NextGen America Trains 325 Youth Organizers Ahead of Midterm Push
NextGen America President Tom Steyer Visits Las Vegas, Gives a Boost to Nevada Organizers
SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Over the weekend, NextGen America trained 325 youth organizers — including students from 113 high schools and colleges — in seven states across the nation as part of its groundbreaking push to mobilize and turnout young voters this November. Building off its success organizing young voters in Virginia in 2017, NextGen is preparing for an unprecedented campaign to organize young voters in the 2018 midterm elections, where young voters are expected to play a pivotal role in taking back the House of Representatives and electing progressives up-and-down the ballot across the country.
NextGen America President Tom Steyer visited with incoming fellows in Las Vegas, NV (top right) as NextGen America trained over 300 new fellows across the country, including in California (top left), Nevada (bottom right), and Virginia (bottom left).
“Young people all across the country are taking action against President Trump’s divisive and hateful agenda,” said NextGen America President Tom Steyer. “On issues like climate change, LGBTQ equality, and immigrants’ rights, the Trump Administration and Republicans in Washington have shown that they are totally out-of-step with young voters. Heading into the midterm elections, young Americans are fired up like never before, and the Republicans who ignore them should be very worried.”
Over the weekend, NextGen staff began training the incoming fellows in cutting-edge methods of political organizing, including voter registration, community engagement, and digital organizing. In November of 2017, young organizers in Virginia stunned the country by helping spur unprecedented youth turnout that elected progressives up and down the ballot. Post training, these new organizers are equipped with tools to show once again that the youth vote is here to stay as a decisive and powerful force in American politics.
NextGen America’s $30 million youth organizing program is the most robust in American history, mobilizing young voters across ten states — Arizona, California, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada, Virginia, and Wisconsin. NextGen’s program aims to contact half a million young voters, register a 250,000 young voters, and train over 2,000 volunteer student leaders on campuses across the country.
Young voters overwhelmingly disapprove of President Trump and the Republican Party. According to new polling released Monday by GenForward and NBC News, 63% of millennials disapprove of President Trump — the highest of any age group — and 72% of millennials say the GOP “doesn’t care about people like me.” Young voters were pivotal to progressive victories in Virginia and Alabama, and millennials will be the largest generation of eligible voters in 2018.