Why Vote in 2020? The Election Is Not Just About Trump vs. Biden

Teen Vogue surveyed activists, politicians, and more about the concrete reasons why it is worth voting in the 2020 elections. 

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: “We’ve just got to get rid of Donald Trump.” Throughout the 2020 campaign cycle, this has been the rallying cry, the reminder, the phrase used to lecture people who feel disillusioned with and disenfranchised by a system that has failed them.

But this election cycle — and this year — is about so much more than Trump, or the White House. We’ve experienced the collective traumas of the COVID-19 pandemic and record-setting wildfires alongside the earth-shattering force of the largest uprisings against racism in recent history. We know that real change can happen when we come together, and that so much can be lost if we don’t do every single thing in our power to keep that from happening, including voting, organizing, marching, and simply caring for one another.  

We’re hoping that you vote for the local and state candidates who support the issues you believe in. Vote for the ballot amendments relevant to your life. Vote for your community, your family, your friends, for clean air and water, for people locked in cages, for control over your body, for love over hate. Vote because so many in power don’t want you to exercise that right. Acknowledge the flaws in a two-party system and the scourge of voter suppression, and cast a ballot anyway. Vote, and then go out and keep working toward the world you want to live in.

Despite everything, it is worth voting this fall, and to give you more concrete reasons why, Teen Vogue coordinated the Our Time Is Now project, reaching out to activists, lawmakers, and organizers to ask how young people — above all — are guiding us toward a brighter future. 

Editor’s note: These responses have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Jackie Corin, cofounder of March for Our Lives

Vote because 40,000 people die as a result of gun violence every year — deaths that could be prevented if comprehensive gun safety policies are implemented on a federal level.


Alexandra Rojas, executive director of Justice Democrats

If the GOP succeeds in clinging to power through lies, bigotry, and the inert institutions designed for a United States where people were not permitted to vote, then we will lose our democracy to the racists, fascists, and their cronies — and we will lose our planet to the fossil fuel barons who fund them so they can squeeze every drop of oil from the earth until they are rich beyond measure and our planet is irreversibly, tragically broken by unending fires and floods.


Raquel Willis, writer and activist

We don’t talk enough about what lies beyond the act of voting. Given the various systems of oppression plaguing us, we will often be forced to decide between candidates who don’t fully speak to our values. And if we decide to vote, often we must lean into pragmatism, vowing to do the work so we can have more liberated options for leadership down the road.


Amanda Nguyen, founder of Rise and survivors’ rights advocate

I understand that everything seems like a dumpster fire right now. But if we all work together, we can put out the fire. Every person’s efforts matter. Every vote matters. Elections have been won by small margins — even by a single vote. You matter. The “pursuit of happiness” clause in the Constitution is up to every generation to define. So define it. Vote for what you care about. Vote because you are mad. Vote because you are excited. Vote because you can change the world.


Nathalie Rayes, president and CEO of Latino Victory

You can vote on behalf of those who do not have a voice. In this election, the future of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients and thousands of undocumented immigrants who cannot vote is on the line.... DACA recipients are pillars in our communities: They are 200,000 COVID-19 frontline workers, including 29,000 health care workers, they raise 254,000 U.S.-citizen children, and pay $8.7 million in taxes yearly.


Ilana Glazer, actor, comedian, and creator of Cheat Sheet for the Voting Booth

C’mon, my li’l Teen Vogue reader sweeties – yes, you, bb! If you’re feeling disempowered and discouraged about this election, I feel you. We Americans are being bullied and lied to on the daily by the guy with the loudest mic. My mind and heart hurt. But in November, we have the chance to change the course of our country back to a democracy, and we can do it. WE CAN DO THIS, MA YOUTHS.

Young people have proven they are ready to lead the culture. The multiracial momentum around the #BlackLivesMatter movement has proved this. Our generation galvanizing around the climate crisis with the #FridaysForFuture demonstrations has proved this. Young people know what’s important: the planet and its people. F**kin' DUH! And the most efficient and effective way we can achieve safety for our planet and the people on it, and to keep America running, is to vote.

