LAS VEGAS ― Rafael Rodriguez can’t vote yet ― he’s only 11.
But he wishes he could, he said Wednesday after watching the third and final presidential debate between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. That’s in part because his mother is undocumented, although he is a U.S.-born citizen.
“She’s not allowed to vote, and I want to vote for her and let my voice be heard,” he said.
But even though he can’t cast a ballot, Rodriguez is absolutely certain who won the debate. Really, it wasn’t even close.
“We clearly know that Hillary won this debate, because Donald Trump really didn’t answer the questions,” Rodriguez said. “He would bring up different questions and answer them. Hillary, she took a little bit of extra time, but she answered the question with her full thoughts, while Donald Trump, he interrupted her and she just kept going. She was determined to say her answer. Donald Trump didn’t know what to say.”
““Nobody likes him.””
- Rafael Rodriguez on how sixth-graders view Donald Trump
Rodriguez was the youngest of about 40 people at a watch party organized by Latino-focused advocacy groups Mi Familia Vota, iAmerica Action and CHISPA Nevada. While the event was officially nonpartisan, there was a clear favorite in the room. People snapped their fingers and cheered at some of Clinton’s jabs at Trump, and groaned when he claimed that no one respects women more than he does, or promised that he will deport the “bad hombres.”
Rodriguez kept an eye on the proceedings from a folding chair, except for a short break to get tacos outside the office building.
One of his top two issues, climate change, did not come up. The other, immigration, did, after being largely passed over in the first two debates, even though it has been a huge topic of discussion this election cycle.
Rodriguez actually brought the matter up with Clinton once, according to his sister-in-law Emily Zamora, the Nevada state coordinator for iAmerica. She and her husband took Rodriguez to a meet-and-greet with Clinton in February, where he asked, “They say America is a free country. If it’s a free country, why do they deport families?”
Zamora said they were impressed by the question ― and by his post-debate analysis on Wednesday.
Rodriguez said he talks about politics with his brother and sister-in-law sometimes, but other people in his sixth grade class don’t really discuss it. They do talk about Trump, though.
“They say that he’s the worst, he’s a loser, they don’t like him,” Rodriguez said. “Nobody likes him.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
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