Skoll World Forum Interviews: Spotlight on youth and women's participation in U.S. democracy

Amy Allison:
My name’s Amy Allison. I’m the founder and president of She The People. She The People was founded on the premise that the most ignored, fastest growing, most politically and civically oriented group of people in this country, women of color, hold the key to the future of America. That is if we elevate the voice and power of women of color, support them getting elected in leadership, but more importantly, if we tell a new story about the power and potential of women of color to America, that together, we can lead this country into a new political and cultural era. She The People was founded on that premise. We tell a new story, we uplift leaders, and we help hold the vision of a country in which that is governed with love and justice, where people love their own and others, and that this American democracy lives up to its greatest promise.

Matthew Beighley:
What are you up against? What’s going on in America right now?

Amy Allison:
Here’s what America’s facing right now. It’s facing, in my view, three threats that combined might signal the end of democracy as we know it in the country. The first is that we have a diversifying, fast diversifying electorate in which people of color and women of color are becoming a significant portion or the majority of the populations in many states, my home state California included, and they’re not represented in government. And so our voices, our perspective, are lived experience are not translated into policy. So that’s the first thing. And we have not only an electorate who isn’t being tapped for its expertise and brilliance, but who’s feeling increasingly disaffected with the ability of American government at every level to serve the population. That’s one thing.
The second thing that’s happening is we have regressive, anti-democratic forces that have been making it harder and harder for people to exercise their basic citizenship rights, right to vote, right to freely assemble, right to have abortions and other kinds of hard-won freedoms that Americans have. There are millions of people who support a cabal of politicians who are dismantling these freedoms, step-by-step, policy by policy, both at the local, at the state, legislative, and at the federal level. That’s the second thing. The third, what I think is a tremendous threat in this country is we have growing inequality. We have a situation where entire communities are not able to live with dignity, to have housing, and to have healthcare. And this reality, which Americans would often point at happening in some other country, is happening at home. And all those things are meaning that, I think as people are looking for answers, they’re looking for identity, they’re looking for belonging, and all those things are making it harder for American democracy, as it flawed as it is, to realize what I believe its true potential is.
She The People was founded on the dream that American democracy, even as flawed as it was from its very beginning, some 250 years ago, could evolve, could grow and change into a multiracial democracy in which everyone is treated with dignity and everyone has a voice. That’s the dream. And what’s being threatened now is that even the democracy that exists now could come to an end if we have leaders and a population who support the kind of policies that take America back to a very, very dark place.

Matthew Beighley:
Is there a case study or something on a granular level you can talk about with your organization, the campaign that you did or someone that you worked with that would give more day-to-day what you guys are doing, what you’re up to?

Amy Allison:
In 2019, She The People was focused on swing states. These are states where women of color comprise a quarter of the voting population, and who are incredibly important as a voting bloc. And we asked them, “What do you want?” One of the things we heard, “We want a black woman Supreme Court justice.” And when we ask people, “What do you want?” it’s very basic. “What would motivate you to go to vote to advocate for your issues, to actually fully participate as citizens at a time when your participation’s going to make a huge difference?” And they said, “This is the concrete thing.” So She The People, armed with this feedback, made it a big story. What women of color want is a black woman on the Supreme Court, has never happened. It would be a concrete symbol and a practical evidence that black women have a voice in the highest levels of American justice in American government.
And so when we made that a national issue, we worked with reporters and editors to understand how critical it was to listen to women of color in swing states. When the turnout of women of color in swing states is higher, the results of the election change, but the results of people being elected and whose water they’re carrying actually changes too. And it was a year later that President Biden, when he had the opportunity, after a lot of public calls, after a lot of coordination, not just with She The People, but with organizations who represent Black and Latina and Asian American women were in conversation that they put forward… First, they floated the idea of a black woman, but they worked with many of us to make sure that there was room in American political culture, room in American culture for this historic nomination. When Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, when her name was presented, we were ready. We were ready with storytelling. We were not going to allow her to be denigrated or dismissed, or her amazing record to be twisted, and ultimately she was confirmed.
And what I want to say about this is for us to focus on what we consider the narrative war that we’re fighting in America. People would say, “Well, telling a story about the power and potential of a black woman on the Supreme Court, what difference does it make?” Makes a tremendous difference. You take a group of people who are very… You take the long line of American history, very rarely asked, “What do you want?” And who were very rarely delivered to in this way. And within a year, a year and a half, the women who turned out in record numbers in 2020 got one of the things they were asking for. And that’s how power works.
By telling the story of this group of very critical American citizens, voters, and telling the country and telling the country’s leaders, the gatekeepers, what this group of voters is looking for and what’s evidence and how to serve this community, we were able to deliver that. And now history has been made, and it’s up to Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the Supreme Court justices, to carry out justice as her background and as her experience has prepared her to do. And we’re very excited that we could see that difference in our lifetime. A lot of us thought it wouldn’t be possible, but it is. With the right stories, it is.

Matthew Beighley:
You’re changing hearts and minds, it seems on some levels. And within that, there seems like almost an optimism.

Amy Allison:
Here’s the thing people are desperate for. They’re desperate to see a renewed vision of who America is, who we are as Americans, what the future is, because a lot of people feel pretty disheartened. They feel overwhelmed by the lack of affordability, by the percentages of every dollar that we pay in taxes being spent in wars. They feel that the things that they need most desperately, housing and healthcare and schooling, those things, they’re still wanting. And what’s going to happen to us in the future? And what we say is we’ve just cut started. If we can expand our imagination about what America can be, it starts with who we can trust to lead America forward, not the way that has been led in the past. Who’s going to bring experience and perspective, lived experience that can translate into serving people’s basic, basic human needs. Who’s going to make sure that the little guy or the person who’s been pushed out to the margins can be treated with dignity.
And that, I think a lot of Americans are looking for a moral culture. They’re looking for a sense that the country can be a place where they belong. So why am I saying all this? One of the most unacknowledged powers in this society is the ability to change hearts and minds, not through stats or data, although those things are helpful sometimes, but by expanding our imagination. Here’s what a senator looks like. Here’s what a governor looks like. Here’s what a president looks like. Here’s what they say. Here’s who they stick up for. Who are they rooting for? Who are they upholding? And if we can present that delicious possibility for Americans, we can reclaim and recapture an optimism that I think is ours as Americans, and that we can start seeing a brighter future through the division, the derision, and the sense, “Hey, we’re losing something very important here.”
And I think that’s where Hearts and Minds really taps a deep faith. And it’s a faith that Phillis Wheatley, who lived in Philadelphia at the same time that Thomas Jefferson was penning the Declaration of Independence, she was formerly enslaved, very, very brilliant woman who wrote her dreams about democracy and her hope for the country. We can reclaim a tradition that Phillis Wheatley laid out for us all those years ago as our birthright. And it’s not the end of the story. In fact, by seeing a group of people like women of color, who are so critical to the future of the country ,by trusting and following leadership, which looks different, it feels different, has different results, we can start to have so much more optimism about this country.

