NextGen America Launches Historic Campaign to Fight Voter Suppression, Register and Mobilize Young Voters
Nation’s largest young-voter organization renews commitment to engaging the largest and most diverse generation in American history with new effort to mobilize millions of voters in eight critical states
Austin, Texas — NextGen America, the nation’s largest organization welcoming 18-to-35 year olds into the democratic process, on Thursday launched a $32-million program to register, inform and mobilize young Americans in eight key states for the 2022 election cycle and beyond.
The launch brings NextGen’s voter-mobilization expertise to states where young voters and communities of color historically have been underrepresented in the electorate — and where these voters face ongoing suppression and discrimination at the ballot box.
In 2022, NextGen will run the country’s largest youth voter-mobilization program, with outreach to young people in Texas, Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada. NextGen has set a 2022 election cycle goal of registering more than 288,000 voters — including 150,000 in Texas alone — and targeting more than 9 million young people. That commitment will continue into 2024.
“We aren’t sitting on the sidelines waiting for history to turn our way — we’re mobilizing the power of young Americans to bend the arc of history and set a new direction for our country,” NextGen America President Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez said. “NextGen America is organizing in the largest voter-suppression states in the country to empower the largest and most diverse generation in American history to make the change we need.”
With events in Houston and the Rio Grande Valley, this week’s launch highlights NextGen’s new and unprecedented investment in Texas, as well as its commitment to fighting voter suppression designed to diminish the democratic power of young people and people of color.
Young Texans’ political power is real: the state is the second-largest in the country, the third-youngest and the fourth-most diverse. One in every three eligible Texas voters is under the age of 30, and 411,000 Texans turn 18 each year. But the state is also the hardest place in America to cast a ballot — especially for the young and non-white.
NextGen is partnering with established Texas voting organizations, growing relationships with key voting-rights champions through the establishment of a Texas Leaders Committee and, most critically, building a team of community organizers to engage young Texans in their homes, schools and neighborhoods to overcome systemic voter suppression and create long-term political power.
“Young people are turning out like never before to reject a status quo that refuses to work for them,” Tzintzún Ramirez said. “We can build a democracy that represents all of us — but demographics aren’t destiny, and change won’t come easy. It requires the hard work of organizing, registering and mobilizing young people to overcome the toughest vote-suppression laws in America. That’s exactly what NextGen is built to do.”
In 2020, NextGen helped mobilize one in every nine young voters, contributing to the largest youth-voter turnout in U.S. history.
The launch begins Thursday with a meet-and-greet with local activists in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. It continues on Saturday with a “People’s Hearing” event at the University of Houston featuring Tzintzún Ramirez, NextGen America founder Tom Steyer, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, among other special guests.
“From the climate crisis to income inequality to racial justice, the rising generations of Americans have the largest stake in the biggest challenges of our time — and it’s time for our leaders to listen to them,” NextGen America Founder Tom Steyer said. “Building an equitable, sustainable future for all depends on young voters, and NextGen is committed to making them full partners in our democracy.”
NextGen will hold additional launch events in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania in October and November. Throughout September and October, NextGen is sending voter-registration mail to more than 99,000 young voters and texting and calling 1.4 million more. From February through August of this year, NextGen contacted more than 1.5 million young people.
The program launched this week demonstrates NextGen’s evolution as the nation’s leading young-voter mobilization organization, underscoring its renewed commitment to reaching voters at every phase of life between 18 and 35, and recognizing the vast racial and economic diversity of America’s youngest generations.
Click here for more information:
About NextGen America
Supportive Statements on 2022 NextGen America Program
NextGen America Texas Leaders Committee Letter
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About NextGen America
NextGen America is the leading national organization for engaging young people through voter education, registration and mobilization. We invite 18-to-35 year olds — the largest and most diverse generation in American history — into our democracy to ensure our government works for them and to find new solutions to the dire challenges facing our society and the world. Since 2013, NextGen America has registered more than 1.4 million young voters and educated many millions more, delivering more than the margin of victory for progressives in key races and building an electorate that will lead American politics for decades to come.