Riley DeCavitch was taught early on that your political beliefs come from your parents.
The Warren Township native’s first introduction to politics was in 2008, during the presidential race between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. DeCavitch, who turned 11 that year, took part in a mock election at her school. The teacher told students they'd be assigned to a political party based on their parents' affiliations.
“If your parents are Democrat, you'll be Democrat. If your parents are Republican, you'll be a Republican,” DeCavitch recalls.
It wasn’t a stretch: A majority of kids inherit their beliefs from their parents. A study from the Pew Research Center found more than 80% of teens with Republican parents identified as such, and the same was true for nearly 90% of adolescents whose parents are Democrats.
DeCavitch went home and told her parents about the class assignment.
She said her parents told her voting didn't work that way — that she got to choose who she wanted to vote for and which political party fit her best.
“Which, at the time I didn't think was that big of a deal. But later on, looking back to it, a lot of families don't do that type of thing,” she said.
DeCavitch, 27, is a registered Independent who leans Democratic. She has a high school education with two years of vocational training in manufacturing. She works the night shift at a company that makes bath and kitchen cabinets. She is a transgender woman, whose partner is also a transgender woman.
But DeCavitch said she was hesitant to reelect President Joe Biden. She was concerned about the 81-year-old president's age, which dominated the national conversation about his candidacy following his meandering and faltering performance during his debate against former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump on June 27th. DeCavitch was heartened when Biden dropped out and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party's nominee.
“With Kamala coming in, I'm very happy about it because it feels like we're getting to normalcy. Where it's policies, not, ‘This guy's too old,’” she said.
But DeCavitch knows plenty of young, progressive Democrats who say they will not vote for Harris because of the Biden Administration's handling of the Israel-Hamas war, now more than a year old.
Last month, the Uncommitted National Movement, which wants an immediate ceasefire and a halt of U.S. weapons transfers to Israel, said it would not endorse Harris for president but urged voters to "vote against" Trump and "avoid" third-party candidates.
DeCavitch agrees voters should hold their preferred candidate’s feet to the fire, but not by withholding their vote.
“The way I've always seen voting, and especially with this type of conflict, that you're trying to get on a bus,” she said. "You want to get to New York, and you want to get on a bus that's going to take you closer to New York. You're not going to get on the bus that's going to take you to California. You're going to get the one that's going to take you to Philadelphia."
Her top priority is transgender rights, which, DeCavitch said, is headed in "the wrong direction" in Ohio.
Last year, the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly passed House Bill 68, which bans trans athletes in girls' and women's sports and gender transition treatments for minors. And last June, the Ohio House approved a ban against transgender people from using their preferred school bathroom or locker room, after tacking the legislation onto an unrelated bill. The Ohio Senate must approve the changes and could take it up after the November election.
A recent poll commissioned by Ideastream Public Media, WKYC and Signal Ohio, found broad opposition to transgender rights among Northeast Ohio Voters. Nearly three-quarters of respondents, 74%, including 58% of Democrats, oppose allowing transgender athletes to play on sports teams that match their identity, and 67%, including 48% of Democrats oppose allowing transgender people to use public bathrooms that match their gender identities.
"In Ohio, we are in a red zone of heat when it comes to trans people, especially the youth," DeCavitch said.
State Rep. Nick Santucci, a Howland Township Republican, and Republican State Sen. Sandra O'Brien, of Ashtabula, who represent DeCavitch's hometown of Niles, are running for reelection this fall. Both Santucci and O'Brien supported HB 68.
At the federal level, Harris has pledged to pass the Equality Act, which her campaign said would enshrine anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, while Trump said he plans to roll back rights for the trans community.
DeCavitch is also worried about what eight in ten other registered voters are: the economy.
She took the job at the cabinetmaking factory earlier this year, leaving a job closer to her home in Niles that she really loved, because it offered health benefits and a higher hourly wage. But she said she's still living paycheck-to-paycheck, despite the pay increase, because of the high prices of everyday needs like groceries and fast food.
McDonald's "used to be the cheap meals, but I might as well go to Olive Garden at the prices that they are now," she said.
Federal data show national food prices jumped 25% between 2019 and 2023, rising faster than housing and medical care. The NEO Voter Voices poll found that affordable groceries were the top pressing issue facing Northeast Ohioans across demographics.
Despite these and other challenges facing the nation, Riley DeCavitch’s one-word summary of how she’s feeling about the election is “hopeful.”
She thinks Harris has a good chance of winning, and even softening America’s increasing polarization between Republicans and Democrats.
“I mean, we won't lose the MAGA crowd. I don't think that's ever going to go away, but I think at least a second loss for Trump is going to help the Republicans see that that's not the candidate that the American people want,” she said. “They don't want the far right. They want moderate.”