Matthew Beighley:
Is there an idea that a more inclusive and representative democracy is actually better for everyone?

Amy Allison:
Yeah. A government that reflects all the populations that live in this country is a stronger democracy. It’s just stronger. I don’t think it’s a big secret that American democracy has weakened. It’s weak when we don’t have enough different voices, enough different communities reflected. It’s vulnerable to the kinds of attacks, both on the practical level of actually the mechanisms behind allowing people to vote, but also on the macro level where… Who gets to be considered a citizen? Who’s worthy? Who should be put in front of everybody else? All those questions weaken the strength of people’s belief that democracy, as messy as it can be, is the best form of government.
And we’ve had a long history in this country of groups being silenced, but we’ve never been more diverse than we are right now. And we at She The People, and I think those who believe in the vision of multiracial democracy in order to lead the country forward, we know that we have to figure out a way to cut through white supremacy and all the other forces that have been sort of baked and embedded in American political systems, as well as our other systems. We have to cut through that to give people a throughway to lead, to give them a place for their ideas. And we know that that results in people being more committed to the democratic experiment. It’s still an experiment. So the vision is that we have state legislators and mayors and city council members and school board members, Congress members in the White House that look like the people who live in this country, and that’s a lot of different people.
And the wonderful thing is that since starting the organization, She The People has helped, in our way, through storytelling and narrative, open up the imagination for some historic kinds of candidates to ultimately be elected. We’re telling the story of why it’s important to have native women in Congress. We’re telling the story of why it’s important to have black women in the Senate. We tell the story of why it’s important to have South Asians in the White House. We tell that story. We talk about the communities and the issues that benefit having those people in those places. And it’s the kind of information that voters and people in this country really need in order to almost change the cognitive framework so that they expect our leaders to look all kinds of different ways. They trust different kinds of voices. And for women of color, we are the least represented, but there’s some evidence that people of all races and genders are looking for voices to trust.
Black women, for example, have been one of the most trusted voices for many, many people of many races and genders, and I know that that was the case when we did polling in California. So what I’m saying is that the message that women of color got, we got since we were little girls, is something about our profile, our skin color, our accent, our hair texture, something about our body shape, kind of has taken us out of the running some way. And a lot of us grow up not understanding this until later. And what we say is your hair texture, your skin tone, the way you hold yourself, your accent, where you come from qualifies you in the America of now for leadership. And we want more and more people to see that’s the quality of leadership that America needs.

Matthew Beighley:
What’s giving you hope?

Amy Allison:
Here’s what’s giving me hope right now. There are remarkable, remarkable people who are holding the vision of justice and equality, of love in America right now, and they’re willing to do the work to defend against forces who are bringing such darkness, and really what I would say evil forces at work that would dismantle protections for very vulnerable people, and really a system of government that could potentially deliver really a remarkable future for the country.
So what gives me hope are the young people, the older people, people who are committed to a multiracial society, to a beloved community, and to a multiracial democracy, and they’re willing to roll up their sleeves and work every day. What gives me hope are people who, despite all the challenges, are elected right now, that are willing to do the courageous thing, say the courageous thing, be connected to movements, lead, and follow. And I have had such hope right now watching leaders that we’ve supported, representing communities that never had a voice, really changed the course of this country, and face up against attacks, both online and people who try to dehumanize them or strip them of their personhood, and still they stand strong. And in that sense, we are in this long line of women of color who have dedicated themselves to this country. That gives me hope. That means that there’s a future.

Erin Vilardi:
Hi, I’m Erin Vilardi. I’m the founder of VoteRunLead and we’re on a mission to make women the majority of officeholders in America. We’re starting with the state houses to cede 51% women’s representation because for too long the solutions that women have brought to our democracy and to our government are not getting their fair share as we face everyday problems big and small. We need women’s voices, talents, thoughts as part of the solution-makers, and we have 30 years of research that says women actually do the business of government better. We bring more money home to our districts, we pass more bills, we increase voter turnout in the elections that we run in. And if we are seeking a truly reflective democracy, that means that it is a democracy led by women.

Matthew Beighley:
What’s the macro view of the problem? Like the 51% of the population, but what’s the actual representation?

Erin Vilardi:
Yeah. Right now women are about 33% of our state legislatures, but in some states like West Virginia where we’re in the teens, it will take over 300 years for women to achieve parity in government. And we can’t wait that long.
State houses are the new power center of democracy in America because of the Supreme Court rulings that have come down, whether that’s voting rights, reproductive freedoms, or many of the other things that are on the docket. It is critical that the state legislatures are truly reflective of what’s happening in their state. Trillions of dollars go through the legislatures. It affects the everyday lives of Americans. And what we’re seeing right now is looking like two Americas, one where the states where women are growing their representation, and one where the states, there are just a handful of women in our legislatures and we’re seeing very different legislation come out of those states. Oftentimes, you end up with things like an abortion ban where now you have to travel hundreds of miles in order to receive the same care that your fellow American woman can receive.

Matthew Beighley:
What are you up against on a day-to-day basis?

Erin Vilardi:
The obstacles that we face on a day-to-day basis are the growing disenfranchisement with our democracy is the rise of toxic masculinity and white nationalism in the United States that is really dampening the environment for women, for women of color to run for public office. It is a real split in what’s happening. The solutions we know are coming from communities that have been left out of the political process. Our majority of our alumni are women of color running for office, and what we’re seeing is a pull towards white nationalism rooted in a masculinity that we haven’t seen for probably hundreds of years. And that is really critical in thinking about who gets to participate in our democracy.
The throwback to gender norms, traditional gender norms is a part of this wave of authoritarianism that we’re seeing and it is here in America and it’s critical that we fight back with the folks that are not… It’s critical that we fight back with the folks that have been left out of the process because the women that we’re getting elected, the gender-expansive folks that getting elected are open and willing to innovate in democracy, to imagine a new way of doing government, and to create new solutions and systems where often they’ve been at the center of the issue and have those ideas and lived experience on how to create those solutions.

Matthew Beighley:
Can you give me a case study or a more just singular working with one candidate? Walk me through the day-to-day how this works.

