Young People In Office

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It should be paramount for young educated people to get involved with politics. Drew Christensen, a former student at the University of Minnesota, and Andrew Brown, a current student at the University of St. Thomas have done just that. Both are running for offices within the state representative, both caring deeply about the issues surrounding Minnesota politics and have expressed so outwardly. One such issue on which Drew criticized the state was the irresponsible use of taxpayers money.

“Its frankly bullshit that taxpayer money is being used for the state legislature to build themselves a new and expensive office building”, Drew stated. This new office building that Drew Christensen was referencing cost over $90 million dollars to build while the old offices are under renovation.

“People are angry when I tell them about [this office building], angry that their legislature are using tax dollars to build this Taj Mahal for themselves. Most other institutions would rent office space while an old building is being renovated.”

“Furthermore, these taxes are crippling to small business,”Andrew Brown added.

“It is important that taxes are cut, in order to promote job growth.”

Not surprisingly, this is not the only place the state has seen fit to waste taxpayers money. The new Light Rail system is one such infrastructural expense that makes no sense for the city. As Drew Christensen put it, “We need public transportation, this is true, but the Light Rail doesn’t make sense. Work centers move, populations move, you can’t move the Light Rail. Better roads and bus systems is what the Twin Cities need.”

The other good thing about having youthful candidates like Drew Christensen and Andrew Brown is they empower young people to get involved in politics, through the support needed in their campaigns.

“Lots of college students have been coming out and helping with my campaign”, Drew stated. “I think they know that I represent and support a lot of the things they want.”

Drew Christensen is absolutely right about what most college students want coming out of college.

“What people coming out of school want is a job, and we need a good economy in order to provide those,” he says.

Running for office also provides the opportunity to connect with older politicians. Andrew Brown has been able to connect closely with current State Representatives and other members of the Republican party, who’ve been central in helping to organize and manage parts of his campaign.

Drew Christensen and Andrew Brown are more likely to be in touch with what college students actually want than someone like Al Franken, as they themselves are college students and are subject to the same wants and goals as other current college students. Thus, as policy makers, they will be able to represent the wants of college students best. Electing college students to office will go a long way in fighting the political gerontocracy.