Interview by Gladys Gitau
Lawrence native Ana Victoria Morales got a chance to meet President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama on May 5th, 2012. Morales, a sophomore at Denison University in Ohio was in charge of coordinating students for Obama's campaign at her school when she stumbled upon the opportunity of a lifetime.
She was working tirelessly during finals week running phone banks and getting students to pledge votes to the incumbent president. Her hard work showed as she managed to recruit the most students from any college in the state, and earned tickets to Obama's rally.
The day before the event, she got a phone call from her campaign supervisor telling her to make sure she was having a good hair day on the day of the rally. She did not know she was going to meet the president himself.
"They gave me hugs! I couldn't believe this was happening to me," said Morales. "All I was thinking was 'I'm a Latina from Lawrence and I'm here!'"
Morales, who graduated from Lawrence in 2010, is a strong supporter of Obama and Democrat Elizabeth Warren who is running for Senate in Massachusetts. She got her first experience campaigning by volunteering for Obama in 2008, her sophomore year of high school. She has interned for Senator John Kerry, and is currently campaign manager for local school committee member Pavel Payano.
Ana is adamant about mobilizing young people to get out to polls this November to vote for Obama.
"We were really active in 2008 because we knew history was in the making," she says. "He hasn't always represented everybody we wanted to, like immigrants, but where do we [as people of color] stand with someone like Romney?"
Morales is studying political science at Denison and hopes to be mayor of Lawrence one day so she can help improve the futures of Lawrence children. She urges any young people interested in campaigning in this election for either Warren or Obama, or just looking to gain political experience to seek her out at [email protected].