Erin Vilardi:
Yeah. So at VoteRunLead, if you’re interested in running for office, you can do it when your kids fall asleep and hop online and all of the resources are free, whether you’re running a woman’s campaign or you’re the candidate yourself, and we teach you to run as you are. This is not your same old how to run for public office. There’s no suit and pearls that we’re asking you to put on. This is about living your values, talking about your real experiences, being proud to be feminist, anti-racist, pro-democracy, to have the courage and conviction to knock on your neighbor’s door and we’ll tell you how to do that and make sure they donate to you, and to speak from the heart and not to become the political robot that we too often see out of the candidate machine.
And you will get a coach, you will get the assistance that you need. You will come and gather with hundreds of other women from all across the country multiple times a year. Our staff is deeply accessible. And in a state like Minnesota where now nearly half of the women in the legislature are VoteRunLead alumni, a third of them are women of color. It includes the three first Black women elected to the state senate. All three of them are VoteRunLead alumni, all came in together in the last election, and they’re changing what it looks like on the state senate floor. They are changing the number of bills that get passed. They are changing the conversation. They are changing how resources get spent. And it is really phenomenal to see how quickly the introduction of new folks of women and women of color into a political body can truly benefit everyone.

Matthew Beighley:
I know there’s this kind of discouraging notion that it would take 300 years for parity as you mentioned, but do you feel like the needle is moving in the right direction right now or how do you feel about it?

Erin Vilardi:
Yeah. In some places there’s a lot of hope. We’re targeting states where we think in the next two election cycles, we can truly see 51, maybe 55% women in our state legislatures, and with that, you will begin to see a future that we have not yet seen. We will see voter protections, we will see the rights for women protected. You will probably see things like minimum wage go up, right? Things that benefit everyone, but we know women are at the center of. 70% of women are pro-choice, 7% of women are minimum wage earners. So we know that quickly the legislation that will happen when you see the majority is very possible.
And what’s very critical is that the women we are training, the women who are coming through our program are very much deeply caring about our democracy. And by the time 2028 comes around, 2030 comes around, it is time to redistrict. It is time to draw those lines. And 34 states control their own state legislative lines and 37 states control our congressional districts. So it deeply matters that you have pro-democracy women leaders in these state houses to make sure that it is done in a fair and equitable way.
For the past couple hundred years in the US, we have been run overwhelmingly by male leadership, created systems that were exclusive of our fellow citizens. We know that when women and when our trans sisters and when gender-nonconforming people get into public office, they have an imaginative way in which they think about policy solutions. That brings the ability to bring our male colleagues along to create a new debate on some of the state house floors. And it ends up benefiting not just women and girls, but men and boys and furthering the conversation to be inclusive of our gender-expansive communities.
We know that when women come to public office, they talk more to their constituents, they have higher services to their constituents, so they are gathering more ideas as they’re doing their decision-making process. And yes, we can point to one or two women that are not following the trends that I’m talking about, but I can also point to decades of men that have done things to our democracy that consistently and systematically leave out folks that we know would help create better solutions.
So that’s what we know women are bringing to the table, and if we can do that en masse, if we can do that with majorities of women of color, if we can do that with majorities of younger women, we will move from these first and onlys and these one woman serving on a political body or one woman serving in a chairmanship to a cohesive and reflective democracy where real debate is happening, where the foundations of our democracy are solid and strengthened, where the services that so many Americans care about, like taking care of our kids and good schools are things that are normal part of whether you live in Alabama or Washington state.

Matthew Beighley:
What’s the world you’re trying to create? What’s your overall vision? You’ve touched on it, but let’s just maybe articulate it [inaudible 00:08:25].

Erin Vilardi:
My overall vision is let’s try a world where 70% of all leaders are women. Let’s try it. That’s my big vision. But it is shared leadership. It’s shared leadership that is complicated and messy and full of candor, but also full of that civility. Too often we talk about civility right now, and I think that means for many of us that the issues that women and women of color care about often have to be put to the side in order to remain civil. I’m talking about a real civility where you respect a feminist ideal, where you don’t shut down on a conversation about anti-racism. We’re talking about civility where people are coming in an open and inclusive way with a set of skills that I think we’re lacking right now. Skills of empathy, the soft and hard power that we need to balance.
And this is not just only women can bring that to the table. More women in public office, more gender-expansive folks in public office also make it possible for their male colleagues to be their full selves, to think about the ramifications of their policymaking in a new and different way. And those are critical pieces to the critical thinking that is often missing from some of our debates in our state houses and in our government writ large.

Matthew Beighley:
Do you have hope right now?

Erin Vilardi:
I have hope in different pockets of the country. I think when you look at all 50 states, and we’ve done the analysis on all 50 states, some states are on track to having a majority of women, other states are 300 years away. I’m hopeful about the pockets of promise, where we’re seeing where women are taking charge. I’m not hopeful about the national landscape where at every turn it seems like we are trying to disenfranchise folks of color. We are trying to disenfranchise women from their ability to sort of be political. If you don’t have control over your own body, how are you supposed to then be in control of a political body? All of that to me is deeply connected.
So I remain hopeful because I get to work with amazing women every day and I’m keeping an eye on the global trends and how the United States has affected that global trend of authoritarianism and toxic masculinity and how we are reacting to it, not just for women here in the United States, but for women all over the world.
I think what’s truly innovative what my team at VoteRunLead does is that we have taken a system of candidate development and turned it on its head. The system that we use now produces folks that in exchange for their ability to rise to the top have to give up their power of transformation. And we are training women and women of color and gender-expansive people to be transformers when they get into public office. So that means starting fresh in the process of how we create candidates that we want. It means running as you are and not fitting the political mold.
It means treating your campaign staff and the folks around you with dignity and with pay. It means stepping outside the party structure and being both an insider and an outsider and not exchanging your political power for some sort of expediency. It means being a values-led leader who is able to move the needle while also standing ground against things that are not up for debate. It means creating a new narrative and using your own media. It is just saying to the current process of how we create candidates, “That’s not for me, and I can still succeed in how I do this.”
And we have phenomenal win rates of 60 and 70%. We have women who are stepping into a system that itself needs some transformation. And we’re really proud of the fact that we don’t produce your everyday candidate. We produce transformers.
Today we have win rates of close to 70% for women of color, a little over 60% for our white women. We have 127 women in over 25 legislatures across the country, over a thousand alumni sitting in offices from the local councils to the United States Congress. And they are passing bills that create the kind of open and inclusive democracies that we want, whether that is safe havens for trans kids, whether that is protecting their environment, whether that is supporting veterans. They are bringing their full selves to our democracy and they are really transforming our state legislatures every day.

Peter Yeung:
Hello, Dakota. Thank you so much for joining us today at The Skoll World Forum.

Dakota Hall:
Thank you for having me.

Peter Yeung:
To begin with, can you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the work that you’re doing?

Dakota Hall:
Yeah, my name is Dakota Hall. I’m the Executive Director of the Alliance Youth Organizing. The Alliance Youth Organizing is a U.S.-based organization that helps support the capacity building of local youth organizations as well as help provide them funding to help scale their work to efficiency.

Peter Yeung:
From your perspective, can you try and define what exactly the problem is that you are trying to solve?

