Seniors Get Political

With TikTok tanking teen attention spans, it’s reasonable to assume that high school students may not be as privy to politics as older generations. This, however, isn’t true at Waukee. Seniors will graduate in less than six months, and most will be eligible to vote this election year. As young people emerge in the workforce and higher education, we are seeing an increase in political participation as well. 

Out of the 54 seniors who were voluntarily polled in The Arrowhead’s Political Participation Survey, nearly 93% said they were eligible to vote in this year’s November election. Of these students, around 80% plan to do so, and nearly half already know who they’ll be voting for.

Some seniors such as Ben Biggs are skeptical of the voting system but recognize the importance of it. “Simply because more often than not, it’s voting with two people and just picking red or blue depending on where you fall,” he said.

Around 46% of students identified themselves as Democrats, and about 20% identified as Republicans. 24% were unsure of where they stood politically, and 9.4% identified as independent or third party. These demographics match closely with an ABC News analysis of young voters and their priorities. The article states that younger voters, specifically those under 30, tend to be more left-leaning and more concerned about climate issues. This is nearly the case for Waukee seniors, as a high percentage of them marked climate change and the economy as the most important political issues for them. 

Jacob Cunningham expressed that the government needs to look at the economy and focus on ways to stabilize it. “And then combating global warming and some of these more global facing issues,” he said.

The political issue valued as most important for most of The Arrowhead’s respondents was gun violence. Around 69% of participants marked it as a priority topic, showing that, in the wake of the Perry High School shooting and many others across the nation, Waukee students have the subject at the forefront of their minds.

Participants are very mixed on presidential candidates. With Joe Biden and Donald Trump being the most popular, having only an 8% difference with Biden in the lead, there were also some votes for lesser-known Democrats and third parties. Nikki Haley, the second major Republican candidate, was favored at 13%, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. received almost as many votes (11%). There were 7 votes for Cornel West, Marianne Williamson (who has now dropped out of the race), and Dean Philips combined. 

When asked how politicians can make a better nation for them, three seniors who volunteered to be interviewed explained their own versions of ideal politicians and their actions. 

“Changing one thing at a time, which is the way our government is currently working, is very slow and very inconsistent,” said Biggs. “I think if we’re going to have political parties, we need more than two, more than three, more than six, even.”

Ben Biggs says they lean more towards the libertarian left on the political compass and are not a big fan of capitalism. They believe that the U.S. should also focus on prison reform that focuses on rehabilitation. They value freelance work and art and want to start an animation studio in the future. “I definitely support unionization,” they said. 

Alek Graham has recently become more politically active within his party, attending caucuses and conferences for the Republican party and continuing to support his ideal candidate, Nikki Haley. 

“A politician, for me personally, would want to push towards not having abortions being as readily available as maybe some places that they are,” Graham said.

Though he is a registered Republican, Graham says that he is more of a “Democratic-Republican,” meaning that he looks more toward the founding fathers’ ideas of what the nation should be like. 

“America is, I think, slowly forgetting about the Constitution,” he adds. “I think a politician needs to look at the constitution and take everything in it to heart; there’s no expanding it, there’s no shrinking it.”

Jacob Cunningham is an independent who keeps up with the news by following right-wing, left-wing, and neutral news organizations to keep his views balanced. 

“On economic issues, I’m more conservative, and on social issues, I identify more with the Democratic party,” he said. 

His ideal politician would listen to their constituents and live where their constituents live. He favors methods that allow politicians to focus on larger issues and find common ground. 

“You’re not gonna get everything you want, but you can try,” Cunningham said.

The Arrowhead quizzed 24 seniors about the Constitution and their rights, and the average of the resulting scores was around 80%. The median score was 8/10 points. These results are no surprise, as Waukee requires students to take a government class in order to graduate, preparing students for the future. 

Teachers like Chris Kannapel, a long-time teacher of economics and both AP and regular-level Government and Politics, seek to equip the next generations for engagement in the democratic process.

“First thing,” Kannapel said. “Read the newspaper, local and national; they always have up-to-date news.” 

Kannapel urges students to grow their awareness of how the government works and stay on top of the news. 

“Secondly, talk to people,” he said. “Those two things will help a lot.”