Young.
For the current crop of Democratic politicians in the Valley, otherwise known as “Valleycrats,” this specific word has rapidly gained its weight in gold.
We’ve seen it extolled at the fundraisers and campaign kickoffs, and we’ve seen them try their hardest to shake this ephemeral bloc of would-be supporters, interns and canvassers awake.
It still has not seemed to break through.
Turnout remains comparatively low in our demographic, especially in Merced. When looking at the 2025 Registration Report through the California Secretary of State, the numbers are deeply concerning. Despite making up more than 17% of registered voters in Merced County, participation from young people manages to barely break through.
We at the College Democrats of UC Merced have narrowed it down to two principles: A lack of vision, and the never-ending insistence on moderacy in a world where that’s increasingly unacceptable.
This playbook was set years ago by figures such as Richard Lehman and Gary Condit during their state Assembly and congressional tenures.
Attempting to run anywhere close to “liberal” or “leftist” in the Valley is considered a scary prospect that guarantees defeat. So that idea is cast aside, and candidates mostly run as moderates. Favor has long been curried with conservatives. Conflicts with Sacramento or Washington over topics such as water rights are scored to seem more independent. They’ve settled with the agricultural lobby and now pray the infrastructure money they bring in will secure their next term.
I have empathy for this approach. I’ve seen the Republican alternative my entire life. I’m grateful for the work of local Democrats, even when they stay strictly moderate. My education is built off the efforts of this political line, and the University of California, Merced is the shining jewel of what it can accomplish. I know and respect many of these figures.
When you govern only slightly differently from Republicans, you cease to be a source of hope for improving our futures and circumstances, and people stop caring. Ironically enough, our politicians then justify this as “the nature of this district” and say it’s a reason to move even further toward the center.
While our elected officials attempt to follow a playbook that’s rapidly dwindling in relevance, it’s fallen onto the few active volunteers and student groups to bear the burden of justifying what goes against our beliefs and interests. For every wayward vote on the Assembly floor or middling policy position out of Congress, the apathy from our age bracket grows more difficult to contain.
Students and younger voters in Merced care less, abstain more, and feel fundamentally unrepresented in ways that compound with every election cycle. Only a few select people remain in the sphere of interns or campaign staff – if not to just garner experience and run somewhere else up the statewide chain of command.
The College Democrats of UC Merced have seen this firsthand, and it nearly killed our club. A primarily progressive student body was unmotivated to align with a Democratic club whose politicians actively reject the left flank. Locals consider it more of the same, and those who come from across the state or country are given zero incentive to vote locally. While we focused on these politicians for guest visits and visibility, our grassroots organizing died with election season, and our rhetoric was incapable of reaching students.
Students focused on survival are not energized by tax credits and water policy because those are taxes that don’t apply to us, and the water is for land we likely will never own. We’ve seen our classmates outside the Basic Needs Center, and we cut back on meals or going out in order to stretch out paychecks.
We’ve felt the cuts to Medicaid, academic spending and student loan relief. Our friends fear being targeted by their own federal government for their ethnicity. We see the broken-down roads and dilapidated public services during our day-to-day life. Existential issues like climate change loom. When we ask for a vision for all of this, we’re given empty checks and marching orders instead.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
While the Valley has been left in dust bins as a conservative stronghold in this state, and our politicians have done little to meaningfully challenge that, its progressive lineage still burns brightly. Many forget the Valley is a community founded in its working class and multi-ethnic base. Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong walked out in Delano, and the crystallization of Hispanic, Laotian, Hmong, Punjabi, Dutch and Portuguese communities makes up the backbone of our home. We deserve to be a shining example of progressive success in rural and semi-urban areas.
Furthermore, the university should be a massive boon for local political action. Elections in an area this purple are determined by the hundreds, and if we could even get 200 consistent voters on campus to participate locally, it could change our political reality.
Our problem is a lack of vision for us to mobilize around. If electeds won’t build it, we will.
Liam Kilgore is a sophomore and the vice president of the College Democrats at UC Merced.