Your Voice Can be the Change
Marley Nervais Morales (8)
Is your Texas leader important to you? Would you like to know more about your options for Texas governor? Well here is most of the information you need to know about the top two nominees for Texas governor, and what some of my fellow peers and adults have to say about it.
“No matter what side of the fence you are on, it’s important to educate yourselves. Too many people either go vote based on what others tell them, not really knowing who or what they are voting for, or they don’t vote because they don’t know or understand the issues at hand.” Mrs. Neal, a 7th-grade ELA teacher, stated.
This is exactly why I believe that it’s important for youth our age to educate ourselves. These issues affect ourselves, our future, and our children’s future. Things are constantly changing, and if we aren’t paying attention to what is being changed, we never know what kind of world we might be getting into.
Why don’t we start with our current Texas governor? Greg Abbot is a part of the Republican party and has been the governor since 2015 and is in his second term as governor. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with his bachelor’s in Finance and soon went to Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, Tennessee. His primary focus is, “Improving public safety, protecting personal liberties, putting Texans back to work, and further unleashing the state robust.”
Although this may sound good, Greg Abbot has proven in many ways that this is not the case. For example, Greg Abbott supports the law to outlaw abortions. According to Planned Parenthood’s official website, this law overthrows the 1973 decision to make abortions a constitutional right. Yet, Abbott has taken that away from women in the state of Texas. This is something a lot of people feel strongly about. He has managed to upset people many times. This is a reason why people are considering voting him out.
Running against Abbot is San Antonio’s very popular Beto. Beto O’rouke is very beloved by many people who think he may be a very reliable person for the new governor of Texas. He graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in Arts and Literature, and he is fluent in both Spanish and English.
He is making some very reassuring promises that appeal to the younger generation. For example, he promised to cancel the STARR test which we all know how we feel about state testing. Although people would like for this to happen, according to texastribune.org former president Barack Obama requires states to have standardized testing. He has a very wide range of issues he would like to have solved from gun safety to health care to free healthcare.
8th grader Lily Ceniceros said, “It [state testing] creates a lot of unnecessary stress on students and teachers.” Lily also mentions that she and her family like what he stands for. “He has good morals.” Beto is very popular with the younger generation. He strongly advocates for any race, gender, or political party you stand for. He is on your side.
There are many issues people would like to see solved and that is what they are looking for in their future leader. There are so many people that want to make a great change and a way to do this is by getting out there and voting. This is something many people can do. For example, the legal voting age is 18. For some of us, that’s only a couple of years away, and you may think that’s not important but you can never be too young to start getting involved with your community. If this is not a motivation to vote, remember that this affects you and your future.