Our Campaigns Director Loren Marshall (Diné) was not registered to vote until her early 30s. It wasn’t until she was a student at Diné College that she attended a life-changing presentation where she learned about the power of her vote. Like many young voters in rural and remote areas, she felt politics was something that happened to her community on the Navajo Nation, and not something she was to participate in. Inspired by her work at Diné College. Loren was strongly motivated to engage others in the electoral process and now serves as our Director of Campaigns and Engagement. Loren has created a vital new program to move her vision forward: Youth Votes, designed to increase youth voter turnout on sovereign lands in 2024. Nationally, voters under the age of 29 turned out at a rate of just 23% in 2022. In order to protect the White House, gain a Democratic Senate seat, and flip the Arizona legislature, the voters Northeast Arizona Native Democrats serves will need to outperform the nation: and we have a plan to do that.
Young voters are one of the most informed generations in history, and they are ready to change the world. They want action on the climate crisis, social justice, and gun violence. On the lands where we work there are over 12,000 registered young voters who can change the outcome of Arizona’s elections in 2024. This powerful voting bloc needs to be engaged beginning this year to ensure they understand their power, and to make sure they have the tools and resources they need by the time they need to get to the polls and cast a ballot successfully in 2024.
Donate to engage young Democrats on sovereign lands through our Youth Votes Program
In rural and remote areas on the sovereign lands of Arizona, youth engagement looks different than organizing in suburban/urban communities, and we have a proven plan to meet the challenge. Loren has designed a youth-focused relational organizing program that parallels our successful Family Votes program. Youth Votes invites registered voters under 35 to get their family members and friends to the polls using the same proven tactics we use to empower matriarchs to get out the vote. We have identified over 3,000 young voters who successfully voted in 2022 by overcoming the difficulties of geography and voter suppression tactics they faced in accessing the ballot box. These voters have proven they are motivated to address the crises we face as a nation. It’s our job to empower them to take friends and family to the polls with them. No generation has as much at stake in 2024 than our young voters, and no group of voters needs more support and engagement than they do.
We are already in the first phase of our Youth Votes plan to recruit Youth Votes Ambassadors.
We are using text messaging and hand-written postcards to recruit Ambassadors to our virtual training where they can learn about the power of their voting bloc and how to register friends and family. From there, the Ambassadors are fully trained, like our Family Votes Matriarchs, on how to support their network to become voters. In addition to on-going support and training from Loren, every participant receives a kit that includes all of the tools they need to register voters, as well as education on the issues and candidates on the ballot. Once a Youth Votes Ambassador is trained they will engage members of their network we can’t reach, with an authentic voice that means more to their friends and family than ours would. This relational organizing program allows access not just to the remote communities and households in which our Youth Votes Ambassadors live, but also friends in college away from sovereign lands. We are providing the Youth Votes program to allow young people to build their political power on sovereign lands through increasing turnout.
It is impossible to overstate the importance - and the proven success - of our every-year, all-year field organizing program. By starting early to empower voters in rural and remote communities to build their own voting circles of family and friends, we have been able to increase voter turnout in every election cycle since we began our work. The Northeast Arizona Native Democrat’s Youth Votes program is Loren’s vision for a vital new effort that fills a glaring gap in early outreach to young Democratic voters on sovereign lands. There is room to grow turnout in the region and we are committed to this work until we have participation from the entire electorate on sovereign lands.
You can help us engage youth voters! A donation today will help cover the cost of the Youth Votes program, and help keep the White House, elect a second Democratic Arizona Senator, and flip the Arizona Legislature.
DONATION LINK: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/neaznd23
Checks may also be mailed and made out to: Navajo County Democrats — PO Box 144, Lakeside, AZ 85929 · (928) 224-8021
Ahé hee’ Thank you,
Missa Foy
Program Director Northeast Arizona Native Democrats
Chair Navajo County Democrats
www.navajocountydemocrats.org
neaznativedemocrats.org (project of Navajo County Democrats)
Stay connected with us and help amplify the work!
Facebook: NavajoCountyDemocrats
Twitter: @navajocountydem
Instagram: @navajocountydem
Facebook: neaznativedemocrats
Twitter: @neazNativeDems
Instagram: @neazNativeDems
TikTok: neaznativedems