It’s important to reach all generations- especially when crucial decisions about the nation are being decided. According to the Washington Post, an estimated 50 million Gen Z Americans were eligible to vote in the midterms. That group born between 1997 to 2012 a group is said to be more racially and ethnically diverse than their older groups. Gen Zers are credited with the “Blue Wave” of Democrats in many Congressional races in the 2026 Midterm Elections.
For more than 20 years a Washinton, DC based organization has been fighting for racial, economic and climate justice, for African American youth and young adults, as they say, “from the streets to the suites.”
On Election Day, NewsVision reporter Amyah Wright sat down at WHUT studios with JaRel Clay, Associate Senior Director of Digital And Production with Hip Hop Caucus about leveraging power for the young vote.
This is the transcript of the full conversation.
So, can you tell us a little bit about who the Hip Hop Caucus is and what you what you guys do? Absolutely. So, Hip Hop Caucus is a national nonprofit organization founded in 2004. So, we’ve been around for 22 years fighting for climate, racial, and economic justice. Part of that work includes mobilizing the vote for young voters between 18 and 40 to make their voice heard and make sure that vote is respected and protected.
Our respect our vote campaign has been around for 18 years using art and culture to influence policy. And we’ve been doing that work with folks like Common, TI, Neo, Sierra, and just recently uh LA Anthony, who we uh leverage to get the vote out early. Um we also saw this year that over 56 million people already voted early in this election, which is record-breaking for midterm. And so we hope to keep that momentum going into today. That’s awesome. Y’all have some big name people. TI common, they’re up there.
So I really love that and I love everything that you guys are doing at the Hip Hop Caucus.
So, we’re going to get straight into the questions. The first question that I have for you is with the keep the beat going message, what is the hip hop caucus doing differently this election cycle to reach a generation that consumes so much political misinformation largely through social media?
Yeah, I would say our core message is to get in the booth, but we have to let make sure that folks understand what their power is and then leverage that power at the ballot box. And so rather than uh advocating for any candidate, our goal is that those candidates who become elected officials are doing what they said they were going to do when they get into office. And so how we how do we do that? We do that through um education.
we have to let make sure that folks understand what their power is and then leverage that power at the ballot box.
We do that through awareness and we do it through things that feel fun to us, right? Why tell folks to march to the to the polls when you can stroll to the polls and you can roll to the polls either with roller skates or uh with a bike or what have you. We’ve been doing events like that in North Carolina in in uh Louisiana. And part of it is to make sure that before they even step foot in that ballot box.
They have all the resources available to them. They know who’s on their ballot. They know what measures are on their ballot. They know what those measures mean. And getting to that point takes weeks, if not months, to get folks through that learning journey. And so part of it is making sure that you’re dedicated and on the ground doing that work. The other part is grace and patience. People don’t know what they don’t know. And so meeting someone where they are to make sure that they understand what’s on their ballot is how we get uh those folks mobilized to vote.
Absolutely. And I love how dedicated you guys have been thus far in trying to ensure that outreach to young Gen Z voters, which that actually goes into my second question. Um, as the person who oversees the digital organizing and production at the hip hop caucus, what have you learned about the way Gen Zers respond to political messaging and how has that influenced your strategy for this 2026 midterms?
Yeah, you know, as a as a millennial, the thing that I love about Gen Z um that I think we share is that we’re not going to let anyone count us out. Absolutely. And with Gen Z, I’ve seen especially at uh campuses like Xavier University in Louisiana, North Carolina um in North Carolina of course when those polling locations are being stripped from college campuses across the country, students are mobilizing in the way that we have always done for generations.
students are mobilizing in the way that we have always done for generations.
And Gen Z is no different in that. When you tell someone that they cannot do something, they are going to show you how easy it is for them to get it done. whether they have to mobilize in droves of tens of thousands of people or if it’s just a couple folks in someone’s church basement making sure that they have the information to provide.
Yeah, they’re going to get it done. And we’ve seen that drive happen regardless of what other narrative other folks will put out about this generation specifically. They have the tools to make it work and all they need is the encouragement and the empowerment to get it done. Absolutely. Absolutely. So that also goes into my third question.
Um, for many young Americans, um, they express frustration with political leadership and the direction that the country is going. Um, and your conversations with people who are Gen Z, what concerns are you hearing most frequently and how are those conversations influencing your outreach?
Yeah, the main concern uh, right now, especially being in in DC, DC is one of the areas that uh, suffered the largest job loss, particularly with Black women and Black men. Yeah, I think it was over 700,000 with Black women and over 300,000 with Black men um nationwide of course uh just in the last year or so.
DC is one of the areas that uh, suffered the largest job loss, particularly with Black women and Black men. Yeah, I think it was over 700,000 with Black women and over 300,000 with Black men.
Okay. And so when you see that kind of economic turmoil happened to black families specifically who is often impacted is the children and the caregivers that are that are within those families. And so they’ve seen the impact with groceries. They’ve seen the impact with gas prices. They’ve seen the impact with this the cost of education, the cost of healthcare.
These things impact our day-to-day in ways that um through our vote we can change and they’re starting to realize what the impact and of those elections um can be if we don’t show up.
Absolutely. And so my last and final question, your campaign encourages people to keep the be going beyond election day. What does that look like in practice and how do you keep Gen Zers engaged?
Yeah. So, our core message with keeping the bee going has been to get in the booth. After we’ve uh got folks into the booth, now we need to get them into the city hall. We need to get them into the streets. We need to get them into the to the um council hearings where they’re making these decisions locally, uh that affect our school board, that affect our gas prices, that affect our streets and our infrastructure. Um again, it goes back to education and awareness. Being able to show and tell how um you can get from point A to point B in terms of success and improvement for your communities is where we start with our respect m campaign.
It is twofold. It’s the civic engagement and awareness, but it’s also uh again once those polls close, we got to be on these folks tail to uh to make sure that they’re doing what they said they were going to do. Absolutely. Um because without that advocacy beyond your vote, they won’t recognize the power that we know we have.
Absolutely. I appreciate that. Thank you so much, Mr. Jerel, for your time. We have come to the close of our interview and thank you for taking the time to come and speak to us as we are current Gen Zers during this midterm election. So, absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you for everything you all do. I think the proof is in the numbers, the proof is in the data, and y’all been showing up. So, I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Thanks to interns at WHUT for assisting with the production of this interview.