Vote. Register to vote, make a voting plan, and vote 45 out. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are our ticket out of this racist, fascist, authoritarian nightmare. That’s it. That’s what we got this year. Join me in partaking in the process, and let’s make it ours.


Lashyra “Lash” Nolen, president of the Harvard Medical School class of 2023

To continue the work of abolition we have to uproot oppressive policies and create new ones. To build a world that uplifts the marginalized, we need elected officials who are aligned with that agenda. So after the protests come the polls. One necessitates the other.


Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont

In response to the unprecedented crises we face, we need an unprecedented response: a movement, like never before, of young people who are prepared to stand up and fight for democracy and decency — and against greed, oligarchy, and bigotry.

The good news is that you are ready to transform this country so it works for all of us, not just the people at the top. You’re demanding real action on climate change, on student debt, on protecting abortion access, and on guaranteeing health care as a human right. You’re saying loudly and clearly that Black Lives Matter.

The bad news is that young people today do not vote at the levels they should. If young people voted at the same levels as older people, we could absolutely transform this country. A lot of powerful people and corporations are counting on you not getting involved. Do not give them that satisfaction....

When people ask me why I feel hopeful about the future, it’s because of you — the most progressive generation in history. Real progress takes place when young people pick up the torch and say, “We are going to change the world.”

I believe in you.


Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood

In the first half of 2019 alone, more than 350 restrictions on access to sexual and reproductive health care were introduced in nearly every state in the country. Trump has appointed 200 judges to lifetime appointments, including some who are opposed to abortion and IVF. Our health care system has been decimated, with a disproportionate impact on Black and Latino people, the LGBTQ+ community, women, immigrants, and families with low incomes. The next Congress and president will also have to restore Title X, the nation’s family planning program, which has been dismantled by the Trump administration, and deal with the spike in STI rates reaching epidemic levels, leading to another public health crisis within a pandemic.


Alice Wong, founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project

Vote as an act of resistance to the suppression tactics by leaders at the federal, state, and local levels seeking to disenfranchise underrepresented communities.


Zanagee Artis, cofounder and policy director for Zero Hour

This election will determine whether or not decisive action is taken to bring about a just transition to 100% sustainable energy. We need a moratorium on all new fossil fuel infrastructure projects, and we need elected officials who are willing to defend the futures of every young person in America by addressing institutional racism, colonialism, and climate change.


Sofia Frazer, founder of the @dailydoseofwokeness Instagram account

The not only inappropriate but irrational response to COVID-19 by Donald Trump has directly impacted almost all of our futures and experiences. This is more than missing out on a high school football game or prom. Donald Trump’s ignorance and unwillingness to professionally handle the coronavirus pandemic has allowed 200,000 Americans to die. This number should scare you. It should terrify you. We need competent politicians in office. We need leaders who lead. Generation Z is a generation of change. We cannot allow our circumstances to define us.


Erika Andiola, chief advocacy officer Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES)

For me it's really personal: My mom’s immigration court date is in September, and I have DACA, so whatever happens in November will literally dictate what happens with my family. That’s true for millions of people, whether you have DACA, Temporary Protected Status, or you’re in deportation proceedings — our lives depend on a change of administration.

We can’t count on the Supreme Court to save DACA, and that means millions of people are suddenly going to be at risk of deportation. That’s a huge material difference between the Trump and Biden administrations.

Those of us who have DACA can’t vote. I wish I could. I wish I had the ability to use that limited power that a lot of Americans have to change the features of the country, but I don’t. I don’t have the power to vote — but you do. Why not use it?


Nurah Abdulhaqq, state director of March for Our Lives Georgia

All politics are local. Even if you don't want to vote for president, it's imperative that you vote for your local officials. Your district attorneys, judges, sheriffs — these people, more than anything this year, have been consequential to the lives of Black and brown people. Your congressmen and women, including in the state legislature, are the people who are making decisions for your lives.


