CURRENT AGE: 18
YOUNG POLITICAL ACTIVIST: HONOLULU, HI
Rachel Briggs is a youth volunteer for the Obama campaign in Honolulu, HI. Organizing supporters’ contact information, working at fund-raising events, and starting a student chapter in her district are some of Rachel’s accomplishments.
Rachel first became interested in Obama after a discussion with a teacher, Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama’s half-sister. But she didn’t start supporting him until she did her own research into his policies.
Why do you think young people seem to be more involved in the presidential campaigns this year?
I think the candidate has changed. I think that the message that we’re getting from this candidate, from Obama, is very different than what we’ve been hearing before. He’s telling us that we do have a voice and that we are important and that he cares about what we’re saying and that he’s willing to listen to us. He has interesting and new ideas, and he’s saying he doesn’t want to be a part of the old Washington politics. I think that that new message is just very exciting.
What’s been the best response to your work?
I think that the best response to my work was on caucus night here in Hawaii. I went down to my local caucus, and usually there‘s about 50 people there on caucus night, and there was like over a thousand people. Just seeing all those people there, connecting how they had gotten the calls and all the organization that I’d worked on, kind of seeing the results of how that played out was I think the most satisfying response.
If you could talk to the candidates about any issue, what would it be?
The environment. I think that’s really a disaster right now and I think we need to make a change if we want to have a world in the future.
What advice would you give to other kids who want to get politically involved?
Just do it. I had thoughts of politics as something kind of very far removed and not really accessible, but then I realized that as soon as I kind of decided that I wanted to be involved and get out there and started talking to people, it was really so easy to become a part of the campaign and to start working on it. So it’s good to take action.
Copyright 2008 Y-Press