Katie McGinty, the Democratic candidate for United States Senate in Pennsylvania, visited Main Campus Thursday morning. A group of about 30 students gathered around McGinty near the Bell Tower and she spoke with them individually about the issues they have in the Senate race.
“We’re here really to talk to the students now and try to mobilize people’s voices and their vote,” she told The Temple News. “Every vote is going to count in this election.”
McGinty said she and her team are hitting “all the key constituencies today.” Temple was just one stop for McGinty before sitting down to speak with the Black Pastors of Philadelphia and Philadelphia senior citizens later in the day.
McGinty accused Sen. Pat Toomey of posing to voters as being moderate, but that his voting habits in the Senate say he is very conservative.
“He’s just like Ted Cruz, except he’s like a milk-toast personality, he just doesn’t really put it out there,” she told a student.
McGinty last came to Main Campus on Oct. 24 for the final senatorial debate with Sen. Toomey.
“I think one of the most powerful things of that debate was in respect to abortion,” McGinty told a student. “He’s talking the old party line and I was just like ‘you know what, this is about people and families and privacy.’”
Students from Green versus Gray: Urban Ecology class were allowed to leave class to see McGinty and speak with her.
“I didn’t even realize she was running,” freshman secondary education major and Long Island native Stephanie Cuomo said. Cuomo said she will be voting in Philadelphia, and McGinty visiting makes her “more human” than the other candidates on the ballot.
Natasha Zakin, a freshman anthropology major and Washington, D.C. native, was in the same boat as Cuomo.
“I think it’s nice, especially since students aren’t all from Philly, to learn about the other people that are running besides Trump and Clinton,” Zakin said.
“There’s a lot at stake in this election,” McGinty told The Temple News. “I would just say to students that if you care about college affordability, if you care about things like the environment and climate change, and if you care about being responsible in respect to the Supreme Court and other key issues like that– it’s all on the ballot.”
Gillian McGoldrick can be reached at gillian.mcgoldrick@temple.edu or on Twitter @gill_mcgoldrick.
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