The senate race in North Carolina is heated as Democratic candidate Kay Hagan edges five percentage points ahead of Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole, according to a Public Policy Poll released Sunday.

That is Hagan's biggest lead yet.

Issues like affordable education, immigration and energy policy are driving younger voters in the North Carolina senate race.

WHQR spoke with a group of African American students at University of North Carolina Wilmington's Upperman Center to talk about the issues swaying their votes.

Economic worries

Money. And not having enough of it to pay for college. That's the issue on the minds of these four students.

"People have to understand, with the cost of gas and everything, students are suffering," says Kendra Heard.

Heard is finance major. She has a part time job, little free time, and plenty of financial worries. She thinks the bailouts of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will make student loans harder to get.

"The higher education system in America is going to crumble if they don't receive the funding they need and students are not receiving the money able to go to school," says Heard.

Both senate candidates say they support strengthening Pell Grants, a federal grant program for low income students. Democrat Kay Hagan says she will push for the grants, and Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole voted to increase the grants from about $4,000 to $8,000.

But the low-income requirements leave most students who need the help, like clinical research major Brandon Bell, ineligible for the grant.

"Pell Grant, there is no Pell Grant. We have three college students, my mom, my brother and I, and we don't get any help," says Bell.

So these four students sitting casually around their computers will graduate from college saddled with thousands of dollars of debt.

Long deployments

After pondering that reality for a few moments, the conversation turned to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stephanie Frierson-Joseph, a pre-med student, brought up her husband.

"Being the spouse of someone who is in the military, Hagan's position on veterans getting out is she wants to shorten deployments, I think that's a beautiful thing because I know many people who have been deployed for six months, come home for two weeks, and get redeployed for another three to four months," says Frierson-Joseph.

Complex immigration

On the issue of illegal immigration, the students and the candidates are split. Dole wants to increase funding for a program which allows some local police and sheriffs to enforce immigration and customs laws.

Brandon Bell leans towards Dole's position on immigration because it addresses his concerns that undocumented workers jeopardize job security for legal workers. The Senator supported a broad, bi-partisan bill which included a guest worker provision.

"I support Elizabeth Dole. When someone is a citizen, they deserve to be paid minimum wage. No matter what kind of work, they deserve to get paid the right amount of money for their work. With that, it would eliminate illegal immigrant rifraf, and it would secure boarders if we use what we have here," says Bell.

But Stephanie Frierson-Joseph, the pre-med student, prefers Hagan's immigration plan. It targets employers that hire undocumented workers, and it outlines a guest worker program.

"Crack down on those corporations hiring illegal immigrants. But give seasonal workers guest passes," says Frierson-Joseph.

Vague healthcare plans.

When looking at the candidate's healthcare plans, clinical research student Brandon Bell found some of their positions vague. He says he wants to see clear strategies.

"As far as their healthcare plans, I'm more interested in how they are going to achieve them," says Bell.

Short-sighted drilling

And the students disagree with both candidates' plans to move ahead with off shore oil drilling. But their opposition bucks the trend published by Elon University, which has almost 70 percent of North Carolina residents in support of offshore drilling the finance major, was the first to speak up.

"I think our younger generation looks towards the future a lot more. In five years, if we have energy efficient, good technology out there, that would be more beneficial than wasting billions of dollars of going to off shore oil drilling, and we're still paying that off, and I don't think they see that because they are not going to be the ones paying it off, we are," says Heard.

So for the future state senator to win over this bunch of college-age voters, the candidates must provide assurances of an affordable college education, sound immigration policy, and sustainable thinking for the future.

Do you have insight or expertise on this topic? Please email us, we'd like to hear from you. news@whqr.org.

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