Politician Beto O’Rourke paid an impromptu visit to Texas A&M’s campus Wednesday. Visiting as a part of the political action committee Powered by People, he and his staff were in Rudder Plaza encouraging students to register to vote. Fred Medina, who is running for Texas House District 14, accompanied the PAC in the plaza.

“I want to make sure that anyone who wants to be registered to vote, gets registered to vote,” O’Rourke said. “The issues that are going to be decided, whether it’s reproductive healthcare, access to a doctor, cost of tuition at A&M, that’s going to affect this generation that goes to school here, more than it’s going to affect any other generation.”

O’Rourke appeared with multiple volunteer deputy registrars who signed up students to vote in Brazos County.

“Unfortunately, students and young people are underrepresented at the polls on election day,” O’Rourke said.  “And so I’m going to do everything I can within my power to change that, including coming to campus to get people registered to vote.”

The deadline to register to vote for the November general election is Oct. 7. Absentee ballots must be requested by Oct. 25 and returned by Nov. 5.

“Texas ranks dead last in ease of voting,” O’Rourke said. “It’s harder to cast a ballot. It’s harder to register to vote than in any other state. And I think it’s because those in power fear the future. They don’t want to hear the voice of young people.”

A&M faced backlash from students after removing early voting at the Memorial Student Center location in 2022, which was then returned the following year. Joining O’Rourke were the Aggie Democrats, including nuclear engineering senior and president Kevin Pierce. 

“Beto is here with Powered by People, a voter registration organization,” Pierce said. “So part of his thing is he comes to college campuses — he gets people out here registered to vote.”

Pierce encouraged students to change their registration to vote in Brazos County, even if they have already registered to vote in other counties.

“You are not driving home to vote,” Pierce said. “You’re not doing that, you have tests, you have exams … If you register to vote here in Brazos County, you can vote in the MSC, and you can early vote in the MSC. It takes maybe 30 minutes to do that.”

Aggie Democrats is planning on hosting more voter registration drives, with other notable politicians visiting Aggieland closer to the Nov 5 general election.

“Whole point of this is to get people informed and involved in the next election and to get people registered to vote,” Pierce said. “[O’Rourke] will be back here on Sept. 16. Colin Allred will be here probably Oct. 1. Fred Medina, who is running for State House — he’s also a candidate — he’s out here getting people registered to vote.”

Fred Medina is the Democratic nominee for Texas House District 14 and is focusing his campaign on opposition to school vouchers and support for abortion access.

“I want students to know that we had a commissioner here who said ‘Students don’t vote’… I know that that’s not true,” Medina said.  “I know they’re going to be involved, I know there’s an energy now … My campaign is youth driven. That’s what’s going to change this election throughout this country. It’s going to be the youth vote.”