This election season, there is too much at stake to simply sit at home and not let your voice be heard.
In my view, there is only one candidate ready to successfully and efficiently tackle all of the challenges our country faces — both at home and abroad — and also ensure our nation moves forward and builds on the progress we’ve made.
That candidate is Hillary Clinton.
As a millennial voter, I was proud to cast my first-ever vote for her on Super Tuesday in my home town of Roswell, Georgia. I am honored to support and volunteer for her campaign here in Gainesville.
I serve as the vice president of Gators for Hillary, a group of passionate UF students, faculty, alumni and Alachua County citizens who support Hillary’s bid for the presidency (@Gators4Hillary on Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram). There are a number of reasons why I feel Hillary is the right candidate.
First, her incredible level of experience and knowledge makes her the best person for the job.
From her time as first lady, to serving as a New York senator, to serving as secretary of state, she has more experience than any other candidate.
Mind you, the U.S. presidency is a position of unprecedented influence. She has been there in the periphery, thick and thin. She’s sat in the White House Situation Room during tense events; she advised President Obama on the killing of Osama bin Laden. Experience in this job is vital, and she’s got it.
Alternatively, one cannot go from being a boisterous real-estate mogul to an effective president.
Second, her incredible passion and commitment is evident and inspiring to me, as she’s fought for what she believes in all of her life — beliefs I also share. From advancing women’s rights around the world, to advocating and fighting for bold health care initiatives, to protecting children’s rights, to helping everyone have an equal chance in life, Hillary has our nation’s best interests at heart. She is the best change-maker I have ever seen.
She gets results, plain and simple.
We all see what is happening in the Republican race. While they are comparing “hand” sizes and battling over who can out-attack the other, the Democratic race is actually focused on substantive plans to continue moving this country forward. Hillary and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., are proposing forward-thinking proposals to the American people.
While Bernie’s ideas appeal to many, personally I believe his positions are overreaching, and I feel he’s overpromising to the American people, especially to millennials like myself. Hillary’s proposals are smart, efficient, tough and practical, and she has laid out exactly how she plans to pay for it all. She will put our country on the road toward success, and she will protect the legacy Obama leaves.
Hillary is, and has always been, a fighter. Above it all, what this country really needs is a unifier-in-chief, not a divider-in-chief, as one of the GOP candidates would be.
We need someone to break down the barriers holding others back from getting ahead and staying ahead. This is not the time to alienate people based on their ethnicity, religion, background, sexuality or any other classification. Hillary has always and will always fight for us — all of us.
There is no woman I know as tough as Hillary. People have tried to tear her down for decades, gutless attack after gutless attack. Most of us would have given up at this point. Not Hillary. When she does get knocked down, she gets right back up and keeps fighting, tougher and stronger than ever. She is our fighter. I know she is the only one right for the job. I’m confident she’ll be ready to go from day one, no tour of the West Wing necessary.
Jacob Best is a UF journalism freshman. He is the vice president of Gators for Hillary.
