Broader Youth Involvement Urged
Outreach Targets Those Who Lack College Education

By Michael Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Erica Williams worries about the wave of political involvement among young people this election season.

She knows, for example, that college students' participation in Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign -- whether it's knocking on doors or raising money on the Internet -- has been unprecedented.

But Williams fears that the army of young activists, no matter the political party, doesn't include enough people who haven't gone to college. And as director of outreach for Campus Progress, a nonpartisan youth activist organization, Williams is trying to involve them.

Williams spoke alongside former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) yesterday to more than 1,000 participants at the Campus Progress National Conference at the Omni Shoreham hotel in Northwest Washington.

"I think [youth vote turnout] is going to be huge," she said. "The question is going to be, who is that youth?"

She said primary turnout among college-educated 18- to-24 year-olds was far higher than among those who had attended only high school.

This year, the group targeted community colleges in its invitations and conference scholarships and plans to move on to people without college educations next. Williams, 24, grew up in Largo and graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park three years ago. She grew up being concerned about D.C. voting rights and gentrification, though her time for those issues dropped away in school.

"I was not the most active on-campus student," Williams said. "I worked full time, 40 hours a week, in Bethesda . . . so I understand some of the challenges of trying to pay for your own education."

That echoed Edwards's remarks. The former vice presidential and presidential candidate invoked the Declaration of Independence in exhorting the crowd to fight poverty, in part through making education more accessible.

"The voices of a generation must join together in a great call for change," Edwards said.

His speech focused primarily on high-level policy changes that he said would take 18 million people out of poverty in 10 years. He called for an increase in the minimum wage, a tripling of the earned income tax credit and guaranteed access to quality child care.

"Hard work just isn't paying in America today," Edwards said.

"It's a lie" that young people don't care about political issues in America, Edwards said to cheers. "The core set of values are very similar" to those of his generation, he said after the speech. "But this particular generation is much more interactive," working for change online and in new ways.

But a generation gap was clearly evident yesterday.

One man with a gray ponytail repeatedly tried to start chants throughout Edwards's speech.

"No more war! No more war!" he yelled. But the students would have none of it. Low-level giggling was the only response.

Instead, the crowd cheered for single-payer health care, for President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society programs and for cleaner energy.

"I think [young people] are comfortable" with grass-roots activism and higher-level policy debate, Edwards said.

Williams agreed. "I think we're pretty much split down the middle" between those approaches, she said.

Excitement about the election has helped. "There's a percentage who are believing more in the political process now," Williams said. "That helps our work."

But staying involved beyond the election is vital, she said.

"It's incumbent upon us to hold whoever we vote into the White House accountable," Williams said. "Policy is not going to change on November 4th, and we know that."