Despite being her first primary, Kylee Ketring, 17, voted outside of her party so she could partake in one of the biggest races the country has seen in decades.

“It’s such a big race with (Barack) Obama and (Hillary) Clinton,” she said.

Ketring has been learning more and more about politics in her senior government class at Pendleton Heights High School.

Because she will be 18 before the general election in November, she could participate in the Tuesday’s primary.

“After learning about the issues, I realized I am a Republican,” she said.

Ketring follows a tradition of Republican voters in her family. Her grandfather, she said, is very political.

“He’s a big politician,” she said. “He’s a die-hard Republican. Always, when I go to his house I hear him talk about George Bush,” she said, repeating phrase she often heard from her grandfather, “George Bush is the man!”

Ketring said she agrees with her grandfather most of the time.

However, Ketring decided to vote in the Democratic primary, partially because of conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos, which encouraged Republicans to vote for who the radio talk show host considered to be the weaker Democratic candidate, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Ketring also wanted to participate in the heated race, she said.

Ketring voted for Obama, she said, because before she heard Clinton was leading in the polls.

On Tuesday, Clinton clinched the Hoosier vote, while Obama won North Carolina. In Madison County, Clinton won by 3,700 of 30,076 votes for president in the Democrat primary.

In November, Ketring will switch back to her roots and vote for Sen. John McCain, the Republican front-runner.

“Most of my beliefs lean toward the Republicans. I feel his views match mine,” she said.

But Ketring might think differently in the fall, when she starts her first semester at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville.