Senator Kaine attends ‘Common Good in the Commonwealth’ series at JMU

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - U.S. Senator for Virginia, Tim Kaine, visited the campus of James Madison University Friday afternoon where he was a guest speaker for the ‘Common Good in the Commonwealth’ series put on by the university’s civic engagement center.

In front of students, faculty and community members, Kaine spoke on a variety of topics from the looming government shutdown, mental health resources -- including those for veterans, and the workforce -- including the need to revive the education system in the country to retain more teachers.

Part of civic engagement at the college level is getting to the polls.

As Friday marks the first day of early voting in Virginia, Senator Kaine spoke about how important it is for young adults to vote.

“It is dramatically easier for college students to be able to vote if there is a 45-day window than if it’s just you know kind of on election day,” Senator Kaine said. “I didn’t talk about the state elections today this was not a campaign event but you know I did come because I wanted to encourage people to be civically engaged and you know voting is a key part of it.”

Senator Kaine said this year’s election, where there’s not a presidential or governor’s race, where turnout tends to be lowest.

“When young voters turn out it’s much more likely that the outcome will be to the liking of young voters,” Senator Kaine said.

Senator Kaine said if they want young voters to turn out, they have to talk about the issues most important to them and not just ones that don’t affect them.

He said he sees many young voters are concerned about climate change, student loan forgiveness and equality.

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