’” Benoit said.
This lead into the question of why there’s a lack of diversity in the Democratic field, to which Benoit replied, “in regards to sexuality, in regards to race, skin color there are some things that a lot of Americans cannot look past and so they are able to look past it with these white males candidates and with some of these white female candidates.”
Even if Warren doesn’t get the nomination, Benoit plans on supporting the Democrat nominee for president. He says, “it is not my entire goal, but it is a large goal for me to assist in taking our current president out of office.”
Benoit will graduate this upcoming May and plans on working in the general election.
“What happens in November will really decide what I plan to do with the rest of my life, which is very dramatic to say but it’s the truth. This year is such a defining year and it’s such an important year in US history whether we want for it to or not.”
