Texas

That there are generations of non-voters. In East Texas, the last civil rights leader murdered there was in the 1970s. Many people still remember that. Their parents never voted, and neither did their grandparents, and so on. It's not a coincidence that the smaller the white population is in a county, the lower their voter turnout. And while many obstacles to voting remain, we're talking about generations of profound disengagement.

Texas has always been a racist state, and in many ways still is, despite white people being a minority now. You have to take into consideration the effect that it has had on the general population, where the poverty rate is higher than the national average, and one out of every four children is hungry. Where people regularly die without access to healthcare.

When you grow up surrounded by that kind of abandonment, you stop expecting help from anyone, much less the government. You grow up thinking voting is for other people. That it doesn’t change anything. And for generations, it didn’t.

But that’s not apathy. That’s a survival response to a system that’s failed them over and over again. If we want them to vote, we can’t just show up with clipboards every two years. We must show up with respect, resources, and a genuine plan to improve lives.

People don’t need more lectures about civic duty. They need a reason to believe it’s worth it this time.