SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — On Wednesday, six of 15 soon-to-be first-time voters in San Diego gathered to watch the fifth Democratic debate, and the first debate to take place since the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump.
Heading into the debate, first-time voters hoped impeachment would not dominate the night.
"I am ready for one of them [candidates] to turn negative on the impeachment. I think it is stupid," said Phillip Latamondeer.
Diego Estrada, 17, previously supported President Trump but is now supporting Andrew Yang. Estrada also wants Democrats to move on from impeachment.
Del Norte High School senior Matan Bar is a Republican who supports the president and believes he will win the 2020 election by a landslide. However, he still wants to hear about the issues.
"I need to hear what makes each one of the candidates unique," he said.
It was also the first debate to take place since Beto O’Rourke dropped out of the presidential race. The six made it clear they were glad to see to Beto O’Rourke drop out because of his aggressive stance on guns, but the six in attendance said Beto’s aggressive stance could potentially come back and haunt the eventual Democratic nominee.
A major issue for these young San Diegans is electability. Most believe former Vice President Joe Biden will become the nominee, but regardless of that potential outcome, they believe that in the primaries it is important to vote for the person they believe in the most in. In doing so, first-timers said it would hopefully send a message to those candidates that their platform and policies not only appealed to them, but give them a sign of encouragement to eventually run again for office.
"Let's say Biden gets the nomination, I think he will most likely win. the most progressive Democrats that support Warren and Sanders will do what they did in 2016, and they either won't vote or write in, and that does not help anything," said Madeline Austin, currently a student at Mira Costa Collage.
All the present first-timer voters had negative reactions when a potential late run by Michael Bloomberg and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick was mentioned. In fact, they believe that candidates should start to drop out now in order for the eventual nominee to gain full momentum leading up to the 2020 election, which is now less than year away.
"I think it is insane that people are just now contemplating entering. At this point we are less than a year out. Who is going to be the Democratic nominee? They can't pick up the momentum," said Hurao Pablo.
For as young as they are, all six did have a warning for the Democratic party: Nominate someone who will not only beat Trump but will also bring out the the African-American and Latino vote. For all six, that person, for now, is Biden. First-time voters also agreed that if Democrats are going to embrace progressive candidates like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren, then the party should just go full out and embrace them, rather than widening the rift they currently see between moderate candidates and far left leaning candidates.
Other topics of discussion for the group during Wednesday debate included: older voters, memes, and censoring the president on social media.