Dakota Hall:
Yeah. The problem that we’re trying to solve is decades old. It is the lack of investment into civic education and civic engagement for young people in the United States, as well as coupled with attacks upon voting rights and democracy within the States that have really, has set up barriers for young people to have access to democracy. And so, in summary, what we’re trying to solve is a rising fascist movement that does not want a true democracy.

Peter Yeung:
And I suppose, what is the impact of that lack of having the youth voice in part of those democratic conversations?

Dakota Hall:
Yeah. I mean, we’ve seen impact in the States in the last couple of years. When you don’t have young people’s impact is we’ve seen the rise of abortion bans within our states. Even just a few days ago, Arizona enacted a law from the 1800s to ban abortions in their state, a law that wasn’t even on the books when they were a state. So, what we really see is attack on human rights, access on bodies, particularly those of women in femme and transgender individuals within our states. And so, when young people don’t have access to democracy, fascism and nationalism is really kind to take over individual freedoms.

Peter Yeung:
And so, I suppose, how are the ways that you are going about trying to, obviously it’s huge and certainly not simple problems to solve, but how are you trying to go about to improve the situation?

Dakota Hall:
Yeah. How we go about improving the situation is we focus on what we call the ABCs of youth organizing. So, for us, that is in making sure that every single year that our groups are engaging into advocacy work, base building work, civic engagement, development of people, and electoral politics. For us, that is the form of success where we think we can really win in the States and really have an impact on making a multiracial democracy a reality.

Peter Yeung:
From your personal experience, what exactly drew you to be working on this issue? I assume you probably witnessed them firsthand as you’ve been growing up.

Dakota Hall:
Yeah. I’m a small boy from a small town called Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I saw racial disparities firsthand. I saw the life outcomes of White and Black be 10, 15 years. I saw what it meant for education cuts to impact Black and Brown students the most. I saw racial profiling, police brutality growing up. And so, all that kind of brought home a passion for me, that individuals must have the freedom to thrive, and they must have the ability to get economic attainment. They must have the ability to have educational attainment. They must have the ability to self-determine their own life instead of just being preset into zip codes that are often set up for failure and generation and cycles of poverty, violence, etc.
And so, what brought that all home for me is not wanting future generations to face that, not future generations to wake up confused about why their community is like this. Why isn’t their school the same as what they see on TVs? Why don’t they have basketball nets and why don’t they have safe housing? Why did they go to sleep with bullet shots in their neighborhood? So, it all comes down for me is, what are we doing to make the next generations after us better?

Peter Yeung:
Is there anything that you think sets your approach apart from what’s been done before?

Dakota Hall:
Every generation and every generations’ of work is built on the shoulders of those who can before us, right? Youth organizing in the States has a rich history. We can think of SNCC and what they did in the South, right? We can think of civil rights movements. We can think about the Chicano movement, the American Indian movement, and how almost every movement in social history has been led by young people in the States, and globally. So, I wouldn’t say anything that we’re doing is new or innovative, we just have our own approach to it. We have our own brand to it as well too, but we very much recognize that we are not the innovators of youth organizing. We are built upon the shoulders of those who came before us, and it really got us the opportunity to lead in this way as well too.

Peter Yeung:
And also, I suppose, there are certainly some positive developments, and I wonder, as I understand, you’re the first Indigenous person in the role that you’re doing. I suppose, is that a proud moment for you and do you think it’s a significant moment as well?

Dakota Hall:
Yeah, I’m very proud of my Indigenous heritage and culture, and where I come from and the nation that I get to represent every single day in what I do. While I still have a sense of pride in what I’ve been able to achieve. I also wish I was not the first, in many ways, right? I wish there was more advancement and investment into Indigenous leadership globally, and within the States as well too.
And so, part of what I see as my personal goal and mission and a part of this work is to make sure that while I’m the first, I’m not the last, right? And how are we setting up institutions and organizations and government to value the leadership of Indigenous peoples, to put them into leadership roles, and to put them in leadership roles with investment, right? Not just setting them up for failure, but really ensuring that they have the resources, the knowledge, the mentorship, and the guidance to be successful leaders within our country, and globally as well too.

Peter Yeung:
And on that point, exactly as you were saying, to be successful, I just wonder, could you explain how exactly define success? How do you measure it?

Dakota Hall:
Defining success is, I think, on a spectrum, right? For me, success is, call comes down to am I making the world and am I making things better for seven generations after me? Can I tangibly say that when my time is done, I made the world a better place, even slightly for some people behind me? Has my work contributed to something greater than own self gratification and satisfaction? And so, for me, success all comes down to how I am building the pathway for leaders to be built upon my shoulders. Similar to how seven generations ago, people did not know what they were doing necessarily, but I get the stand on their shoulders as well too. So, really about coming down to, are we making pathways for the next generations of leadership to be successful and to not go through the same challenges?

Peter Yeung:
Right. And I suppose, despite some of those challenges we mentioned at the beginning with the likes of abortion rights and ongoing huge sort of racial disparities, are there at least some wins that you think have been achieved so far? Some things that can be celebrated?

Dakota Hall:
Yeah. I mean, we’ve won abortion access in places like Ohio, places like Kansas and the States. We’ve also seen local victories around school board elections and how we’re funding public schools at a deeper level. We see housing and tenant right bills being passed that really protect low-income students from being evicted, from having price gouging done to them where rents increased over a [inaudible 00:07:30] time. I wouldn’t say everything is doom and gloom.
I think, while if you follow the US politics and national stuff, you’re going to hear names like Joe Biden and Donald Trump and think that America is just in a crisis. While democracy is in a crisis, what we’re really seeing is local leadership step up and this moment to really do what they can. And a lot of that’s being pushed by young people across the country. And so, yes. Yes, democracy is fading. Yes, fascism is rising as a global movement. But also at the same time, the spirit and resilience and resistance of young people is ensuring that the light of democracy does not dim.

Peter Yeung:
And just in terms, could you explain a bit more just to shine a bit of light on how, I suppose, the approach you’ve taken, the step-by-step kind of way of sort of achieving those wins. Obviously, you’ve taken a sort of community led approach to that.

Dakota Hall:
Yeah. I mean, our approach is year-round organizing, day in and day out. It means we’re not giving up after the election. It means that we’re creating civic and political homes for young people. In many states, it means that whether it is rain, snowing, showing up after disastrous tornadoes, hurricanes, whether it is the south freezing and no longer having water pipes, our people show up. This is not just a job. This is a mission for people. This is what they live and breathe, and we have people who are from communities as well too, right?
These are their homes. They want to fight for what is theirs, and they want to fight for what their parents have, their grandparents have and what their children will have as well too. And so, for us, year-round organizing approach, we don’t give up. We stay after the election. We’re always continuously talking to young people. We’re always continuously building programs for them. We’re always doing electoral work, going to our state houses, advocating for bills. Our approach is robust. It is year-round. Our approach is meaningful and our approach is impactful.

