Amelia Kegan on the Role of Poverty in the Upcoming Elections

Amelia Kegan, senior policy analyst at Bread for the World, attended a panel discussion with Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity to discuss how poverty and hunger will affect teh conversations in the upcoming elections.

In an interview, Kegan emphasized that poverty is not a partisan issue:

Poverty really has to be an issue that politicians take seriously and really address. Hopefully we can see that Americans really value and are going to [be] considering and listening for the candidates to address [poverty] through the 2012 elections. In today’s political climate, everything is often times so partisan and so polarizing. As we saw from the panelists today, [poverty] really is an issue that everyone can get behind and everyone should be able to support.

Watch her video interviews with the Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity below and read her reflection on study findings that say 88 percent of surveyed voters said a presidential candidate’s position on poverty is important in deciding their vote, and nearly half (45 percent) said the issue is "very important."

+Learn more about poverty in the United States and how you can take action.