O’Rourke needs to mobilize young voters to impact senate race, expert says

Historically, young voters don’t turn out on election day, but there’s a strong push to get them to the polls.

In Texas, young voters are seen as a possible factor that could affect the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Ted Cruz and democratic challenger Congressman Beto O’Rourke.

O’Rourke is going on all-in with the young crowd and he’s counting on them to get him elected on November 6th.

During a visit to a college campus in Corpus Christie, O’Rourke said young voters will be the surprise of the election.

“They’re going to stand up and be counted on the 6th of the November and they’re not reflected on anyone’s poll,” O’Rourke said.

Charles Boehmer, a UTEP political science professor, says O’Rourke is going to need the change in demographics if he wants to stand a chance at defeating Cruz.

Boehmer admits it is going to be an uphill battle for O’Rourke.

“Because in a midterm election even though O’Rourke has attracted a lot of attention and even notoriety nationally, it’s still the case that older voters will come out in higher numbers,” Boehmer said. “For O’Rourke to win he would definitely need some younger voters.”

Since the last election, more than 52,000 new voters have registered to vote in El Paso.

The majority of those voters were young people.

Bob Moore, the former executive editor for the El Paso Times, has collected data that shows more than 29,000 registered new voters in El Paso are younger than the age of 30.

“This is a young population that has been motivated to register,” Moore said. “Young people register to vote by and large, but the key followup is will they wind up voting.”

Over at the campus of UTEP, the excitement over the U.S. Senate race can be felt among students who are following the race closely.

First time college voters who spoke with ABC-7 say the Senate race is just one of the reasons that’s inspiring them to cast their ballot.

UTEP students Christian Martinez and Brittney Myrick will be casting their votes for the first time and both say they will be voting for O’Rourke.

They say O’Rourke appeals more to the younger crowd than Cruz.

“I am going to vote for Beto. He’s like one of us. He speaks to anyone like us,” Martinez said.

“I feel having the change with Beto and him appealing to young ages and people and students and not just older taxpayers, I think it’s good to have a variety of people involved,” Myrick said.

Sen. Ted Cruz also has his share of support from young voters.

One of them is Ana Zepeda, Vice President of the College Republicans at UTEP.

“I’m personally a very big Cruz fan,” Zepeda said.

Despite being in the minority in El Paso, Zepeda and her organization are working twice as hard to convince people to vote for Cruz, even though it involves campaigning in O’Rourke’s hometown.

“We’re seeing that there is a lot of opportunity here, but also a lot of opportunity to get our hands dirty and work in a campaign that’s very important this time around,” Zepeda said.

And for young voters it’s also important to make sure that they are registered to vote. You can check for yourself on the El Paso County elections page. Click here for more information.