Peter Yeung:
And I suppose, obviously you’ve had the opportunity to meet and speak with lots of young people all across the country. And I just wonder, can you say a bit about what their reaction has been to your work with them, but also I suppose, how do they feel about the modern day America?

Dakota Hall:
Young people are hurt by modern day America. They’re wondering why it’s like this. They wake up every day wondering about their economic future. They wake up every day wondering about what rights they have and what rights they may lose. We’re sold that America is the land of the free. We’re sold that if you work hard, you do what you need to do, you’ll be successful. And that is not true for many people in America at this moment. And so, the dream is broken, the dream is faded and we need a new dream.
And I think that is where young people show their creativity, their boldness and their resilience by making a new dream, by reimagining what America can be and how we can set a new global standard around a multiracial democracy, and how we can really push forward things like climate change, abortion access, housing rights, right? And how do we really think about not just America, but globally we’re seeing this. Globally, we’re seeing the consolidation of wealth, the consolidation of power. More than 64 countries in the world this year are going to have an election. Half the world’s population gets to vote this year or will be eligible to vote this year. We have a moment to lead the way, and instead of being the exporter of fascism in this moment, I think what young people are hoping this country can be is an exporter of prosperity, of freedom, and liberty.

Peter Yeung:
In the work that you’ve been doing so far up to date, what have you found that’s been, I suppose, some of the challenges, the most difficult obstacles to date, and I suppose also what you foresee as the next challenges going ahead?

Dakota Hall:
I mean, the challenge that we’re all going to face is the global movement for fascism and how that’s building up, right? And how narratives are being built up to be racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic throughout the globe. That is the fight that we’re going against, right? That is a cultural battle that necessarily can’t be legislated away, right? These are thoughts within people’s hearts. So, we really have to think about what are we doing to win future generations and how are we setting up cultural institutions to ensure that as they’re being educated as young people, they very clearly understand what is right and what is wrong, right?
And oftentimes, you hear, oh, I just thought it was funny, right? We can no longer really have these standards and we have to really push back against the influencers of fascism who are pushing these narratives and messaging and seeming like it’s cool. Those are some of the big challenges that we have ahead of us.

Peter Yeung:
Hopefully finish on a bit of a more positive, hopeful note. I just wonder, for those young people that we spoke about before, feeling misheard or unheard out there and not properly represented, I suppose, what advice and what message would you give to them in order to give them some encouragement?

Dakota Hall:
I often don’t have messages for young people. I want them to give us direction as well too. And so, I guess what I would leave with is, young people have the authority to lead, they have the integrity to lead, and they have the moral compass to lead. And the invitation is to tell us, as older folks and as adults and people who have jobs in these positions, tell us what you need. They probably have better answers than all of us on what needs to happen. And so, I’m not going to give much advice besides keep doing what you’re doing, tell us what you need, tell us what to do, and know that you have the authority to lead in this moment.

Peter Yeung:
Well, thank you so much for your time, [inaudible 00:13:25].

Dakota Hall:
Oh, thank you.

Peter Yeung:
Hello, Mary-Pat. Thank you very much for joining us today at the Skoll World Forum.

Mary-Pat Hector:
Thank you so much for having me.

Peter Yeung:
So to begin with, can you just introduce yourself and explain a bit about the work that you’re doing?

Mary-Pat Hector:
My name is Mary-Pat Hector. I serve as the CEO of Rise. We are a student and youth-led organization that organizes young people around building student and youth political power, specifically around issues that they care the most about. For us, mainly it’s access to higher education, access to debt-free college options, and other issues that young people care about like gun violence prevention, reproductive justice, climate change, and more.

Peter Yeung:
And I suppose, can you take me through to the extent… so obviously, you mentioned some of the issues there that pretty wide-ranging, but how significant is this an issue? What are these issues for college students and how widespread are they?

Mary-Pat Hector:
When it comes to the issues that young people, specifically students and what they care about, it really just depends geographically. I think the biggest thing for us is ensuring that when you are moved by these issues that you act on them and that you use your civic agency, your civic duty to push for legislatures to influence policies around the issues that you care about the most. What we’ve noticed with college students and specifically Gen Z-ers between the ages of 18 and 27 is that they aren’t moved by elected officials. They’re not moved by systems that you’ve seen historically. They’re moved by the issues that they care about. And so we push them to think about those issues and utilizing those issues to influence civic change.

Peter Yeung:
Right, exactly. And so I suppose, when exactly did you begin? Obviously, I suppose there must have been some personal experience before you were studying as well and was it at that point that you’d sort of identified a lot of those issues that you yourself were experiencing

Mary-Pat Hector:
Growing up a Black woman in the United States of America, the issues that many people experienced later on in life, I realized maybe I want to do something about them have always been something that I’ve dealt with. Whether it was police violence and race relations, it was something that I witnessed growing up as a child, right, like Black teens on the curb, racially profiled. It was the fight for reproductive justice and access to healthcare and low-income communities of color where Black women are more likely to die. Where I’m from in the state of Georgia, giving childbirth than in any other state in the country.
And so a lot of issues that move me to be civically engaged have always been around me and so that has always caused me to be politically aware. When you are a person of color in a place like the United States of America, you don’t have a choice but to be politically aware because politics will do you instead of you doing politics.
And so I’ve always pretty much been engaged, but what really got me actively engaged was around middle school when a very good friend of mine by the name of Tyfik was shot and killed due to gun violence. And again, when you grow up in a community similar to the community that I grew up in, you begin to think that that is normal. You’re supposed to live life like this. It’s normal for 13 and 15-year-olds to have kids. It’s normal for 12 and 16-year-olds to be buried. That is our… that’s life, but it’s not normal.
And so I began holding elected officials and community partners accountable for the things that I was witnessing within my direct community, which made me realize maybe I shouldn’t be waiting for an adult to fix these problems. Maybe I’m the person that I’m waiting for. And so I began organizing around gun violence prevention in Stone Mountain, Georgia and I got involved in an organization called National Action Network.
Fast forward, I went to college and I realized bringing awareness to issues was one thing, but influencing policy was something completely different. And the fact that you need to do those things interchangeably in order to create sustainable change. So I ran for office. I was the youngest woman and person of color to run for office in the state of Georgia at 19 and I lost my election by less than 25 votes. And I literally tell everybody, it was from that moment on that I said, “Moving forth, the next young person that decides to run who cares about change within our communities and within our society, then I’m going to make sure that they have the 25 young people to show up for them like I needed in my election.” And since then, I’ve been mobilizing hundreds of thousands of young voters across seven key states in the United States of America to ensure that they show up, whether it’s a presidential election or a state election or even a city council election.

