Alumna up for U.S. Senate: Loretta Sanchez talks millennial voting

Photo courtesy of Loretta Sanchez

Chapman ‘82 alumna and U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez is stepmother to eight kids. At any given time over the past few years, she’s had five children in college at the same time.

“How you pay for that university is something I’m really well aware of,” Sanchez told The Panther. “This whole issue of how we get people to actually go to university and not end up owing for the rest of their life is an incredibly important one for me.”

Sanchez is a congresswoman for California’s 46th district, which spans Santa Ana, Anaheim and parts of Garden Grove and Orange. She said that her understanding of the issues that students experience is one of the many aspects of her platform that make her appealing to younger voters. Sanchez, who is a democrat, said that she’s garnered endorsements from both Democratic and Republican college groups and has visited a variety of colleges in the area, including Chapman.

“We’ve been on a lot of campuses, talking to students, getting them engaged, hiring them on our campaign,” Sanchez said. “It’s pretty exciting.”

Sophomore Colette Peterson, a television writing and production major who is registered to vote in Oregon, said it would help a candidate’s campaign to visit local college campuses

“Because a lot of politicians are trying to get more young people voting and because she is the representative of the district of Orange, it would be in her best interest to have some sort of presence at local universities, so she would find organizations that are interested in her and just increase some sort of presence on university campuses so students are aware of who she is, know what she stands for and to help encourage them to vote,” Peterson said.

In terms of her own college experience, Sanchez said that she wasn’t too politically inclined during her time at Chapman. As a business administration major, she didn’t study political science – but wishes that she had become involved in politics earlier.

“I think it’s just with all the media, people in some ways are getting more tastes of politics earlier in life,” Sanchez said. “In some cases, some of them are getting pretty turned off, too. I would say that I don’t know, really, how I’ve changed politically since college.”

Although Sanchez is passionate about amassing support from younger voters, she’s currently polling at 22 points behind her opponent, Attorney General of California Kamala Harris, who is also a democrat, according to a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll.

“It’s very difficult this year to know what’s going on out there, with respect to who’s going to show up and vote or not,” Sanchez said. “We know that the millennials are with us, the young people are with us. If they come to vote, we’ll win. If they stay home, we’re going to lose. That’s what we know. I just don’t know if they’re going to show up.”

Although Sanchez said she has millennial support, some Chapman students had never heard of Sanchez or her policies.

“The name is vaguely, vaguely familiar but I don’t really know who Loretta Sanchez is at all because I’m not very educated with politics,” said Mia Andrea, a sophomore digital arts major. “They should publicize themselves more on television and social media. You just need name recognition for people to vote for you.”

Sanchez also said that some presidential candidates might not focus on gaining the millennial vote, because millennials are the least likely generation to vote. Information released by the U.S. Census showed that only 45 percent of people aged 18 to 29 cast ballots in the 2012 elections.

“Your group is the least likely to vote. And (the presidential candidates) think they’re gonna win without you. And you present the unknown for them. You present actual effort for them to get you engaged. So it’s expensive to continue to reach out to you and say ‘Hey, this matters,’” Sanchez said. “And the second thing is, they can already win without your vote. They might try to get you engaged, and then you might not agree with them, and then you’ll be voting against them. They like the status quo.”

Sabrina Santoro contributed to this report.