Billionaire activist rallies Miami teens to 'remake America' at midterm elections

Painting the upcoming midterm elections like a pivotal battle in the war to "remake America" in a liberal mold, the billionaire California activist Tom Steyer cut a bellicose figure as he rallied his young foot soldiers inside a cramped Miami-Dade College meeting room on Tuesday.

"When I look at the United States, I see a country that is searching for a reason to exist and a meaning behind what we're trying to create," the former hedge fund executive told a couple dozen student activists — some as young as 15 who ducked out of class early to attend the meeting.

Applause and at least one "wow" followed his remarks, and student leaders snapped photos afterward with Steyer, recognizable to cable-TV viewers for his million-dollar ad campaign calling for President Donald Trump's impeachment. But young people don't watch much cable, and they tend to punch well below their electoral strength.

As the president of NextGen America, Steyer has invested $30 million into what he calls the largest youth vote program in history, spanning at least 10 states and more than 30 congressional districts.

In Florida, Steyer says he will spend at least $3.5 million on mobilizing voters between the ages of 18 and 35 — a cohort likely to surpass Gen Xers as the largest group of voters in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. The money will go to support the Democratic candidate for governor, the re-election of Sen. Bill Nelson and the re-election of U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Winter Park, along with flipping three congressional seats in South Florida that are currently held by Republicans. Two of those seats — FL-26, currently held by Carlos Curbelo, who is running for re-election, and FL-27, where Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is not seeking re-election — are in Miami-Dade County.

The group plans to have about 100 staffers covering 40 college campuses across the state, including 10 community colleges and four historically black colleges. It will target 1.5 million young voters online and through the mail.

Steyer was joined at Tuesday's meeting by city of Miami Commissioner Ken Russell, who recently shuttered his campaign for Florida's 27th Congressional District, and local political organizers Maggie Fernandez and Sheyla Asencios.

The panelists applauded efforts of young people to mobilize their peers into political engagement and offered pointers to the eager activists-in-training.

"There's something very special going on now," Russell said. "I've seen plenty of youth movements come and go, and rock the vote, and we always seem to get let down after a lot of hype and excitement for what that next generation of youth is going to do. I really, really do feel something special going on right now."

"A lot is riding on your shoulders," said Fernandez, the president of Sustainable Miami.

Following the half-hour event, 15-year-old Juliana Simone Carrasco, a student at New World School of the Arts, spoke briefly with Steyer. Three days after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Carrasco started a Miami chapter of Students Demand Action. The group now has over 100 members, she said.

"Young people are here and we're ready to make change," she said.

Carrasco attended the meeting with friends and fellow activists Nikita Leus-Oliva, 16, and William Breslin, 18, both students at Coral Gables Senior High. The two serve as co-presidents of Miami-Dade Teen Democrats, a collective of about 80 teenagers that aims to support and elect Democrats to public office.

"It's not only about you voting, it's about influencing other votes," Leus-Oliva said. "Maybe we can't vote but we can influence our community's vote."

Following his appearance, Steyer said seeing students get politically engaged is "invigorating," but won't amount to much if the youth don't vote.

"Unless they participate at the same rate [as older generations], their values and their opinions and their passions won't be weighted the same as other Americans," he said. "So from our standpoint, our goal is to engage them in the system and make them aware of how much power they really have if they choose to use it."

This story was originally published May 1, 2018 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Billionaire activist rallies Miami teens to 'remake America' at midterm elections."