I was an 18-year-old UW freshman in 1991 when I helped shepherd Hillary Clinton through a visit to the Law School and a walk back down Bascom Hill. Most of the American public did not yet know of her then, but I did. She was more than just the wife of the candidate I supported in the upcoming Democratic primaries. I knew her as a champion of children’s rights working with the Children’s Defense Fund and in private practice as a Yale educated lawyer. I knew that she was the first woman to chair the Legal Services Corporation, an important non-profit legal assistance organization that helped ensure access to legal services for the poor. I knew her as someone who had worked in Arkansas to bring the poor more access to doctors. I believed she could be president herself. Not one day when I was much older, but then and there.
As a freshman in 1991, I knew that Hillary Clinton championed causes which I and so many other students at Wisconsin believed in. She was the real deal—an active and involved progressive on so many issues before there was much actual progress on them. That she was part of the package with then-Gov. Bill Clinton made his candidacy that much more exciting. It was no accident that the Students for Clinton organization I led in Madison became one of the largest in the country, or that my fellow Badgers showed such enormous enthusiasm for Clinton’s campaign.
Young voters should be even more enthusiastic about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 than I was about her back in 1991. Over the last 25 years, she has continued to demonstrate her deep and personal commitment to raising up those held down by pervasive inequality. She has continued to champion women’s and children’s rights all over the world, and has a record of success that follows her advocacy. She is not only a progressive thinker—her efforts have actually resulted in progress.
Of course we did not know in 1991 that she would go on to work tirelessly on health reform, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program or that she’d become a twice-elected senator from New York and then secretary of state. We did not know in 1991 that in 2016 she would easily be one of the most qualified and accomplished people—man or woman—ever to run for president.
I hope younger voters will look at Hillary Clinton the way I have since I was in their shoes at UW-Madison. Twenty-five years after she became a national figure, Hillary Clinton is working harder than she ever has to bring more fairness and equality to our country. She is, I suspect, exactly the kind of tough, accomplished and determined champion that idealistic younger voters hope they will be 25 years from now. Someone who has not only held onto her idealism, but has spent her life working toward that ideal and bringing us closer to it.
I hope younger voters will direct their energy in the best way possible in November and ensure that Hillary Clinton is the 45th President of the United States.
Adam served as the chairman of Students for Clinton at UW-Madison from 1991 to 1992. He graduated from the university in 1995, and is now a partner at Shipman & Goodwin LLP. Do you agree with him that young voters should be excited about Hillary Clinton? Let us know at opinion@dailycardinal.com.
