Santiago Mayer started Voters of Tomorrow when he was in high school. He’s been organizing longer than he’s been able to vote.
If you’ve been to a No Kings protest and seen the demographic that shows up, you know why his work is so important. Millions upon millions of protestors show up, but they are, by and large, older. Gen Z has energy, but that energy needs to be aimed at participation in our democracy. That means more than just voting.
It means campaigning. We need Gen Z to knock on doors, canvass, spread the word, organize, and, yes, show up at protests. Those of us who are Millennials or Gen X or beyond need to understand that Gen Z isn’t a single-issue block — every issue that exists is an issue that they will one day need to deal with.
And while we’ve all — at least all of us watching this show — have activated in some capacity, it’s still true that most of our leaders were born in the early 1950s or before. American political leadership might just skip a generation. And once Gen Z takes the reins, politics will look remarkably different.