Peter Yeung:
Yeah, and I suppose, yeah, it’s a really great sort of sentiment like do it yourself. You’re not going to wait around for others, obviously, that have been failing to provide what was necessary for many years. And I suppose… can you just elaborate a bit more? You mentioned that obviously you’ve been now for a while mobilizing already those communities, but what are those components of your work? Do you take a geographic focus or an issue-based focus when you’re trying to work on that mobilization?

Mary-Pat Hector:
We don’t necessarily take a geographical or a community-based focus. Our base or our focus are young people between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. Right now in the United States of America for the first time in our country’s history, nearly 50% of the electorate in our country will be under the age of 50 years old. 41 million young people will vote that are considered Gen Z-ers in the United States of America, which will be a huge demographic within our electorate. And so young people have an opportunity to make a change. They have an opportunity to make a difference. They’re tired of the status quo when it comes to electeds not caring about the climate crisis, not caring about providing things such as debt relief. They want to see change and they want to see it now and they have the opportunity to do that.
And so my demographic is them. My demographic is ensuring that young people who have often felt isolated from the political process now realize that they have a moment, that they should seize the opportunity and vote for individuals who want to see change just as much as they do or even put themselves out there and run for office and know that there are millions of young people that are ready for change, that are willing and ready to support them when they decide to put themselves out there.

Peter Yeung:
And can you just explain a bit about how exactly this works when you’re making contact with these students. Initially, I suppose you’re visiting schools and colleges and what is that experience like because obviously from, well, at least from what I’m expecting a lot of the time, they haven’t had that voice. They haven’t been listened to. So are they kind of surprised? What are you guys… you’re actually listening to us? What are you doing here? What’s the reaction like from them?

Mary-Pat Hector:
Yeah. Well, I think the reaction from us compared to other civic engagement organizations is that it’s actually young people and students talking to them. We have over 250,000 constituents within our organization of college students and alumni from these colleges where our students come on campus and they mobilize student voters and people within their campus communities know them, but beyond people within their campus communities, people within their communities. So when we knock on doors, when we are talking to them about the issues that we care about the most, they see themselves in us because they are us.
And again, I talked a little bit about the fact that we don’t serve a specific community, but when you look within our organization, you’ll see that everyone is represented. And so how we organize in a community, a Latinx community in Arizona or Nevada will be completely different than how we’d organize in a rural Black community in North Carolina or Georgia. But just know that the student organizers that are behind that work come directly from those communities and are able to directly connect with the people on the ground.
Since 2018, we’ve mobilized over a million young voters in the United States of America and going into this particular election in November in 2024, we plan on organizing and mobilizing a million more. And again, it’s us being trusted messengers. Beyond the fact that we are young people ourselves and our students are paid to organize, which is also extremely important. But beyond that, we mobilize 365 days a year. I think oftentimes, people view civic engagement as just the moment for major elections, but we’re mobilizing and organizing 365 days a year. I talked a little bit about some of the issues that we work on, such as student debt relief, access to higher education and debt-free college options. That’s work and advocacy that we do 365 days a year.
Our students are advocating and organizing on college campuses to fight for students’ basic needs. That’s students’ housing. That’s students’ hunger. In places like Nevada where some of our students have been involved in mass school shootings like what took place in December of ’23 when we were wrapping up our year at the University of Las Vegas, Nevada. We led a training and our staff was on campus along with our student organizers, over 100 on campus. And there was a mass shooter on campus and we were on lockdown. And so now that issue is something that our students are advocating on 365 days a year in places like Nevada, demanding and requiring student safety beyond the civic engagement work that we do. And because students see us 365 days a year and because community sees us 365 days a year, they’re more likely to listen to us than they are to an organization or a candidate that showed up two to three months before an election and said, “We want you to vote.”
We believe in building trust. We believe in everything that we stand for when it comes to access to college options, but also ensuring that students are paid because many of our students and our organizers are first generation college students. They are dealing with college affordability issues. They are dealing with housing insecurity and they want to do this work and they want to see change, but oftentimes, they can’t afford to. And so our organizers are paid on a full-time and part-time wage versus the approach that some organizations take where it’s like, “Oh, we’ll give you a $2,000 a semester fellowship.” No, our students make over $2,000 a month doing this work and we’re proud to be able to support them and happy to have organizations like Skoll that see the benefit in ensuring that students are paid but are also able to lead the change that they want to see.

Peter Yeung:
That’s some really interesting distinctions that you have there in terms of both the payment and the longevity of the… it’s seen as the whole way through the year, but also, I just wonder exactly, so how do these mobilizations tend to work? So you mentioned trainings before. Are there discussion groups, or what forms does this tend to take?

Mary-Pat Hector:
Sure. So 365 days a year, our student organizers, our field organizers, our canvassers, they’re on campuses. They’re in communities canvassing. If there is an election, providing students and community members with information on upcoming election dates, making sure that they have resources such as rides to the polls, making sure that they’re serving as election protection monitors during major election cycles. But beyond that, we also believe in providing students the opportunity to remain in this work, whether that’s working with us or working with other partner organizations and communities on issues that they care about the most. And so we do provide trainings.
Back in 2020 when we were in the midst of a pandemic, I am a student who graduated from a historically Black college and university in Georgia called Spelman College. And my biggest fear was that in 2020 when so many communities, specifically communities of color were afraid that they weren’t going to get the support that they needed in the pandemic, that they weren’t going to get the care that they needed in the pandemic, that they weren’t going to vote or that the community members at the margins and mainly the older individuals who served as poll workers and election workers weren’t going to be able to do that work.
And so we developed an initiative called Black the Vote, specifically in Georgia, to mobilize and organize Black students that were at home to train as poll workers, to train as election protection monitors, to train as individuals who weren’t afraid to canvas within their direct communities during the midst of the pandemic because we needed to get the youth vote out, but we also needed to get the Black vote out. And because they were at home, they had a huge responsibility of ensuring that their community showed up in 2020, which they did. But we were able to train over 300 students in Georgia alone that election cycle.
And we took that same approach and applied it to our organization nationally. And so we rebranded Black the Vote to something that we now call Rise University, where we train students to utilize tools that we provide them, such as we provide student organizers with a tool that we call Reach Rise that Vote, where organizers are able to allow students and people within their community to make a voter plan to view what’s on their ballot, to know who these candidates are to look them up.
But students are also taught beyond being provided with tools to mobilize their direct communities. They’re also taught how to deep canvass. Oftentimes, when you’re dealing with a group of people who have never organized a day in their lives or they want to be a part of change, but they really don’t know what that looks like, you have to teach them. And so we teach them how to deep canvass. We teach them what advocacy looks like. We teach them what organizing on campus looks like, but also what organizing in community looks like and the ways in which they should show up in both. We teach them not only about organizing around civic engagement, but also social issues like some of the issues that we talked about earlier.
And what we’ve noticed is that when you invest in student… and we also pay them for that time. So I mean, when we’re training with student organizers, they may be with us for a day for over eight hours. They are making commitments to be engaged with us for weeks on end. And again, that time is time where they could be working to take care of their families, going to school, doing God knows what else. So we also do pay our students a stipend upon completion of Rise University trainings. But when we make those investments in our student and youth organizers, that’s also seen in community, but we’re also creating a pipeline of young people who are committed to civic engagement and advocacy.
Oftentimes, young people are viewed as individuals who can just be interns or who can just be fellows, but we’re showing them that this is something that they can do professionally and something that we want them to be committed to. And so we do do that beyond just having them in the field, consistently providing them with training and resources. And beyond the initial training and resources, we do provide our ongoing staff with opportunities to grow within their professional development as well as organizers.

