This is the second installment of a series profiling different students on campus on why they support different candidates.
I got to sit down with Grace Woodward, a sophomore Republican who has spent time working on Jeb Bush’s campaign. Although Jeb is no longer in the running, she expressed what she liked about Jeb and where she saw these characteristics in more successful candidates. While she identifies as a Republican, she tends to feel that the word ‘conservative’ is too polarizing. She can be best described as fiscally conservative, socially liberal. While she doesn’t subscribe to every element of the Republican party line—and believes that one of the biggest problems with the party is how forced the party line can seem—she believes firmly in American capitalism, a small efficient government, and treading the line between safety nets and handouts carefully. All of the following information reflects Grace’s beliefs and information she provided.
Policies
Jeb’s tax policy simplifies the tax code enough that people can file themselves and eliminates a lot of the loopholes put in place by interest groups, but it isn’t a completely flat tax. His education policies are also really strong, which he proved in his time working as Florida’s governor. He made effective state policies that can be tailored more to different needs, rather than national policies that can lead to underfunding and teaching to a test and not for learning. His policies tend to focus on increasing state power. For example, his stance on women’s health, which was initially concerning because he made comments on lowering the national funds, is actually just geared towards creating more state-based funding for women’s health.
Qualifications
“The presidency is not an entry level position.” Cruz and Rubio are junior senators, Trump has never been in politics, and at the time of this interview, Carson was also still on the ticket, again without political experience. Part of the reason Obama had so much trouble pushing things through Congress is that he had not been there long enough to gain the respect of people across party lines. More experience and more time to gain the respect of your colleagues—even those who disagree with you, will help working with congress. Jeb is the only one who has experience as an executive by working as a governor. He’s a “total policy nerd.” Essentially “If he could spend all his time crafting policy he would. But nerds don’t win elections.”
Weaknesses
His biggest weakness is that as a governor, he doesn’t have the kind of foreign policy experience that some of his opponents do.
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