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Campus Progress Launches "I'm Voting For" Campaign to Highlight Issues Young Voters Care About |
Campus Progress Action, the youth organizing arm of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, today launched “I’m Voting For,” an online video testimonial campaign that gives young people a platform to talk about how their personal experiences and passion for the issues are driving them to the polls.
Through early on-the-ground efforts, the “I’m Voting For” website already hosts over 100 testimonials from young people across the country, covering a range of issues from health care to the economy, climate change to the war in Iraq. For example, Shauna Harris, a student at the University of Mississippi, discusses how her mother’s death highlights the need for health care reform in the United States . University of California-Riverside student Nazik Hasan pinpoints civil liberties as the issue that affects her most , after she experienced racial profiling at airports across the United States.
Starting today, young people will be able to upload testimonials themselves to the “I’m Voting For” website. Once uploaded, videos will be posted to YouTube and sent to presidential, congressional, and other candidates as well as major media sources, as a weekly update on what young people are really thinking about.
Throughout the 2008 campaign, “I’m Voting For” will create a narrative about why young people are voting in 2008, and focus the attention of candidates and the media on the issues that are important to young people. “While everyone is concentrating on who they’re voting for, along with gaffes, polls, and political ups and downs, we’re interested in focusing the debate on what matters most—the issues,” said Ramya Raghavan, communications and outreach manager for Campus Progress Action. “’I’m Voting For’ is open to all viewpoints,” added Raghavan, “but we are finding, as polls also indicate, that young people have a strongly progressive orientation. Part of the mission of ‘I’m Voting For’ is to highlight for candidates and the media that young people are demanding progressive change in 2008 and plan to hold their leaders accountable in 2009.”
For an up-to-date account of what issues are driving young Americans to the polls, please visit www.imvotingfor.org
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