The Bucks Democratic Club, along with the Bucks County Young Democrats Organization, held a forum to target and rally young Democratic voters and to speak about issues like gun safety.

The forum featured six Democratic candidates: Wendy Ullman, Maria Collett, Andrew Dickson, Helen Tai, and Lauren Lareau. Each are running for various state government positions in Bucks County.

An organizer of the event and member of Bucks County Young Democrats, Olivia Mitchell, shared why the forum was created “We want to get young voices to vote, the 18-40 age range was the lowest turn out to the polls last election, our voices make a difference.”

Sarah Beltz, 28, is a seventh-grade teacher who wanted to hear the candidate’s opinions on gun control.
“Gun control is particularly important to me because I work in a school. I came here today because nothing will change unless we get involved, too many candidates make promises they do not keep,” said Beltz.

Gun control was a reoccurring topic throughout the event. All candidates celebrated that Pennsylvania has recently passed a bill prohibiting domestic violence offenders from possessing a gun.

Wendy Ullman, who is running for state representative and is a former Bucks English professor, shared her opinion on the upcoming election, “We need a massive number of democrats in office in order to continue to get the bills passed that will make a change!”

Since the forum featured only Democratic candidates, the goal of the forum was not to change people’s opinions but, rally young Democrats to vote.

Rachel Landsbergs, a worker for the Helen Tai campaign, said, “It is important that young voters are informed and by holding this event on the campus it shows students that the college wants them be knowledgeable and cares about them.”
Helen Tai, who is running for her second term as a Pennsylvania State Representative said, “I won last election by only 96 votes, so that proves that truly every vote does count.”

“This forum could be young voters’ only opportunity to interact with their candidates,” said president of the Democratic club, Keri Marable. “We have a long history with the organization Young Dems of Bucks County and holding the forum at Bucks was a nice central location of Bucks County.”

The forum concluded with candidates urging everyone who has not to registered to vote to register and most importantly to go to the polls on election day, Nov. 6.