ROCK THE VOTE’S HEATHER SMITH AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS ABOUT YOUNG VOTER TRENDS AND TOP ISSUES AT THE 2008 DEMOCRATIC AND REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION
Heather Smith, an expert on young voters and their political influence on this election, will be available for interviews at the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Convention.
Rock the Vote is non-partisan national organization, at the intersection of youth, politics, popular culture and technology. Rock the Vote’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country. Under Smith’s leadership as executive director, in 2008 Rock the Vote is launching its most ambitious campaign ever to register 2 million young people to vote, to educate them, and to turn them out to the polls. Smith will be available to comment on:
* Young voter historical trends and current statistics from the primary season
* The use of mobile and online technologies to engage and mobilize young voters
* Young voters top issues including the economy, the war in Iraq, healthcare and the environment.
* The influence young voters will have in November
Prior to Rock the Vote, Smith founded and directed Young Voter Strategies (YVS), in 2006, YVS coordinated a national nonpartisan project with 15 organizations that collectively registered more than 500,000 young voters using innovative and replicable methods of voter outreach and played a large role in the young voter turnout increase in 2006. Prior to launching YVS, Smith served as the national field director for the PIRGs New Voters Project, the largest nonpartisan grassroots effort ever undertaken to register and mobilize young voters. The New Voters Project registered nearly 600,000 voters and conducted an intensive, multi-faceted get-out-the-vote effort to bring these newly registered voters to the polls on Election Day.
Heather was named one of Campaign & Elections magazine’s Rising Stars in 2006 and featured in an Esquire magazine profile of the “Best & Brightest” in 2007.
Additional Rock the Vote spokespeople include:
* Chrissy Faessen, Deputy Director overseeing Rock the Vote’s advertising, marketing and partnership development.
* Stephanie Young, Communications Associate, leading Rock the Vote’s African American outreach and youth journalist program, Rock the Trail.
* Donny Lumpkins, Rock the Trail young reporter covering voting trends among black men, healthcare and family issues.
* DeNishia Yearby, Rock the Trail young reporter whose beat is focused on K-12 education and foster care, college affordability and voting trends among young Asians, Arabs and Pacific Islanders.
For media interviews contact: Stephanie Young, Rock the Vote, 202 368 1738 stephanie@rockthevote.com
A full schedule of Rock the Vote activities available at www.rockthevote.org/rocktheconvention.