Rodriguez, who will be a first-year student at the University of Chicago in the fall, is the co-founder of Students for Open Primaries and starred in the documentary “The Young Vote.”
Two years ago, I wrote an op-ed about my pre-registration to vote in Florida as an NPA, shorthand for “no party affiliate”. In June, I turned 18 and officially became a registered voter. My party? Still no party. I am one of 3.8 million NPAs in the Sunshine State. I am not satisfied with the two-party dilemma, which has continued to impact our nation negatively on everything from the economy to the environment. And I am not alone, as 50 percent of millennials and Generation Z voters today are independent.
Unfortunately, closed primaries are not just an issue in Florida. In 14 other states and the District of Columbia, at least one party will conduct closed primaries for congressional and state-level offices in the current election cycle. This means that for the 30 percent of uncontested general elections in 2022, independents and third-party voters lose out on making their voice heard on important issues that are decided coming out of the primary.
Gen Zers and young voters have the most to lose in the upcoming midterm elections. We all saw the consequences of bad policy. Nationwide, we are now seeing the impacts that Congress’ failure to codify Roe v. Wade had on reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the landmark decision. Our politicians aren’t acting on the issues that matter to all voters, instead choosing to only act on what favors their own party. In Florida, legislators are focused on waging wars in the classroom and “ setting aflame ” the mouse at Disney World because it satisfies party-line voters in the primary. The current system doesn’t work, and while our generation has the most to lose, many are still locked out of the primaries.
There is a huge dysfunction between who voters are versus whom they elect. Young voters have diverse political opinions, but the people being voted into office have little to no diversity in their political actions. As the future of the nation, young Americans will feel tomorrow’s impacts of the decisions that our elected officials are being trusted to make today. Open primaries will produce elected officials more accountable to their constituents than to their party while closed primaries will result in officials who are slow or unwilling to act on pressing matters impacting the future of the nation. Open primaries let independent voters who were previously shut out of the system vote; such a system also allows Democrats and Republicans to vote for whomever is the best candidate and not the person who has the more extreme voting record on either side of the aisle.
Despite the huge implications closed primaries have on elections, there is a concerning little amount of data on the very real impacts that closed primaries have on young voter turnout. The latest numbers directly related to young independents come from a 2018 report from Tufts University, which found that 44 percent of young voters identify as third party or independent.
That is why my organization, Students for Open Primaries, is moving forward with the 2022 Young Voter Survey. From now until the end of the summer season, we are reaching out to young voters from across the country to hear about their experiences with election-related issues, including closed primaries. Voters ages 16-39 can answer this short, 10-question survey at youngvotersurvey.com.
Please take this important referendum on election reform for young voters.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.