Olivia Julianna is Optimistic about Texas
Republished by Square One’s Power Breakers interview series, where we bring you every other week a conversation about the people and ideas which matter during this election cycle, and beyond. We’ll get you thinking. We’ll make questions. Sign up for Power Breakers on Substack here. This paradox is especially pronounced among young voters. Many of the 41 million Gen Zers, including more than 8 millions who will become newly eligible to cast a ballot in November, are not expected to turn out despite being more political than the millennials at that age. Olivia Julianna is a 21-year old political powerhouse who is working to get young people to vote and to ensure that their priorities are included in every election conversation. Because if leaders speak to those issues, it will be easier to grow the number of politically engaged young people.
Despite 2024 being the first presidential race she is eligible to vote in, Julianna has already become an influential political strategist and activist in Texas and around the country. She began organizing in high school, and her early political experiences were shaped by tragedies such as the Parkland shooting, George Floyd’s murder, and subsequent Black Lives Matter demonstrations. She took the internet hate and harassment, which are some of the worst aspects of current politics, to create a grassroots movement. This is one of the most powerful and effective features of current politics. This was the perfect introduction to Julianna, because it encapsulated her work and how she continues to do it. It’s easy for you to forget that this is your first presidential campaign as a voter. Can you talk about your catalyst for getting into politics?
Olivia Julianna:
Yeah, I’ve talked before about growing up in a very politically conversational household. My father is a Republican and it was important to me that I knew about politics. Fox and Friends were on every morning. ABC News was on nightly, and talk radio was played on the way to and from school. I was very involved in politics. It was 2008 when I watched the debates, I was still in kindergarten. I also remember the drill we did in school that year. We had been doing it since I was fourth grade. I remember being afraid during that particular drill because administrators did more to simulate an attack. They were jiggling the doorknobs and banging the door and shouting “open the doors!” These issues became more urgent for me. While I was a conservative at the time, I started to listen to Trump’s
and I disagreed with him. In my junior year, the COVID Lockdown began. I was at home – we had just moved back to the small town of my father’s in the middle of nowhere Texas – when George Floyd was murdered. It was clearly wrong, and I couldn’t believe that people didn’t feel the same way. The moment that cemented my opinion was when Trump gassed protesters in D.C. As of this time, I was leading Bible Studies, serving on a youth board of a church, and being an officer of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter at my school. I felt disgusted by the situation because of my Christian faith. And so I wanted to do something.
MR:
Wow, so that was what prompted you to get involved more publicly?
OJ:
Yeah, and I went to my dad and said, “This is so wrong. I want to travel to Houston. I was a week too young to vote in the 2020 election, but I still got involved, and it all just took off from there. I was a week too young to vote in the 2020 election, but I still got involved, and it all just took off from there.
MR: That had to be so scary at your age to get that reaction from your father and still decide you wanted to get involved. Has your relationship with your dad changed as your work has progressed?
OJ: Yes, a lot. He wasn’t very supportive at first, but he didn’t say to stop advocating online, so I didn’t receive any punishment. He didn’t always agree with me. He’s now very supportive. In his office, he has photos of me with Joe Biden. He’s also been vocal about his support for Colin Allred in Texas. He has knocked on doors for him. He hasn’t yet committed to vote for Harris, but he said that he won’t vote for Trump. This is huge. In 2021, I experienced my first big political moment. I graduated and was still living with my parents. I had been involved in removing an abortion tipline in Texas. I was then invited to speak in the Texas state Capitol. Because I did not have my driver’s license, I had to ask my father to drive me. He said, “I am pro-life.” I’m against abortion. My childhood friend was kind enough to drive me. I feel fortunate that his philosophy has changed, as he has been very supportive. My sisters are, largely, very supportive, and I feel lucky to have that.
MR:
I love this story because I think it’s such a powerful message about the ways we need to organize. We are most successful in organizing within our families and communities, because we know them, we share their values, and we can reach out to them more effectively. What has that process with your family taught you about how progressives can engage in deep organizing work?[Donald]OJ:
I definitely treat my family as an informal poll a lot of times, because they have all different ideologies. What I’ve found to be most effective has been pointing out the issues in their lives that are the result policy failure. One of my sisters, for example, cites education as the number one concern in her life. Her son has autism and special needs. She recently moved to Texas from another state with a better education program. She realizes that the way Republicans in Texas have treated the public education system is the reason it’s been so hard for her to obtain the accommodations needed for my nephew. So having practical conversations about the reasons why programs aren’t working for most people is really effective.
