Voters are searching for “meaning” when it comes to candidates and 2016 presidential election, ABC News anchor Juju Chang said at the annual Chamberlin Lecture on Tuesday night.

Chang, the Emmy-winning co-anchor of ABC’s “Nightline” who has been working at the news organization for 30 years, gave her insights to people in attendance in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union leading up to February’s Iowa Caucus and the candidates.

“Voters are often looking for authenticity,” Chang said.

She talked about the candidates and their standing on each side of the aisle, and said she and ABC colleagues agree that polls at this point are meaningless and anything could happen.

“This is truly the preseason,” Chang said. “These matches don’t count.”

All opinions from journalists are “irrelevant,” she said, offering her “observations” of the race. For example, voters on both sides have “demonized” politicians so much that outsider candidates such as Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina are leading the more traditional politicians like Jeb Bush.

“We are all responsible for demonizing politicians,” Chang said.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton’s email scandal takes up much of the attention when it comes to coverage of Clinton; voters often overlook her accomplishments and values she has stood for, Chang said.

She also talked about a discussion she moderated between ABC Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl and Nate Silver of “FiveThirtyEight.” To show how unpredictable the race can be, she said Silver told her he believed the two most likely Republican candidates would be Scott Walker, who has now dropped out, and Marco Rubio.

Karl said he believes Vice President Joe Biden will run, but he has “no confidence” in his prediction because the race is so unpredictable.

“The future of the republic rests on your shoulders. No pressure,” she joked.

A Q&A session took place after the lecture, and the discussion was about more than just politics.

Chang was asked about tracking down stories, saying ABC often uses social media to find and follow them. She told the people in attendance that she should keep in touch with sources after stories, and talked about her experience doing follow-up stories.

She said it is important when covering sensitive stories, such as sexual assault, to tell all sides of the story and be compassionate when speaking to victims.

Cayle Suntken, junior in journalism and communication, said Chang’s speech gave him a lot of insight on the election and how the candidates on both sides are running their campaign.

“I think everybody should be informed about what’s going on in politics,” Suntken said, adding that this lecture could spark someone’s interest enough to make them start follow the election.