Balancing school and work is demanding on most students, but imagine adding serving in public office to the day’s to-do list.
Jesse Laslovich, one of many panelists at Youth Elect’s first conference this past weekend, is doing just that. Laslovich, a member of the South Dakota House of Representatives, was elected in 2000 at 19 years old. He also is a senior at the University of South Dakota who plans to attend law school.
“I may flunk out of law school being in the Legislature,” he said. “But I love being in the Legislature. That’s my first priority. The people elected me to do something, and I’m going to do it.”
Kyle Johnston, an LSU alumnus, is running for U.S. House of Representatives in Baton Rouge’s sixth district against incumbent Richard Baker in 2004. Since he is juggling graduate school and campaigning, he said he can attest to how difficult it is.
“It’s tough,” Johnston said. “I’m taking 20 hours in MBA school at Rice and coming home on the weekends on a Greyhound bus.”
Youth Elect is a student-run, non-partisan, not-for-profit organization dedicated to increasing political participation among America’s youth.
Rhett Morris, executive director of Youth Elect, said the group wanted to create a conference that would be exciting for young people.
“What really excites me and what really gets me going is looking out here, you can’t tell who the speakers are and who the attendees are,” Morris said. “Everything [the panelists] have done really speaks to all that young people can do in politics.”
Peter Buttigieg, who works for the Institute of Politics at Harvard University, said the conference is the exception to a distressing rule – that students do not care about politics.
According to a study of 1,200 randomly selected people ages 18 to 24, college students are not the politically active liberals stereotyped from the 1960s. They are mostly registered independents, according to a survey that showed 29 percent of youth are Democrat and 26 percent are Republican.
“Young people don’t want to be affiliated with either party,” Morris said. “It’s a plague on both your houses.”
The lack of youth involvement in politics is a crisis he said, and it is up to young people to restore politics to an honored state.
“We grew up with TV,” Morris said. “We know B.S. when we see it.”
Joe Hune, who won his position in Michigan’s House of Representative by only two votes, said he did not concentrate on getting young people’s votes and is glad he didn’t because so many of his friends told him later that they didn’t vote.
But whether young voters helped elect them or not, the panelists at the conference demonstrated that students and young citizens can get involved in politics immediately.
Danae Roberts, a 25-year-old former Georgia state representative, said the best thing students can do to build their credentials is get to know people and how they feel about issues. When Roberts was elected at the age of 21 in 2000, she was the youngest woman to ever serve in Georgia’s legislature.
Laslovich said “your age is your biggest asset.”
And when campaigning door-to-door, he said people thought it was awesome that a 20-something wanted to get involved in politics. Also, when members of his political party see his ability to get elected and re-elected, they start to see him as the future of the party.
While the conference brought together students from across the country, political science junior Jay Vicknair said he hopes to have a better turnout in the future.
“I think its great, I just wish more people would have come to experience it,” he said. “It’s definitely a worthwhile experience.”
For Fontainebleau High School seniors Jacques Metevier and Amber French, the conference was an eye-opener.
“I think it’s pretty amazing that these people run at 19 years old,” Metevier said. “I’m 17. That’s only two years older than me.”
French said it also changed her outlook on age.
“People won’t even listen to your ideas, but these people have been elected to office and that’s a step further,” French said. “It brings things into perspective that it can happen.”