And it’s taught me a lot, too, about polarization. As a young person, I used to be very rigid. As a young person, my position was “If you are not a Democrat or if you are not the same kind of Democrat that I am, I don’t like you and I believe you to be wrong, and I also think you stupid.” But as I have gotten older, my attitude has changed. It’s probably because I’ve had so much experience that I enjoy talking to conservatives. After all the conversations I’ve had with my family, it feels natural to me, but also necessary. Some people must be willing to take the time to talk about it. It’s my cup of tea. And it has taught me that most people are good. Most people care. Their anger oftentimes is just misplaced, and so we just have to find a way to put that anger and that energy into a place where it can be productive.But we just have to be willing to have the conversations and educate people so that we can actually affect change, because siloing off different people based on party or region or whatever is just not going to work. It was a great lesson for me to learn with my family. I feel like I’ll be able to be more effective because of that.
“We have to remember that the government is much bigger than we think it is sometimes, and a lot can happen that can make big changes if you look at state and local elections.”– Olivia Julianna
MR: There’s another issue that I think we as a movement struggle with–and it’s related to this question of how do we meet people where they are and not feel like we’re compromising our values. This is a time when we have young voters who are enthusiastic and informed about the political process but have high expectations of how they can effect change. And this creates a challenge.
How do you think we can balance needing to build up patience for incremental change while not lecturing young voters or squelching their excitement or their expectation that they can make real change?OJ:[Kamala] First, in order to effectively solve this problem, we also have to look at what is causing it. Gen Z is very politically and civically involved for its age. There is a 100 percent problem with the desire of young people to get instant gratification in politics. It’s not a coincidence, I think. We grew up during a period of rapid technological development. Social media has rewired our brains to crave instant gratification. Amazon delivers overnight and we get instant feedback on social media. Our lives have become more and more accustomed to quick processing. The only place where we really don’t see this rapid pace change is in our government.
So for the young people who are feeling like, after voting in one or two election cycles, they want to see more change, first I think we have to remember that in the last ten years, we’ve seen a dramatic change in policy and politics. You may feel that nothing changes. But if you look back at the last ten years, how many Democrats were prolife or opposed marriage equality or were endorsed NRA? The involvement of young people has led to change. Remember that government can be much larger than you think. State and local elections can bring about big changes. This is not just a problem for young voters. It is a social problem to get people to pay more attention to local solutions. I don’t think it’s just a generational problem.
MR:
That is such a good point, so let’s talk about what’s happening in the states. You are a Texan and a proud Texan. Does that vision of Texas match what you see when you’re working in the state? Does that vision of Texas line up with what you see when you’re doing work in the state?OJ:
Ann Richards had this quote: I didn’t realize how big Texas was until I started campaigning across it. In the last three month I’ve been to all parts of the state. I’ve been to El Paso. I’ve been to Waco. I’ve visited San Antonio, Austin and Dallas. When I speak to people about a variety of topics, they are more open, regardless of their political views. Texas is a state that has always seen progress. Barbara Jordan, a Texas native, was the first Black woman elected to Congress from the South. Texas was the state with some of most effective organizing around anti-discrimination and minimum wage laws. Texas is the state which brought us Roe v. Wade. Texas! Two young Texas women, both graduates of the University of Texas, argued this case before an all-male Supreme Court. Texas was the state that produced the president who signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1984. All these progressive victories in this country have come from this state, which people have forgotten because of people such as Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz and Ken Paxton. Texas is not a voting state. There are millions of voters who are eligible to vote in Texas, but they do not. People often say that they do not vote because they believe that politics does not affect them. We need to tell potential voters how our leaders’ actions impact their daily lives. Unfortunately, our elected officials have created a deep apathy among Texans. A deep miseducation among Texans. They did it to maintain control and power. We will flip Texas. It is not a matter of if but when. By 2030, I believe we’ll have flipped our entire statewide slate and we’ll be electing a Democratic Governor in Texas. This is the main focus of my work. If we flip Texas and change the narrative, it’s the end of the game. If we flip the state of Texas, we can pass some of the most monumental legislation in American history.MR:
It’s interesting because you started your political journey before you could vote, and you talk about our path to transforming our politics through engaging nonvoters. So often we think about our political identities as a feature of being voters, and I think it’s a very important reminder that that’s not always true.
OJ:
Oh, yeah, 100 percent. It’s not true that voting is the only way to affect change. And when there has been as much miseducation as there has been in Texas, a huge first step is getting people to understand that what the government does every single day impacts them.
MR:
I think a lot of times the progressive movement is challenged because we have a very diverse coalition of people fighting for shared outcomes but with very different methods. There are activists, politicians and policymakers in the same movement. We must also balance competing interests. Your advocacy is so inspiring because you use a number of the same perspectives. How do you decide in a particular moment if you are going to approach an issue as an activist, as a policy person, or as a political person?OJ:
The most important thing I ask is who am I talking to? The most important thing is to know your audience. My approach will be different if I am speaking at the Texas Capitol than if I was sitting in a congressman’s office. It’s actually very simple to me. Politics is much easier than most people think. I also think that activism is simpler than most people believe. Barbara Jordan once said that “what people want is very simple.” “They want an America that lives up to its promise.” This is true for everyone, so it doesn’t matter who your audience may be.
