Thin with a boyish face and earrings in both ears, 23-year-old Isayah Turner does not look like a stereotypical Trump supporter, who tend to be middle aged or older.
Nevertheless, Turner drove two hours from his home outside Milwaukee on a recent Tuesday to see Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, one of a contingent of young voters there that some opinion polls suggest could be a growing and important demographic for Trump.
For Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who overwhelmingly won the youth vote in 2020, an erosion of his support among young voters could potentially dampen his hopes of a second term.
Turner, who runs a dog breeding business with his mother, voted for Trump in 2020. He supports Trump’s pro-oil drilling stance, his opposition to gun control - Turner owns several firearms - and his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.
I’m in Canada. We don’t have an “illegal immigration” problem, but the biggest problem faced by our country (the housing crisis), according to our mainstream political parties, and pushed by the media, are international students.
Never mind that provincial governments have cut academic funding to the point where schools cannot keep up with rising costs without increasing tuition fees. However that is a highly unpopular option, and many governments have tuition freezes in place. Instead, these schools rely on international student fees to supplement their revenues. International students pay more in tuition, and tuition freezes do not apply to them.
Never you mind that there are a lot of diploma mills that have popped up because there isn’t a lot of regulation in this space. The student body in these places are almost entirely international students, who end up with useless degrees or diplomas, but the owners walk away with a fat paycheck.
Never mind that international students rent, often sharing spaces with several other people. Again, because there isn’t regulation in the area, preventing unscrupulous landlords from shady practices (a recent pilot program by one municipality to regulate rental units - which mainly affects basement dwellings in single family homes - has seen an incredible amount of opposition by landlords).