‘The voice of right now’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Summer Lee rally for Harris-Walz campaign at Carnegie Mellon University 

Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Summer Lee drew a crowd of 350 students and community members to rally for the Harris-Walz campaign Sunday, Sept. 22, at the Jared L. Cohen University Center on Carnegie Mellon University’s campus. Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato made appearances, calling for young voters to mobilize in the upcoming 2024 presidential election. 

“It is up to us,” Gainey said. “This is our democracy. This is our time … It’s time that we send the world a message that America is united.” 

College Democrats at Pitt, CMU College Democrats and Young Democrats of Allegheny County cohosted the rally. Lee called the event “the most powerful room in the country,” thanks to the power young voters hold in the nearing election. 

“Young voices are not the voices of the future. You guys are the voice of right now,” Lee said. “But also, this is the most powerful room in the country because we’re in Western Pennsylvania. And the road to the Senate, and the road to the House, all leads right through yall’s campuses. So you should be proud and excited about that.” 

Lee highlighted former president Donald Trump’s re-election campaign rhetoric. She said “when someone shows you who they are, my folks say to believe them.” 

“I take very seriously what’s at stake right now,” Lee said. “When they tell us they don’t love our immigrant siblings, I believe them. When they tell us they don’t want us to have reproductive rights and care, I believe them. When they say that they don’t believe that our LGBTQIA siblings should have rights and safety, and be loved in our communities, believe them, because I believe them and I know them.” 

When voting, Lee urged voters to remember who they’re voting for — not just on the ballot, but in their lives. 

“I’m going to the poll place for my family,” Lee said. “I’m going to go and vote for the most marginalized person in my life. Because it’s my job, it’s my responsibility to make sure that I’m creating the conditions that we can all survive in. Not just survive, that we can all thrive in. I’m here to say that we have an option … and we would be foolish if we did not take this opportunity.” 

Lee applauded students who attended the rally on Sunday and stepped away from their rigorous schedules to be there. But she also called on them “to go and tell somebody else.”

“Think about everybody in your life who is not in this room,” Lee said. “Think about the young student who won’t be able to get an abortion and her life will be at risk. I want you to think about our trans siblings who are continuously legislated into dangerous positions … think about all of the black and brown and poor communities that are polluted, that are choked and starved. Think about the young kids who deserve a quality education irrespective of their zip code … because we’re building this country for them too.”

Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd that 2024 is the first year “in American history” where millennials and Gen Z populations outnumber every other generation as a potential voter block. 

“That means the future is up to us to shape in a real way,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Every time an election comes up, people act like the youth vote is cute … this year, it’s a must have.”

Ocasio-Cortez told young voters that she believes their voices hold power in this election, and advised that they can change the “world that our predecessors left to us.”

“It’s messed up, not even on a bipartisan basis. It’s messed up generationally,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “It’s messed up that we have been growing up with shooting drills in our schools for as young as we can remember. That’s the world that was left to us by older generations … we had to grow up watching our planet burn and do nothing about it … up until now.” 

Ocasio-Cortez told attendees to “set the agenda” with their votes. 

“Young people cannot afford to allow all of this to continue,” Ocasio-Cortez said, “because at the end of the day, we’re going to have to live in this world that they leave us. And I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being left a world. I’m here to make the world.” 

In an interview with The Pitt News, Ocasio-Cortez urged voters who are casting their vote for the first time to know where to register and sign-up. 

“In terms of how to cast that ballot, the beauty of it is that everyone has their voice,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just as your parents are going to cast their ballot, you can cast yours. And you can do it proudly, and you can do it in a way that you see fit.” 

The need for votes is urgent in Pennsylvania, which is a swing state, according to Ocasio-Cortez. 

“Every single pocket of this state is going to have votes that matter, and no place can be ignored,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Not any block in the inner city, not any rural area, not any suburban area, whether you’re young, whether you’re old, your vote is going to be very decisive. And this race is going to be so, so, so very close. And I say, you don’t want to look on election day and not have turned out or forgotten to vote and be on the other side of it.”