As I walked inside the Science Conference Center, I noticed something odd about the city council debate.  Throughout the room, there were no adults present to help put the event together, but rather, students putting up chairs, greeting candidates and setting up tables. Even though they were high schoolers, the Young Democrats were so motivated to become involved in politics and increase political awareness that they took it upon themselves to organize this debate.

The Oct. 24 debate included candidates from the District C part of Houston – Michelle Ganz, Abbie Kamin, Greg Myers and Bob Nowak. Although hosted by the Young Democrats, the event included all candidates running for city council, no matter their political party. 

Brandy Xie, a freshman and club member said she attended the debates because she thinks it’s important to take part in ‘what is affecting us, no matter our age.’

“I am also participate in other political activities such as debate, Junior Statesman of America, and Model UN so I was definitely interested in becoming part of the local politics in Houston,” Xie said. “We are the future generation, so it is important that we start to become involved now.” 

The debates were similar in format to the Democratic presidential debates and town halls. Each candidate had one minute to introduce themselves and moderates asked them questions on a broad amount of topics affecting Houston, including flooding, development/urban sprawl, zoning, public transportation and human trafficking. 

Lucy Ding, a senior and moderator of the City Council debates, discussed her experience organizing the whole event. 

“I thought it was great to become involved in local politics at such a young age. I enjoyed seeing the disagreements between candidates on their positions, coordinating responses from candidates, and overseeing civil discussion. 

Although the event turned out to be successful, there were some difficulties putting the event together.

“Organizing the whole thing was definitely a little bit stressful,” Ding said. “We had to do all the publicity for it, so we reached out to several local democratic organizations about our event. We even had the Meyerland Democrats agree to let us Facebook Livestream to their 7,000 members. In the end, I felt that it was all worth it, even though we had to move gigantic podiums” 

Ioana Nechiti, another key organizer, said she organized the debate because she really wanted to raise more awareness on the candidates, help students learn about the issues and help increase voter turnout for the Nov 5 election.

“I think political awareness is really important, as people often think change on political issues comes from the national level, but it’s really important to be involved in local politics too,” she said. “There are a lot of people willing to make changes that can work, such as the Climate Action Plan, flooding improvements, etc.”