With the closing of voter registration in Nevada last Saturday, Michelle Obama’s visit to U. Nevada, Reno last Wednesday was ended by the first lady’s emphasis on the importance of registering to vote.
The first lady visited campus on the day of the first presidential debate, encouraging students and public attendees to get to the polls and make their voices known.
“All the hard work and progress we’ve made…it’s all at stake this November,” the first lady said in her speech at UNR. “The only guarantee is that this election will be closer than the last one.”
The UNR media newsroom reported a crowd of about 3,800 attendees, all of whom erupted in cheers as Michelle Obama emphasized the importance of moving “forward,” the adopted slogan for Barack Obama’s campaign.
The first lady spoke to the crowd about knowing what the job of president is actually like because she has seen it first hand. She said the decisions her husband makes aren’t just about the bottom line but rather laying the foundation for the next generation.
“As president, you must be driven by the struggles, hopes and dreams of all those you serve,” Michelle Obama said.
When Barack Obama entered the White House in 2008, the economy was on the brink of collapse and losing an average of $800,000 a month, the first lady said.
“He came into a mess and I think he’s done an outstanding job,” said Mary Randolph, a 56-year-old postal worker who traveled from Sacramento to see Michelle Obama speak. Randolph said that she is one person who can honestly say that President Obama changed her life.
“My daughter has a pre-existing illness and couldn’t get any health insurance,” Randolph said. “Now, she receives treatments every six months and is cancer-free.”
President Obama’s recent health reform policy is one of the many topics the first lady addressed during her speech, where she said her husband didn’t care that health reform was the easy thing to do politically, but rather, it was the right thing to do.
Other platforms on the Obama campaign include women’s rights, in which the first lady preached to the women of the audience that “my husband will always have our backs.” The first lady also stressed the importance of education in their campaign, for not only did she choose to hold the rally on the university campus rather than elsewhere, but said that President Obama can relate to students on a personal level.
“Neither Barack, nor myself, could have ever attended college if it weren’t for financial aid and our combined student loan bills were higher than our mortgage,” Michelle Obama said. “Barack and I, we’ve been there … this is not a hypothetical.”
Former Nevada Attorney General and UNR alumna Frankie Sue Del Papa also spoke on behalf of the Obama campaign, endorsing education and health care as key strategies in ensuring that President Obama gets four more years in the White House.
With Election Day approaching on Nov. 6, the first lady stressed the importance of how every vote matters, particularly in Nevada, a state whose democratic bid for Barack Obama was won by 121,000 votes in 2008, which breaks down to 69 per precinct, according to Michelle Obama.
Urging people to take advantage of early voting, which begins Oct. 20 in Nevada, she then encouraged people to spend Election Day helping others get to the polls and reminded the audience that change takes time, patience and tenacity.
“My husband is nowhere near satisfied,” the first lady said. “He knows there are too many people struggling still. We’ve come so far but we have so much more work to do.”