The American Democracy Project hosted a meet and greet on Oct. 8 with Kearney’s candidates for the upcoming local elections. The event was held to give the public an opportunity to meet those running in the elections.
The American Democracy project does events like movie nights in non-election years but is doing more on campus this year.
“When it’s an election year, we mostly focus on voter education and doing things like holding this candidate forum,” said Diane Duffin, the coordinator for the American Democracy Project.
Twelve politicians that ranged from school board candidates to legislative candidates attended. They were asked questions about Nebraska issues like the books and curriculums in schools, teacher recruitment and retention, housing the growing Kearney population and political division between American citizens.
The candidates ranged in age and experience. Bryce Nelson, a city council candidate, graduated from Kearney High School in 2022.
“The reason I wanted to get started in politics, especially running for city council, is because back in 2020 we saw how divided our country was and how divided communities were,” Duffin said.
Another city council candidate, Alex Straatmann, said that he likes to keep a separation between local government and politics altogether.
“Local government shouldn’t be politics,” Straatmann said. “You gotta work and live with the people you serve with.”
Dan Lynch is the current Buffalo County Commissioner and is currently unopposed in the election, but decided to attend the event to reach out to and listen to the Kearney community.
“Do you listen to hear, or do you listen to speak?” Lynch said. “I think that if you are doing your job, you should be listening to hear.”
One major focus of the forum was to be able to address as many policies as possible. The candidates brought up many issues of their own including roadwork, childcare, immigration, human trafficking, job shortages in fields like nursing and teaching and transgender policies in schools and sports.
“We’ve got a lot of issues facing our state and I get a little nervous when I hear folks talk about one to two issues,” said Stan Clouse, a state legislator candidate.
Duffin said the focus of the American Democracy Project is to educate young college-aged voters who might be voting in their first election. The local candidate meet and greet saw four UNK student attendees. The rest of the crowd was from the greater Kearney community.
This week the American Democracy Project will host a voter information day from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesday at various campus locations. They plan to set up tables to help students get the information they need to vote.
