Name: Alexander “Alex” Watson

Age: 18

College major or occupation: Economics

Hometown: Pataskala, Ohio

Party affiliation: Libertarian

Choice for president: Romney

Alexander “Alex” Watson is not your typical politically ignorant 18 year old.

Well informed in politics and far from voting for someone simply because that is whom his parents will vote for, he identifies himself as a Libertarian and plans to vote for Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

Alexander, who prefers to go by Alex, is an 18-year-old first-year at Miami University from Pataskala, Ohio. Currently a tentative economics major, Watson’s passion lies in politics. An active member of the Miami University College Republicans, Watson dedicates much of his time and focus to ensuring a win for Mitt Romney. Watson is also a member of the Philosophy Club.

The Libertarian candidate for President is Gary Johnson and Jim Grey is the candidate for Vice President.

Watson believes that this party gets written off as “those crazies” because those who identify with this party are very set in the way they think. There are also members of the party who are very radical, which turns people off to this party before examining what it stands for.

“We have a lot of things that will never happen with our government, but we still try to get it done any way.” Watson said.

Despite aligning himself with the Libertarian Party, Watson will not be voting for Johnson, but instead is a Romney supporter. Watson, as well as his best friend from home Jared Lucas, feel that third party votes only split a party instead of getting a third party candidate in office. President and founder of the Miami chapter of Young Americans for Liberty Taylor “TJ” Hillard agrees.

“I’m a realist so I know that the Libertarian candidate for president, Gary Johnson is not going to win.” Hillard said.

Watson is very active in the Miami University chapter of the College Republicans. He has dedicated 9 and a half hours over the course of 3-4 days going door to door in Liberty township collecting information on the voting climate.

Outside of organized political groups and clubs, Watson finds ways to incorporate his love of politics in many of his relationships.

Lucas, who is a freshman at Bowling Green State University, said that politics is the main thing that they would talk about. While disagreeing on some of the more controversial issues with religious overtones such as abortion or marriage rights, they always respectfully debated each other and both identified as libertarians.

Jakob Gamertsfelder, a friend at Miami, echoes that politics are all that Watson wants to talk about, even in casual settings such as hanging out on weekends or while playing video games.

Gamertsfelder will not be voting in the upcoming election, partially due to not registering in time in addition to feeling that neither candidate will help America.

Watson became fascinated with politics due to an Advanced Placement course in Government and Politics his senior year of high school. From there, Watson became fascinated with politics, going as far to write a 14 page paper on a proposed tax reform, an issue he feels strongly about.

This new information also led to some discussions of politics at home. According to Watson, his parents identify as republicans, but aren’t near as active as he is. They would sometimes get into arguments over certain political issues but politics weren’t something that was discussed in depth or often.

When asked if his parents’ opinion shaped his own he replied with “I’m not taking my parents’ opinion for granted, I’m not taking it for anything.”