Editor’s note: Students in a journalism class at the University of Massachusetts Amherst interviewed approximately 60 voters leaving the polls in Amherst Tuesday. This story is based on reports by Hayden August, Leora Fastow, Matthew Flaherty, Dane Mulligan and Maria Elena Little Endara. It was compiled and edited by their instructor, Jim Foudy.
AMHERST — Voters interviewed here Tuesday offered strong support for progressive Democratic candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and they cited health care costs, economic inequality, the environment and beating incumbent Donald Trump as the issues they care about most.
While Joe Biden took the Super Tuesday Democratic primary by 34% in Massachusetts, he came in a distant third in Amherst with 19% of the vote. Amherst gave Sanders 40% of its votes, with 33% for Elizabeth Warren.
The results were similar to the Democratic primary in 2016 when Amherst went big for Sanders, who lost statewide to Hillary Clinton.
Health care was a common issue for voters interviewed.
“I’m a public health student, and access to health care is really important to me,” said 23-year-old UMass graduate student Rebecca Piscia, interviewed outside the polling stations at the Bangs Community Center. “Everyone should have the ability to get health care without going into debt.”
Lillian Drexler, a 19-year-old architecture student at UMass, said, “I voted for Bernie because I like his politics the best, and I am a Democrat. I’m for free lunches for kids and free health care.”
Student voters interviewed expressed the strongest support for Sanders.
Elizabeth Stelzer, 20, who is majoring in women, gender, sexuality studies and was voting at Wildwood Elementary School, described her support for Sanders: “I think he is the best person to represent everyone in the country.” As a college student, she likes Sanders’ plan for eliminating student debt, and she also noted his open support for transgender rights.
Sander’s progressive politics have come under scrutiny by some, on both the right and left, who view his label of “Democratic Socialist” as too radical. Some voters in Amherst said it is just what’s needed.
UMass student Georgia Moriarty, 19, voted for Sanders because of his socialist views. Moriarty, who lives in the Southwest Residential Area on campus, said, “The most pressing issue that I think will be solved by Bernie becoming president is overall economic inequality.”
“I think his policies are the only ones out of the other candidates that actually provide justice and will ensure real change,” Moriarty said. She mentioned the Green New Deal, Medicare for All and the College for All Act as Sanders’ policies that influenced her vote.
Rob A. Okun, 69, editor of Voice Male magazine, believes Bernie Sanders is the man to make a significant change from the “storm of destruction that we have had to endure the past three-plus years.”
He sees Sanders as having a vision for an egalitarian country where everybody has an equal say. “Those are values that inspire me and excite me to work on (his) campaign,” Okun said.
Despite Okun’s support of Sanders, whoever is the Democratic nominee will get his vote. Okun said the Democrats can beat Trump “if whomever the nominee is can inspire a massive voter turnout,” especially among young people.
Outside the Precinct 1 polling place in North Amherst, elder care worker Paola DiStefano, 66, of Montague Road, said she supports Sander’s policies on health insurance because of how they directly affected her family.
“We have two kids, everyone’s struggling, I mean we’re struggling to get by,” she said. “Income hasn’t risen in years and years, health insurance is absolutely killing people, and the environment situation, I just feel so bad for our kids. I feel like we’re going backward with Trump, and we can’t afford to keep going backward.”
Echoing that sentiment was Chrisopher Fobare, 36, of Montague Road, an adjunct professor at Worcester State University, who backs Sanders because he wants to get back to “a fair distribution of wealth in this society.”
“When people actually get a chance to see what he’s saying, they will recognize that really what he’s advocating for more than anything else is a return to the policies of Franklin Roosevelt and sort of an extension of those policies. I’m very confident that he would beat Trump,” said Fobare.
Warren also had strong support in Amherst Tuesday.
“Warren’s policies are most aligned with my values. I think she knows how to get things done and would be an excellent president,” said 64-year-old retiree David Ahlfeld of Blue Hills Road.
Ahlfeld believes Warren’s stance on “bank regulation, corporate control, appropriately regulating capitalism, social justice, reproductive rights, and health care” make her the ideal candidate for president.
As a disabled and retired 57-year-old, Laura Jones, of Greenleaves Drive, voted for Warren. “She’s the most intersectional candidate. She understands what intersectional actually means, and as a disabled person that’s important to me,” Jones said.
Jones believed in “voting aspirationally” in the primaries. She wanted to see someone in the Oval Office who “doesn’t feel like a mustache-twirling villain from a dystopian novel.” More importantly, Jones said, “I’d really like to have the next president be somebody that has actually read the constitution and respects the rule of law.”
Beverly Stevens, 73, of Arbor Way voted for Joe Biden because she thinks he has the best chance to take down Trump. Stevens hopes for a drastic change in the country. “We need to get back to a democratic, healthy nation,” she said. She said the country needs to return to the old norms where “we had dignity, intelligence, humanity among other elements that have been missing the past three years in the government and in people.”
Joel Stevens, 72, of Arbor Way also voted for Biden. He liked Sanders, but he said, “I don’t think he can beat Trump, so I am trying to pick the candidate that has the best chance to beat Trump.” He believes Biden has a good chance to win, and when asked the main concerns he has this election, he simply said, “Trump, Trump, Trump.”
Trump won the Republican Primary in Massachusetts, handily beating former Massachusetts governor William Weld. In Amherst, 93 voters cast ballots for Trump and 47 for Weld.
John Gagne, 19, a UMass student who lives in the Southwest Residential Area, said he voted for Trump because “(Trump) has supported American business and investing in America in a way that is realistic.”
Gagne said his decision to vote for Trump was based on his economic and foreign policies. He said, “[Trump] supports a free market economy and programs that will boost the economy rather than derail it.” He added that Trump is “reestablishing the U.S. as a leader in the world and using the resources available to protect American interests.”
Andrew Bereket, 21, of North Pleasant Street, also voted for Trump. Bereket said, “Economic nationalism is something I believe in very strongly.” Bereket said that the “focus on bringing back jobs and cutting taxes for the middle class” influenced his decision to vote for the current president.