Jackie Fielder, state senate candidate for California’s 11th District

In 2020, everything changed. Our fragile society cracked along familiar racial and economic lines. Millions of people retreated indoors indefinitely, shuttered their businesses for months, or risked their lives to perform essential work. We did this to keep one another safe and slow the spread of a pandemic. We also marched in the streets, braving the hail of rubber bullets and clouds of tear gas deployed by militarized police, in defense of Black lives.

In 2020, we proved our courage and grit. We demonstrated the scale of collective action. And we showed the lengths we are willing to go to support and uplift one another. The limitations we believed, or that we were told to believe, have been shattered.


Skai Jackson, actor and first-time voter

The president we have now is racist and doesn’t care about important issues. We deserve to have a leader who wants the best for all of America — one who is educated, and wants to better the world.


Carlos Mark Vera, cofounder and executive director of Pay Our Interns

Over 3 million people graduated in May. They are entering the worst job market in recent memory. My generation has already experienced two recessions in under a decade, has less wealth, savings, and more debt than our parents. We need to overhaul the entire system.

I want to elect people who are committed to solving the country’s youth unemployment crisis. Currently there are nearly 5 million people under 30 who are unemployed, underemployed, or working without being paid. If young people do not stand up for ourselves, no one will do it for us.


Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts

Pick any issue you care about: If your issue is dismantling systemic racism, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been clear about their commitment to policing and criminal justice reform and have plans to advance racial equity across our economy.

If you worry about how student loan debt crushes opportunity, Joe and Kamala are in the fight for student loan debt cancellation and tuition-free public college. 

What about the climate crisis? Joe and Kamala have a plan for a “clean energy revolution” and will make America a leader in confronting this existential threat.

If you know the importance of judges to protect our rights, Joe Biden has promised to appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices and federal judges who look like America, understand the importance of individual civil rights and civil liberties, and respect essential precedents like Brown v. Board of Education and Roe v. Wade.


Representative Katie Porter of California

As a longtime professor, I know we have a lot of work to do to fix the student debt crisis and bring down the sticker price of college. That’s why I launched the College Affordability Caucus when I got to Congress. This is also deeply personal for me: When they heard how much college costs, my kids told me they didn’t want to go and do that to our family. We need to elect candidates who will take this issue seriously and make it a priority.


Tess Holliday, model, blogger, and activist

We are seeing our Black, brown, and trans brothers and sisters murdered at a disproportionate rate. Unfortunately, our government is doing nothing to protect them, so we have to — by voting. Our marginalized communities are having their fundamental human rights threatened and immigrants are still being torn apart from their families. Americans do not have equal access to health care and lifesaving procedures. None of us are free until we all are, and no one is illegal on stolen land, so we MUST vote now, more than ever, and stand up for what’s right, not what’s easy.


Noor Pervez, community engagement coordinator at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network and director of accessibility at Masjid al-Rabia

The system isn’t perfect, but there’s a huge amount of power in choosing who you will be working with (or against) to make sure that your rights are protected for years to come. People with disabilities, especially people with intellectual/developmental disabilities, often have to fight to make sure our right to vote doesn't get taken away or made more difficult.

If you can in any way get out to the polls (or mail or drop off an absentee ballot), especially as a marginalized person, you’re actively fighting a system that is trying to stop you from making your voice heard. Not only is that super metal, you’re also making it clear that this fight isn’t over.


Rhiana Gunn Wright, director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute and an architect of the Green New Deal

The outcomes of elections matter far beyond who gets elected and who doesn’t. Who politicians feel accountable to, and what they want to fight for depends on what their constituents say at the ballot — and what groups voted them in. Voting isn’t just about who wins the presidency. On a local level, voting can impact everything from who gets access to health care to climate policy. There is no way to get climate action if people are not climate voters.


