Mineral Wells High School seniors share views on likely presidential choices in first time to vote

MINERAL WELLS — A trio of Rams planning their first presidential votes recently shared they wish their choices were not six decades older than them.

“I like my grandma very much, but I don’t want her running my country,” senior Lucas Cross said, during an informal classroom interview joined by classmates Lela Alifa and Kristen Riney.

Cross, 18, already dipped his political toes into the presidential race, voting in the recent GOP primary for Nikki Haley.

“I would prefer someone who grew up more recently,” Cross cited his criticism of likely nominees Donald Trump and Joe Biden. “I feel like they are both really old.”

He said he did not have a preference between the two older candidates, who broke the age records for the White House back in 2020.

“And they’re breaking it again,” he added.

Riney, 17, said she grew up in a Republican household and will cast her first presidential vote for Donald Trump.

“I just know his views on the border and Ukraine — I agree with his views,” she said. “And that’s that the border should be controlled.”

“I completely agree,” Alifa, 18, reacted to her classmate’s pro-Trump border assessment. “And from what I see coming from the news, I think that he is more patriotic than our current president now.”

As Texas public school students, all three know how to take a test. The one for citizenship, they said, is stupid hard.

“We took it in government, and I didn’t pass,” Riney said. “So how do they expect non-English speaking people to pass the test?”

Make citizenship easier overall, she said, “ ...then we’d have taxpayers, and it’s likely the economy would advance.”

Cross indicated addressing the thousands seeking entry at the border daily is not an either-or question for him.

“If we secured the border but structured the process and made it easier to become a U.S. citizen, it would be way better,” he said. “A majority of my friends are Mexican, they are from Mexico. Some of the problem with the border lies in the difficulty of getting a citizenship. ... A majority of them are the most patriotic people I’ve met.”

None of the three were buying in to claims from Biden’s camp that democracy itself is under threat.

“I don’t think democracy is in danger at all,” Cross said, before being asked about the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol. “Oh, yeah. That situation was the first time in my life I watched something and thought, no way. I thought it was fake — that kind of stuff can’t happen.”

Riney agreed the images of Americans beating Capitol Hill police with an American flagpole were disturbing.

“That’s not Americanism,” she said, Alifa adding, “It’s just a negative representation of the Land of the Free.”

Health care was an important issue for Alifa and Cross. Alifa’s mother is a pharmacist.

“I would say, coming from my mom’s perspective and what I can see, I don’t like how some people need to get surgery ... but don’t get it because it’s not covered,” she said.

Cross said it’s wrong for Americans to have surgeries postponed or denied by insurance carriers.

“I’ve seen a lot of people and known a lot of people who had to put off surgery for a long time because the insurance won’t cover it,” he said. “I see health care as a right, I think it’s a right if you live in this country. You should be able to get adequate care for yourself without being $30,000 in debt over something you can’t control.”

The ongoing war between Israel and Hamas drew skepticism from Riney and Cross.

“I think we should just completely stay out of it,” Riney said. “Because, both sides aren’t doing the right thing.”

Cross did not see America’s involvement in the Middle East war, supplying weapons and funds, as rooted in its Judeo-Christian kinship with Israel.

“We’re not in it because we’re ‘One Nation under God,’” he said. “We’re in it because it’s our foothold on the Middle East. Israel and Palestine will literally be fighting forever, because they’re fighting over religion. We need to stay out of that.”

He took a different direction when asked about financial and weapons support for Ukraine in its war with invading Russia.

“For the Ukraine war, America should put their input into it,” he said. “But I personally don’t believe Americans should be on Ukrainian soil.”

Finally, Alifa listed gun violence as a top issue, including the ease of purchasing a weapon.

“There should be extensive background checks and precautions when it comes to people our age buying guns,” she said. “There needs to be mental health checks, and you have to think about the parents, too. Are their guns locked up?”