John,
We were registering voters at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where I met one of our newest Powered by People volunteers, Elio. She’s a first-year student originally from Houston who is now a Volunteer Deputy Registrar, bringing new voters onto the rolls.
We talked about what it means not only to register and vote, but to be on the ground meeting and registering the people we need to win elections.
Elio told me something that really stuck with me: She’s happy that her generation is getting involved with voting. She said that a lot of people her age don’t get registered because they think it’s tedious and don’t see the point. But in her time volunteering, she’s seeing more students connect the dots between getting registered and voting and bringing about the big change they want to see.
Elio gets it. We’re going to win through people talking to people, students inspiring students, and young leaders stepping up to save our country at this moment of truth.
I told her that she’s going to be more effective at turning out her fellow students than I ever could. That’s not modesty; it’s the truth. This movement will succeed because it belongs to those who have the most to gain or lose in the next election.
Doing the work with volunteers like Elio makes me hopeful. Thanks for giving her and all of us a shot at putting that hope into motion through our work on campuses across Texas.
Beto
P.S. You can watch my whole conversation with Elio here.