Storm Reid, actor and artivist

I can't vote this upcoming November, which I'm beyond frustrated about, but I can't sit idly by and not encourage other young people to vote.… Gen Z and millennials have the opportunity to shake things up and make a real change. We have to fight for the future we want to see, and that fight begins with our vote. Vote for gun reform. Vote to fight climate change. Vote for equal justice. Vote for reproductive rights. Vote for Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery, and the countless other innocent humans who are no longer with us. Vote because our ancestors fought so hard for us to have this right in the first place. Or solely vote because we have someone morally incompetent running our country.


Brittany Packnett Cunningham, Activist & Founder, Love and Power Works

Marginalized people exercising our power is always seen as a threat — a threat to a status quo that serves everyone but us. Our vote is no different.… I get why choosing pessimism in this time is tempting, and I don’t think just one vote will change everything. But I do know this: not voting will change nothing. It is a tool of our power, and that’s why they don’t want us to use it.


Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of the Women’s March

Think of 2018, and what happened when we turned out and voted. We flipped the House, creating a check on Trump’s power. Do you think Trump would have been impeached if we had not done that? Just imagine what he would have done if voters had allowed him to keep the House. Imagine what he will do if we allow him to keep the White House.

We now have a record number of women serving in Congress, and this congressional class is the most diverse ever.

We can continue to make Congress less and less of a club for rich old white men.


Tiffany Cabán, former public defender, organizer, and New York City council candidate

Personally, I’m going to the polls looking to elect every Black, brown, immigrant, queer, working-class progressive who will fight for and center our most vulnerable.

The phrase “identity politics” is often misused today, but when Barbara Smith and the Combahee River Collective coined that term they were talking about the reality that we have the right to bring our whole selves to our politics. It means our existence is political, inherently, and we must create and enact politics that center our lived experiences within inequitable systems.… I bring that frame with me into the polling booth every single cycle.

Think of some of the working-class victories we had this cycle: Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman will go to Congress in January, ready to fight like hell for working people because enough people showed up at the polls who believed in them.


Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO

Using power builds power. And make no mistake, voting is about exercising power. If you’re reading this and you’re between 18 and 40, you and your friends have a lot of power. Or, at least, you have potential power. Millennials and Gen Z make up 37% of all eligible voters in the United States. That’s the same potential power as the baby boomers and the Silent Generation combined. All you have to do is wield it.

You also have the most at stake. Will there be family-supporting jobs? Will you be able to afford a decent place to live? Will we start to dismantle systemic oppression? Will we turn back the climate catastrophe? This election — and the policy fights to follow — will reverberate for the rest of your life.

Voting will never be enough, but it’s a critical place to start. You have the power to choose whether we spend the coming years fighting to prevent the worst future or pushing to create the best future. Don’t listen to anyone who says your voice or your vote doesn't matter. Your voice and your vote are real power. I can’t wait to see what you do with it.


Adam Eli, writer, community organizer, and author of The New Queer Conscience

The right is convinced that young people don't vote. Let’s prove them wrong and vote them out.


Julián Castro, former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development

The last presidential election was decided by fewer than 100,000 votes — that’s the size of a small town or large college campus. Your vote absolutely counts, and it’s the best way to ensure the issues you care about are taken seriously.

In recent years, more and more young people and college graduates have been forced to move back with their parents or sacrifice things like vacations to save money, pay rent, or pay off student loans. If you want an America that fights for you and not just the wealthy and well-connected, this election is your chance to have a say.


Graciela Blandon, New York University student and deputy campaign manager for Veronica Carbajal’s campaign for El Paso mayor

I live in El Paso, Texas, one of the sunniest places not just in the United States but in the world. Despite our unparalleled capacity for shifting to solar power, only 3% of our city runs on renewable energy. This, combined with loopholes in air quality regulations, has left El Paso residents to experience one of the worst levels of air pollution in our state.... Among other reasons, I'm voting in hopes that Joe Biden's Environmental Protection Agency keeps its promises to the young people all over America who are fighting their own battles against the oil and gas industry.


Eva Longoria, actor and moderator at the 2020 DNC

I'm voting because our democracy, morality, and the soul of America are at stake.