Peter Yeung:
Obviously, you’ve been working on this for several years now and I just wonder in the course of that work, have you had to adapt your approach? I don’t know if there was anything unexpected that came along the way, things that. Feedback that you got from students or I don’t know if it’s been since right at the beginning when you were always paying the students, but yeah, I just wonder is there anything that you’ve sort had to change and adapt to along the path?

Mary-Pat Hector:
Absolutely. I think one of the things that I can say, even being here at the Skoll World Forum, is I’m probably one of the youngest people here or one of the newer organizations. And so most of our civic engagement and organizing literally began in the pandemic. So the adjustment for us is organizing a mass movement outside of a pandemic. Many of our organizers were the past year, past two years were their first times really on campus. Prior to that, many of them were doing this work at home on a computer, on the phone directly in their communities, but then also teaching them how to be social has also been something else because they were in a pandemic. How do you talk to people when you’re on campus? So that has been a very, very big adjustment, not only providing our student organizers with resources to be effective organizers in person versus online, but also shifting our strategy because all of our election work prior to this particular election cycle and a little bit of last year has been virtual because our world was virtual. And so it’s been an adjustment and it’s been very, very interesting. But we’ve loved it and we’ve had some very amazing wins when we’ve kind of switched to on the ground model.
In places like the state of Georgia, we’ve pretty much always been on the ground, but in communities like Wisconsin where in 2023, we had a very, very big win, those organizers had historically been just virtual. And there was a huge Supreme Court race last year around reproductive justice and the access to reproductive healthcare in Wisconsin where our student organizers worked their tails off and we saw historic youth voter turnout, but specifically, historic youth voter turnout at some of the colleges and the college precincts in which we organized. So where historically there may have been like five student voters, you saw over 800 student voters voting in that previous election due to some of the work that our student organizers were able to do on campuses across Wisconsin. And we were super proud of that. And so that was a shift, but when we got that win out of Wisconsin, we just knew that going into 2024 we were going to be good. But that has been the biggest adjustment for us.

Peter Yeung:
Yeah, that’s pretty funny. It’s, as you say, the opposite of what other organizations probably have had to deal with being used to the physical world before digital. And I suppose going forward as well, you’ll probably have more of a hybrid system where it’s both on the ground as well, keeping that sort of digital organizing at the same time. I just wonder what exactly does the digital organizing look like? Is it on various social media platforms, or how does that work as well?

Mary-Pat Hector:
Our digital organizing really focused on relational organizing like relationships and individuals activating communities that they were directly in versus engaging with communities that they’ve never been in before. And so it was student organizers knowing, “Okay, I know 500 people. How can I actively engage the 500 people that I directly know to vote.” That’s reaching out to individuals within my phone. If I have 1,000 contacts, reaching out to them, saying, “Hey,” having a real conversation. Are you voting in this election? What issues are you most passionate about and how can I get you to vote? Or what resources do you need to make sure that you’re able to make it to the polls, whether that’s a ride, you don’t understand what’s on your ballot. Can I support you in making a voter plan? That kind of thing. While also directly organizing within their direct communities, whether that’s churches, any student groups that they’re in.
We really focused on relational organizing, utilizing digital tools, like I mentioned, like Rise that Vote and other tools that we had at our disposal so that our student organizers could use those tools to organize their communities. And what’s really cool and we still kind of have that approach. So say, for example, you are a Rise organizer and you did some relational organizing and say you have a UTM code or a tracker. So we give each student their own individual website code. And every student voter or every voter that they reach out to, that data is actually connected to their custom code. And so that same organizer will contact those voters. So some people would have 200 people mobilize. Some people had up to 5,000 people organized.
But in that organizing, conversations that they had were tracked, right? These are the issues that were driving me to the polls. I don’t really want to vote. I’m going to vote, but I’ll vote on the 20th. So now I’m able to reach back out to those same 2,000 people three to five times leading up to an election to get them to vote.
So that’s what our digital organizing really looked like. It was relational and it was innovative because when people would reach back out to voters virtually, it would be like robocalls or generic text messages that you send to 50,000 people. But with us, you’re having a real conversation with the same person that organized you in the first place and they’re talking to you about the issues that you stated you cared about the most. And what we saw is when you take that approach, young people are more likely to vote because they feel engaged. In 2022 and in 2020, less than half of young people were even contacted by a civic organization or a campaign in general. And so when you kind of take the innovative approach to have people that they know reach out to them and ask them three to five times leading up to an election to vote, then they’re more likely to do it. And we were able to see that they were more likely to do it.

Peter Yeung:
Yeah, I really love that sort of model that you described, the relational aspects.

Mary-Pat Hector:
Relational, yeah.

Peter Yeung:
Yeah, and thanks for that and obviously, the powerful effects that it’s having. I just wondering, you did give the example before about… well, it’s pretty obvious examples of success where it’s this huge rise in the number of voters. But I just wonder how exactly do you as an organization measure success? What kind of metrics are you looking at? And I suppose you’ve given those examples of big turnouts, but is there anything else as well?

Mary-Pat Hector:
We measure our success in two ways. Of course, our funders will say, “How many voters were you all able to mobilize? What was the cost per vote?” But for us, we look at more of the smaller wins, right, that our students and our student organizers care about like how were you all able to impact food insecurity or housing insecurity on campus? How were you all able to impact access to higher education within your direct state? Again, beyond the fact that we mobilize student voters 365 days a year, we also do a lot of advocacy and organizing. How many young people were we able to train this year to ensure that they were provided information to successfully mobilize and organize their communities, whether they’re working with Rise or not?
And so how many students were able to benefit from student debt relief based off of our organizing and advocacy? How many students were able to benefit from free college programs that we supported in implementing or advocating for within states that we organize, whether that’s in places like Michigan or Wisconsin or even in states like Georgia where we’re actively organizing and fighting for them to adjust their free college program to ensure that more minorities and people at the margins have access to them.
So those are the things that we look at, but our funders or more people who support our work are more interested in knowing, “Okay, well, you all were able to mobilize a million voters before. Did you do that again? Did young people show up on election day?” So we look at the small wins, but our supporters definitely look at our general larger impact. And we do look at those things as well, but for us, what’s more important is that our community feels taken care of because if our community doesn’t feel taken care of, then the work that we do beyond that doesn’t matter.

