Kid Scoop Media Mentor

By Sharmin Shanur-

On November 3, 2018, March For Our Lives, coordinated a pre-election rally starring the Parkland Survivors, Gilbert Cisneros and many other famous faces in an effort to galvanize young people to vote and, consequently, increase voter turnout in Orange County

Throughout the day, the Vote for Our Lives Team, organized buses that would take UCI students, as well as community members, to early voting polls and allow them to submit their ballots. The Parkland Survivors, in addition to University of California (UCI) students helped escort people to the buses in hopes of promoting the Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts that has spread across much of the United States.

The environment of this rally was extremely political and patriotic-students were dressed in t-shirts that donned the American Flag, organizers from UCI's planned parenthood club were actively giving out pins, and people holding signs regarding gun control and gun violence filled the room.

When Gilbert Cisneros, democratic congressional candidate from the 39th district, walked onto the stage, there was a wave of applause. The audience was clearly ecstatic to see him. Cisneros' platforms, some of which include increased gun control, health care for American citizens, and immigration reform, made him a crowd favorite. For a candidate who was suspected to loss horribly against his Republican counterparts, Cisneros seemed to have quite a large following.

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In fact, during his speech, Cisneros stated "when I was going to run for Congress, here in the 39th district in Northern Orange County, they said you can't run on [gun control], you can't run on common sense gun legislation. . . it will never work. I said 'I don't care.' I don't care because this issue is too important."

Gil Cisneros' seemingly lone wolf approach, in a largely Republican district, seemed to work in his favor. Although the preliminary counts indicate that Cisneros lost the election against his Republican opponent Kim Yong, he put up a good fight. Losing by only about 2,000 votes. However, the 39th district is still counting its votes so, Cisneros' platforms may prove to be successful.

After Gil Cisneros spoke, Emma Gonzalez, gun control activist and Parkland survivor, gave the audience some parting words for the day. She drove home the importance of every vote and explained how civic duty and honest conversations are integral to a functioning democracy.

As Gonzalez looked into the audience, she exclaimed "We just want to remind everybody that the conversation does not end here. . .If something in legislation . . .impacts you, you need to tell everybody in your life about it because [they] might not understand that something going on in politics could, you know, really really hurt you. They might not know. What is gonna prevent that from happening is you talking to them. Have difficult conversations over dinner, on Thanksgiving, and Christmas with your family."