Nabela Noor, creator, activist, and entrepreneur

Your vote is your voice. It is you using your voice and individual power to influence the collective and make a seemingly small but powerful contribution to a massive system. Your vote holds so much significance, and it can be the vote that pushes the needle further in the fight for a more equal and just America. Be a part of shaping the nation to which you are contributing your gifts and greatness.

This is a tough election for millions of young people in America; however, do not forfeit your right to vote out of indifference or a lack of passion for a specific candidate. Please consider the larger mission you believe in and continue to fight for it every day.


Julia Cumming, singer in Sunflower Bean and founder of Anger Can Be Power

Younger people are more inspired than ever to run for office themselves, and wouldn’t it be awesome to put them in power? We are consistently overrepresented and outvoted by people our grandparents' age. There’s no way the future we need can be built without radical changes in our thinking. Who better to do that than us?


Daud Mumin, Westminster College student and member of March for Our Lives’ national board

We have the responsibility to strip this country’s police forces of their ability to make being safe mutually exclusive from being Black. A part of this responsibility is voting on November 3 for mayors and city council members that know Black Lives Matter and put their money where their mouth is by funding our safety, not our death sentences. Stand in solidarity at the ballot box and in the streets, because until there is justice there can be no peace.


Leah Thomas, intersectional environmental activist and founder of Green Girl Leah

I vote because I believe the future should be intersectional, regenerative, and equal. I’m especially passionate about environmental justice as it finally starts to infiltrate the mainstream political conversation, and I feel hopeful that policies surrounding climate justice have a real shot at being passed. As a 20-something recent graduate, I’m voting for student loan debt forgiveness because student loans have plagued my life and many of my friends.


Janaya Future Khan, storyteller, activist, and cofounder of Black Lives Matter Canada

Fires are raging across California, bigots are rising up across the U.S., and billionaires are profiting off the pandemic in grotesque ways, all while millions face hunger and eviction in America. Movements like Black Lives Matter continue to fight against the monstrous reality of police brutality, advocating for a different world. Against all odds, people are rising up across the country, and we must rise with them....

Having done this work for over a decade, I now understand that our job is not to make people see the light, but to be the light. In other words, we have nothing to prove and everything to protect. Four years into Trump, we are on the precipice of fascism.... This is the time when political nihilism can rear its ugly head, telling us that nothing matters and nothing we do will be good enough. But this is what I know to be true: The hero this time is calling for is you. It’s me. It’s all of us. This is our time to be as big, as bold, and as audacious as we can be. The time is over for shrinking and feeling like we aren’t enough. We are mighty. If we weren’t, there wouldn’t be so much effort to make us believe otherwise. So vote, and then fight like hell to make sure it counts.


Mondaire Jones, Democratic nominee for New York’s 17th Congressional District

Part of the reason it’s so hard to make progress on issues we care about is because our democracy is constantly undermined by the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court. The court gutted the Voting Rights Act, making it harder for voters, especially Black and Latinx voters, to cast their ballots. It has given wealthy donors, corporations, and special interests outsize influence in our elections.

These issues are personal for me. As a Black person in America, I am extremely frustrated that people who look like me have an unnecessarily difficult time voting all across this country. I am a gay person who is horrified by what has become a semi-annual ritual: spending the month of June waiting to see if the Supreme Court will vote to take away my civil rights. I am also a candidate for Congress who comes from a working-class background and just emerged from a very expensive, eight-person primary in which one of my opponents, enabled in part by a Roberts Court decision, spent millions of his pharmaceutical industry fortune.

If we want a government that works for all of us, we must have a Supreme Court that respects democracy. Make no mistake, that is on the ballot in November.


Janeese Lewis George, nominee to represent Ward 4 on the Washington, DC, city council

It’s not just our future on the line; our present ability to live and thrive is on the line. Democracy, social justice, environmental justice, equality — it’s all on the line this election. No one can afford to sit this one out.


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