More than 4.4 million Americans are currently 18 years old—many of them in high school—yet their value as a voting bloc is severely underrepresented.
Svante Myrick was elected to the Ithaca City Council as a junior at Cornell University in 2007. By 2011 he was elected mayor—the youngest in the city’s history and the first person of color. After stepping down in 2022, joined the progressive advocacy organization People for the American Way. But the tug of war between apathy and hope for the future is something Myrick still faces on a nearly daily basis. “What keeps me going is that it’s easier to work than to quit,” Myrick said.
At People for the American Way, he focuses on protecting voting rights, preserving democracy and electing young and progressive leaders. “I hear young people say this, ‘Politics is so corrupt, so frustrating—so I don’t engage in it.’ To me that sounds like saying the air is so polluted, I don’t even want to plant trees,” Myrick said. “The trees are cleaning the air; engaging in politics is what makes it better.”
