Gen Z – young people born between 1997 and 2012 – will play a huge role in the upcoming presidential election, and when NBC Nightly News wanted Gen Z perspectives on the campaign, they sought out Oglethorpe senior Ashleigh Ewald ’24.
Not only has Ewald interned in media and been active on campus in student government, but she has also been highly engaged with Voters of Tomorrow (VOT), a Gen Z-led 501(c)(4) organization that engages and represents young Americans in politics and government.
“When I was finishing my first year of college in April 2022, a senior friend invited me to be a part of Voters of Tomorrow,” Ewald said. “Once, I bonded with members like Mark Putman, the current state director, and discovered that the VOT’s work is based on a primary passion of mine: protecting democracy. I knew that this organization was not a usual nonprofit but something extraordinary.”
Oglethorpe senior political science major Ashleigh Ewald answers questions from NBC News reporter Savannah Sellers about the 2024 election and Gen Z voters.
Her work with VOT made Ewald a logical source for NBC producers who spent the week in Georgia interviewing college students about issues in the 2024 election campaign. In a wide-ranging interview with NBC reporter and anchor Savannah Sellers in the Cousins Center Atrium on Sept. 3, Ewald voiced her opinion on Gen Z participation, Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the Democratic nominee, limiting the age of presidential candidates, the vice-presidential candidates, economic pressures faced by Gen Z and other questions of relevance to the election.
NBC conducted a national poll of 18-29 year-old voters, and the interviews with Ewald and a Kennesaw State University student provided personal context for their story. Because of her activism with VOT, Ewald proved to be a knowledgeable subject.
“I’m hearing ‘I’m excited to cast my vote’,” Ewald told Sellers in the interview. “I literally heard that from somebody who wasn’t going to vote in November.”
With chapters in 20 states and a volunteer presence in all 50, VOT takes a locally-based, multifaceted approach to engaging young voters.
“Ever since joining VOT, I have been consistently blown away by the national team and Georgia’s chapter team’s success for their ages and how much we accomplished together,” she said.
Among those accomplishments are orchestrating an end gun violence rally and march in downtown Atlanta; mobilizing high school and college students to speak at Georgia’s Public Service Commission Hearing on environmental impact issues; launching chapters at the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech and Georgia State; and working to elect Gen Z candidate for the Georgia House of Representatives Bryce Berry.
In addition to rallying Gen Z voters to go to the polls, Ewald has been working with other college’s student governments to create an SGA Coalition and get every eligible college student to vote in November.
Ewald will graduate from Oglethorpe in December with a degree in politics and plans to pursue graduate school and, eventually, a political career. In the meantime, she will keep working on policy issues and getting out the vote.
“I kind of wear it as a badge of honor to be in a state and also be organizing and mobilizing in a state that is such a battleground state like Georgia,” she said. “All eyes are on Georgia again.”
