“This campaign is probably the most important thing that I will ever live through,” says 26-year-old locksmith Charles Venezia. This sentiment is shared by Deena Stout, who is the same age: “This election means absolutely so much to me. There’s so much at stake.”
Both these young people are passionate about the election, both live in Pennsylvania and both grew up in conservative families. But the similarities end there.
Venezia is a dedicated fan of Donald Trump while Stout is fighting tooth and nail to get Democrats elected in local and national elections on November 5.
As an organiser with PA Stands Up, she spends almost every day campaigning for the Democratic Party.
“We do canvassing, phone banking, etc.,” explains Stout, who goes from house to house in Berks and Lancaster counties, on the outskirts of Philadelphia, to persuade people to vote Democrat in the next elections.
FRANCE 24 followed Stout on a morning of canvassing in rural Oley in Berks County. Full of enthusiasm, she knocks on every door, even those with Trump signs.
“I absolutely knock at those houses. They might be voting for Trump at the top of the ticket, but down at the bottom of the ticket, we can convince that it’s important to vote down-ballot Democrat.”
Venezia also knows that every vote counts in Pennsylvania and intends to convince as many people around him as possible to vote for Trump.
“I have convinced a few people that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election to go on to Trump this time, and I’m working on more people as well.”
FRANCE 24 met him at a pro-Trump gathering in the small town of Limerick outside Philadelphia. Charles had come to greet a bus full of elected Republicans criss-crossing the northeastern state to galvanise voters. It was hard to miss the locksmith dressed in a Trump T-shirt and “Make America Great Again” cap, running around taking photos of the event.
Young people could tip the balance
Venezia has been following the Republican candidate since high school: “I went to a Harrisburg rally during the 2016 election. And from then I just always followed him. I went to a town hall the other day in Oaks, Pennsylvania. Then I saw that they were coming here today.”
“From the start, I knew that he was the candidate with the policies that best aligned with me,” says the Republican voter, who above all defines himself as Christian and conservative.
“It was definitely unusual for young people to support him in the first election. But I feel as though now there’s a lot more of the young voter base that are going for him.”
Stout’s political commitment also goes back to her teenage years. She was at secondary school when she decided to write a letter to Barack Obama in the wake of the earthquake in Haiti: “I was angry that after taking in Haitians for six months, who had found a job and a home, they were being thrown out.” Even today, she remains motivated by the fight against injustice. “I am committed to the Democrats to ensure justice, security and dignity for all Americans,” she stresses.
The activist fears that human rights will regress if Trump wins the White House and, like many young women, wants to preserve the right to abortion.
Stout and Venezia are determined to ensure that everyone around them votes for their respective camps on Tuesday. In this battleground state, the outcome of the presidential election could be decided by a few thousand votes; and in Pennsylvania, young people are making their voices heard. In the last three national elections, their turnout was above average, according to the American research centre CIRCLE.
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