Issues That Brought Me to the Polls: Delanie Blubaugh, Maryland

This snapshot was gathered in conjunction with the Maryland Voices initiative at Maryland Humanities, specifically to supplement the "Voices and Votes: Democracy in America" traveling exhibition from the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program. This collection, made up of stories of first-time voters between the ages of 18 and 24, showcases the experiences of young people as they wrestled with the 2020 presidential election, issues around social justice, the environment, immigration, and the pandemic. 

Delanie Blubaugh (00:00): Okay. My name is Delanie Blubaugh. I am a junior political science and legal studies double major at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland. So all the way up in the mountains in Western Maryland. I am very much driven by racial equity. In Western Maryland.

Delanie Blubaugh (00:18): We are a pretty predominantly white area, but Frostburg State's campus is roughly 50/50 in terms of white students and BIPOC students, specifically that of black and African-American students on our campus. And so, for a lot of students, in my role in student government at FSU, we've heard a lot about, especially in recent months, how it could be a completely different world when you step off of campus.

Delanie Blubaugh (00:45): And so I am constantly driven to try and make our community specifically a better place and a safer place for our students, no matter what they look like or what they identify as, and whatnot. I'm also especially driven by disability rights. My mom, she's a person with a disability.

Delanie Blubaugh (01:09): She has had multiple sclerosis for over my entire life. I believe it's approaching 26 or 27 years now. And so I was kind of, I like to joke that I was grandfathered into living with a person with a disability. And obviously, that doesn't change who she is on the inside, but it definitely does change how she is able to be mobile and to participate in life the way that we have had it set out to be. And so I'm especially driven by that as well.

Asset ID: 2021.03.08.f
Themes: Issues, race, equity, social justice, accessibility, disabilities, students, college, community, diversity
Date recorded: January 29, 2021
Length of recording: 01:41 m
Related traveling exhibition: Voices and Votes: Democracy in America
Sponsor or affiliated organization: Allegany Museum, in partnership with Maryland Humanities
More information: https://www.mdhumanities.org/programs/museum-on-main-street/2021-2022-tour/