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19-Year-Old ASU Student Steps Up To Run Campaign For County Board Of Supervisors

(Photo by Lauren Gilger- KJZZ)
Zak Ghali is an ASU junior and the campaign manager for Michael Cerra’s campaign for Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

The potential power of the millennial voting block is the subject of a lot of talk this election cycle. Will they show up to the polls in November and sway the election? Or will they continue to largely stay home?

One Arizona State University student is fighting that perception of his generation in a big way.

ASU junior Zak Ghali is not only sitting at the Young Democrats table outside of ASU’s Memorial Union just about every day, registering voters and handing out bumper stickers, he’s running a professional campaign.

“I was approached by someone in county party leadership about the opportunity,” Ghali said. “Matthew Cerra ran in 2012 for state house, he had a lot of experience, he just needed someone to guide him in the right direction.”

The 19 year-old is the campaign manager for Matthew Cerra’s campaign for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. He said this is the first presidential election he’s ever even been able to vote in.

He’s been volunteering for the County Democrats for years now and is working hard organizing voter outreach, events and an overall campaign message.

Ghali said, trying to get college students to care about a local race in a presidential year is not easy.

They’re having trouble even getting students to register to vote this year.

“They say, ‘I don’t care, they’re both terrible,’ and they don’t understand there are people down ballot that affect them 100 times more than whoever's in the White House ever could,” he said.

So, for this campaign, he said he’s focusing on what has worked in politics for generations: Talking to voters face-to- face.

“Nothing impacts the way you’re going to vote more than someone knocking on your door, putting a piece of paper in your hand and telling you why this person is right for this office,” he said.

Lauren Gilger, host of KJZZ's The Show, is an award-winning journalist whose work has impacted communities large and small, exposing injustices and giving a voice to the voiceless and marginalized.