By Amanda Brucculeri
Boston University News Service
Presidential candidate Jason Palmer, a former technology entrepreneur turned Democratic politician, is driving a campaign focused on combining business with politics and upscaling the population’s skills when it comes to technology, all with the main goal of keeping former president Donald Trump out of office.
“My number one objective in life is to not let Trump win and get a civil leader in office,” Palmer said, speaking to a small group of media at The Bookery, a local bookstore located in Manchester, New Hampshire.
Addressing the concern of the advancement of AI technology taking over American jobs, Palmer said that the key way to help people with this technological transition is to educate people in technology skills, including softwares such as Powerpoint and Excel.
“The whole world is being eaten by software, and digital skills are more important than ever before,” Palmer said. “That doesn’t mean everyone has to become a computer scientist; it means we need to be fluent with digital technology.”
Although he has some government experience working for New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and as deputy director for postsecondary education for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Palmer wants to portray himself as an “outsider” to voters.
“The most important thing for me to do as an outsider is to hire really smart people who have been inside the system, and I’m going to bring in some business leaders as well,” Palmer said. “It’s going to be a mixed cabinet of business leaders and government leaders.”
Palmer said he sees himself as being a voice for the younger generation, and also said that he was inspired to run because no other candidate was representing the youth. He encourages the younger generation to participate in their local governments, even just at the school level.
Palmer said: “If you don’t like the way the world works, you need to get involved and change it.”
