Did you track youth engagement for this past election? Young Montanans nearly doubled their vote share from the last midterms!
That’s astounding, and my one and only responsibility in this note is to say thank you – no action requests, no donate links.
Thank you for voting.
Thank you for every effort you made to support others to vote.
Thank you for uplifting the power of young people to shape our democracy.
I’m Forward Montana Foundation’s current board chair, which means that I have a front-row seat cheering on the incredible team that makes this organization shine. Whether you’ve cheered us on out in the streets, online, or with your donation, we share that role in common, and I’m grateful.
It turns out that cheering for the good stuff is an important part of democracy – it’s the bulwark against inaction that comes with inevitable setbacks to progress. As the elections approached this year, I had waves of reading every news headline and waves of hiding from my phone’s pop-up notifications. Forward Montana was a consistent beacon of hope and gave me fresh energy to engage in our shared political process, messy and sometimes disappointing though it is.
Doubling MT youth vote share is worth a huge, resounding cheer. And we also know that democracy doesn’t end with the vote. We’ll have specific requests of you in the near future to help shoulder the work to come, so… thanks in advance, too.
On we go,
Jeremy Osborn, Board Chair