Because of her credentials, her commitment and her capacity to handle the job, junior Justin Martin believes Hillary Clinton is the best candidate to be America’s next president. Martin has been supporting Clinton since the beginning of her campaign.

“I support Hillary Clinton because with her, we finally have a woman candidate who is up to the challenge of being POTUS and ready to lead from day one,” Martin said. “Unlike Donald Trump who is a man with no political experience, but claims that he can run one of the most powerful nations.”

Martin agrees with all aspects of Clinton’s campaign, specifically her views on creating a fair tax system, protecting LGBTQ rights and preventing gun violence.

“Hillary has vowed to make sure that the wealthiest Americans do not pay less taxes (or not pay taxes at all in Donald Trump’s case) than the working class,” Martin said. “Hillary also vowed to fight for full federal equality for LGBTQ. Hillary fought for federal non-discrimination legislation to protect LGBTQ Americans in the workplace and advocated for an end to restrictions that blocked LGBTQ Americans from adopting children.”

Martin believes Clinton’s opinion on preventing gun violence is very strong and needed in America today.

“Many people are very confused about Hillary’s stance on the Second Amendment,” Martin said. “She does not want to eliminate the Second Amendment as a whole and come to everyone’s houses and have guns confiscated. What she does want to do is make it illegal for the severely mentally ill who pose a danger, domestic abusers, and people with suspected terrorist links from obtaining guns. The gun violence in America is out of control.”

Despite his mother being a Democrat and his father a Republican, Martin’s entire family all agree Clinton is the right choice.

“My father, who is a Republican, surprisingly supports her,” Martin said. “This will be his first time voting Democrat. This is one election that my dad and I feel has truly weakened the Republican party, because they don’t have a true politician running, they have a businessman, and a bad one at that.”

Regarding Clinton’s email scandal, Martin believes the issue was made bigger than it was, but still admits it was wrong on Clinton’s part.

“I definitely feel like the email situation has been blown out of proportion,” Martin said. “However, I am not going to say what she did was not irresponsible. According to the FBI, Hillary didn’t do any of the stuff that results in prosecution. She didn’t willfully do anything wrong or try to obstruct the investigation or leak confidential information or exhibit any disloyalty to the U.S. government; she just didn’t have good enough security protocols in place and as a result, she made some confidential information vulnerable, which did not result in any harm.”

While Martin is not old enough to vote for himself, he offers his input on the opposing candidate, Donald Trump, and explains why he is not fit to be president.

“It’s sad that people are having trouble deciding between the two candidates,” Martin said. “I don’t see how anyone could trust Trump, but not Clinton. My biggest problem with Donald Trump is that he is a racist and goes against everything America stands for. The Justice Department has sued his company twice for not renting to black people. In addition, he has condoned the beating of a Black Lives Matter protester, called for a ban on Muslim immigration, and has constantly trashed Latino immigrants referring to them as ‘rapists and murderers.’”

Regardless, Martin hopes for the best for America after this election.

“I feel like so many politicians get caught up in the division between the two parties that America is not progressing,” Martin said. “After this election, I hope that there will be a peaceful transition of power and that the two parties can respect each other.”