Day one of the Republic National Convention is underway. The theme for the day is ‘Make America Wealthy Again.’
TMJ4 Reporter Sydni Eure spoke with voters about it. Many shared a desire for a more stable economy.
“The last four years has been difficult,” said Tim Hawkins, voter. “The stock market has been good. Our market's been strong, but our cost-of-living has gone up a lot and we feel that and we’re about to become a fixed income household and that’s scary.”
Tim and his wife Becky said after 30 years of hard work, their hope was to look forward to retirement but some financial stressors have gotten in the way of that.
“We’re on the verge of retirement so it’s kind of scary for us thinking, like, what could happen next as we make this big decision to say OK let’s step out of the workforce and let’s go retire,” said Tim “We’ve been working our rear off for 30 years to be able to get to this.”
Financial challenges are something most people can relate to in some way. For mom Crystal Hansen, it impacted how much she could but in the grocery cart.
“I mean there’s definitely been inflation with geared to like groceries and things like that,” said Hansen.
When Tim first learned the theme for day one, he was pleased to hear that was the focus. He said the first word that came to mind was ‘prosperity.’
“I love the fact that that’s what they’re focusing on and I think it’s also I think a message of hope,” said Tim. “If we have a wealthy and prosperous country, I think it gives us hope for the future. We’re raising kids in this country. Our kids are adults now and we want to see a great world for them and a great country for them like we had.”
Watch: What voters think about the RNC theme "Make America Wealthy Again."
His wife, Becky, agreed but said it’s hard to think of a better future without wanting what is in the past.
“I’d like to see our country become what we used to be four years ago,” said Becky.”
Their hope is that the day one conversations lead to a clear path toward economic stabilization for everyone.
“We’re excited for what the next four years could bring and to see our economy stabilized and see inflation maybe decrease for a little bit and our cost of buying a hot dog or buying a smoothie could go down, we’d love to see that happen if that’s possible,” said Tim.
See all of TMJ4's Republican National Convention coverage here.
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