Leaders of two youth voting organizations — Dakota Hall, executive director of Alliance for Youth Action and Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America — along with Iowa State Sen. Zach Wahls spoke Saturday at The Texas Tribune Festival about how to engage younger voters.
Ramirez cited efforts to hinder youth voter turnout, such as attempts to remove campus polling locations, as a sign that Republicans recognize the power youth voters have to change Texas’ dominant party.
“The assaults and attacks are actually because we are gaining momentum,” Ramirez said. “If you want to change Texas, it is going to come from the power of young people in our state, especially young people of color and young Latinos.”
The panelists also discussed the success of Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ social media campaign and the memes it has spawned, creating a message of hope.
“You saw this joyful warrior in Kamala Harris who was speaking in ways that a lot of young people felt connected with their experience,” Wahls said. “That’s had a transformative effect on how these folks see the candidates.”
Hall said that with Harris’s candidacy, Democratic voters have someone they support rather than simply needing to defeat Republicans.
“When you’re voting for something, you’re more likely to talk to other people about it, whereas when you’re voting against something, you kind of just keep that isolated feeling to yourself,” Hall said.
When asked how to respond to voters who aren’t motivated by any candidates, Ramirez said voters should elect politicians who are likely to shift their position, then pressure the candidates to fulfill voters’ needs.
“Elections are not the only way we make change,” Ramirez said. “To me, it’s about how people organize and push the candidate they believe they can move the most.”
Ramirez added that Texas’ youths don’t realize how influential their vote could be.
“If you change Texas, you’re not just going to change the political outcome of an election cycle,” Ramirez said. “You’re going to change the political outcome of our entire country for a generation.”