Peter Yeung:
I just would be interested to know as well, when it comes to… well, obviously, as you explained in the funding model and it’s very important and I’m sure you’d argue it’s money very well spent, but just the fact that you do pay all of these organizers. I’d be interested in what are some of the challenges that you’ve been facing. I imagine finding funding and securing that is perhaps one of them.

Mary-Pat Hector:
The biggest challenge would be that many funders say to me, “Well, Mary, these are college students. They’re young. They don’t need this kind of money, and your budget would be significantly smaller if you didn’t pay them.” But again, I look at our community. I look at the fact that over 80% of our students are first generation students. Their families have gone into inescapable student loan debt to even send them to these schools. Some of them are parents. I think people have this idea that the typical college student is 17 to 20 years old. The average college student is between the age of 24 and 28 in the United States of America. They’re parents. They work two to three jobs. They’re part-time students. And so a lot of people want to be committed to this work. They want to make a difference, but they just can’t afford to. They have to go to work, they have to take care of their families, and those things are understandable.
And so we see it as a duty for us as an organization who’s committed and dedicated to the student, the whole student, to pay them their worth and to pay them a wage that they can effectively live with, but also provide them an opportunity to do work that they want to do, which is organize and mobilize their communities. And in the end, it benefits all of us. So if that’s me staying up some nights sleepless, wondering where we’re going to get our next grant from, then it’s totally worth it if my students and my organizers are able to do the work that they do every day.

Peter Yeung:
I think earlier on in the conversation, you mentioned, obviously, with the elections coming up in November, obviously, that’s going to be a huge marking point for you guys. I just wonder what exactly are your hopes and your thoughts about what’s going to be done and how important it is.

Mary-Pat Hector:
My hopes are that young people will show the world again that we are dedicated and committed to the issues that we talk about, but are willing to also show up to the polls and vote. In so many rooms, I’m consistently dispelling the myth that young people don’t want to be civically engaged, right? Young people want to be civically engaged. They’ve just historically been pushed out of the political process. They don’t see themselves in the American political system, which is typically a two-party system, right? They don’t see themselves represented when it comes to candidates. They don’t see themselves represented when it comes to decision-makers. They feel like their voices aren’t heard and oftentimes, they’re not because as a young person myself leading an organization, I’ve been in rooms where people told me, “Good job, good for you.” And there’s that pat on the back and it’s like, “Wait, your turn or good things will come to you eventually.” And it’s like, “No, these things need to be happening now.”
And so that’s how young people feel and we’re empowering them to truly make a difference now and showing them that your voice matters and that you don’t have to wait to be great. You have the power within you now to mobilize and organize your communities. And so young people have truly been saving US democracy since 2020. They did in 2020, hands down, and going into 2024, we have so many more issues that we have to prepare to fight for. Just two days ago, the state of Arizona completely outlawed abortion, meaning that even in cases of rape or incest, people are not able to access the needed healthcare for them. And so these things and these decisions are being made and these are directly impacting my generation, right? The people who are making these decisions aren’t of childbearing years. This is not something that will affect them at all, but the decisions that they’re making long-term will affect us for the rest of our lives.
And so I’m dispelling the myth that young people don’t care because we do, but we’re showing them that there is a place within this political process for them and showing them that it’s not just the presidential, right? It’s the state house. It’s the city council within your direct communities. It’s some of your ECMC boards, right, if you’re passionate and energized about climate justice. Just showing them where they fit in and how showing up at the polls will directly impact their lives on a local basis, but also a more national or federal basis.
So yeah, young people are going to show up. There’s a lot of terms, mis- and disinformation. Well, the mis- and disinformation is that they won’t vote because young people have historically been voting since 2020. This year will be a little bit more challenging because they’re fed up. And the different thing, what I respect the most about Gen Z is that they stand on business. They’re like, “Listen, you promised us student debt relief. You promised us access to reproductive care. You promised us you’d protect Roe v. Wade. Where are the promises?” And so we are dealing with the young people who are like, “We didn’t get what we were told we were going to get.”
But it’s also now the responsibility of organizations like mine to say, “Okay, well, this is how the government works. In the US, we don’t just have a president. We have three branches of power and they all work together. And if one says no and two says yes and that’s where we have to go” and doing that dance. And so just educating our student voters on what has happened and what hasn’t happened and ensuring that they still show up.

Peter Yeung:
And I suppose just one last question for you then was just to… for me, obviously it’s an issue that’s faced across the world with the fact that obviously the younger demographics tend to have less of a voice in politics and also lower participation. In the UK where we are now, the recent, well, a few years ago now, but the vote for Britain to leave the EU, Brexit, was largely led by older voters too. But I just wonder for you, when you’re looking forward to this vision of what you’re working towards, could you describe and speak a bit about what that looks like exactly. And presumably, it’s a world where there is fair representation of young people and political decisions are made with them taken account of.

Mary-Pat Hector:
Yeah, I think the world that I have been working towards is literally now because when you think about the fact that the boomers, the individuals who are making these laws, they are dying off. Young people are now a large portion of our society. In places like South Africa, young people are the majority. And so if you engage them and if you empower them to be actively engaged at the civic level, then you truly will see the change that you want to see. And I think right now, what you’re seeing are individuals really trying to hold on to the power that they have for the now. But beyond the fact that young people are becoming a larger portion of our electorates, not only just in the US, but across the globe, so are different people, people with intersectional experiences. In the United States right now, when it comes to the youth vote, the white youth vote is the most important demographic, but the second most important demographic is the Latinx youth vote.
And so you’re starting to see the importance or you’re starting to see more multiracial democracies across the globe, which is super exciting because you’re getting more perspectives of voters to show up to the polls. But beyond that, we’re also starting to see shifts. So just last month in Senegal, it was young people who elected the youngest president that Senegal has ever had. And so the time or the moment that I had been organizing for, even since I was 13 in Stone Mountain, is happening now because young people are starting to recognize their power in certain parts of the world. And I talked about small wins within our organization. I think even what we’re seeing in places like Senegal is a win because if young people in Senegal are able to show that they can make that difference, maybe young people in the United States this year or young people in South Africa this year are able to say, “That can be us. If we show up on election day, that can be us. We can elect an elected who wants change just as much as we do.”

Peter Yeung:
Well, Mary Pat, thank you very much for joining us today.

Mary-Pat Hector:
Thank you all so much. I really appreciate it.