In an effort to make candidates more accessible and familiar to students, Aggies Vote hosted its first event on Monday with 2020 Democratic Senate hopeful Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez.
As part of the group’s voter education initiative, a Q&A format discussion with Ramirez was hosted on in Rudder Tower. The event was attended by representatives of various Texas A&M organizations, including the Council for Minority Student Affairs and the upcoming A&M chapter of Jolt, an organization originally founded by Ramirez that mobilizes young Latinos to register to vote.
Ramirez was named “Hero of the new South” by Southern Living magazine and is also a co-founder of the Workers Defense Project. Although she has never held political office before, Ramirez said she was recruited to run by the same organizers who ran Beto O’Rourke’s senate campaign.
Political science senior Georgia Neal, president of Aggies Vote, said the organization is hoping to host more events in the coming semester and are reaching out to local high schools as well for voter registration.
“Aggies Vote is a non-partisan voter registration education organization,” Neal said. “Our two main pillars are to register as many voters as possible and to educate students about why you should vote, how to vote and who you’re voting for.”
Before Ramirez began speaking, each attendee was asked to share their top policy issue. Ramirez said this was because she believes in voicing what you stand for.
“When they asked me to run, I said I have never wanted to run for political office,” Ramirez said. “Because I believe in always telling the truth and I believe in saying exactly what I stand for and believe in.”
Ramirez said that she is running because she believes in a government that serves ordinary people.
“I’m running under the wild assumption that I’m running on the merit of my idea, that I should win by my work ethic and who I stand up for,” Ramirez said.
In order to flip the state of Texas, Ramirez said, it is important to mobilize young people and people of color to build a cross-racial coalition.
“The largest electorate in Texas is voters under the age of 30,” Ramirez said. “By 2022, one in three eligible voters in Texas is under the age of 30 — between 18 and 30.”
Ramirez founded Workers Defense Project when she was 24 years old and a full-time student at The University of Texas at Austin. Creating this project led her to take on what she said was one of the most powerful interest groups in our state — undocumented immigrants.
“I worked to pass laws at a local and state level for people perceived as powerless, for people that couldn’t vote, people that couldn’t speak English,” Ramirez said. “It was from there that I learned that ordinary people can achieve incredible change.”
Communication senior and Vice President of Aggies Vote Sydney Street said any candidates, organizations or platforms are welcome to reach out to the organization and make appointments to speak.
“We think it’s important for students to know that politicians, candidates and your elected representatives shouldn’t be some mystical figure,” Street said. “We want it to be accessible for students to understand and make connections with the people they are voting for.”