You’re never too young to get involved in politics. Just ask Ben. He’s 11-years old, not quite old enough to vote, but spends his days reaching out to those who can.
“Well I noticed that Trump was slipping in the polls a little bit,” Ben said, “and I asked my Mom what I could do to help out since I know I can’t vote.”
Ben started volunteering at the Harris County Republican Party’s office in south Texas. He makes thousands of calls every Tuesday afternoon, asking Texas residents if they plan on voting for Donald Trump this November.
“They will either say yes I will vote for Trump and they like Trump, or they’ll say that no they don’t like Trump,” Ben said. “Or they will yell at me and hang up. It kind of depends sometimes.”
Ben has already made over one thousand calls, but the hardest person he has to convince is not only a Democrat—it’s his Mom.
“I personally am not a Trump fan,” Ben’s Mom, Analitza, said, “and that’s what I tell Ben—that’s what America is about. We can have difference of opinion and you know we have really healthy debates in our house around the dinner table.”
Analitza says she doesn’t support Trump, but she does support Ben.
“I’m not going to try and make my kids have the same beliefs that I do,” Analitza said. “I tell him you can’t say something without being able to back him up. These are the reasons why I am personally not a fan, tell me why you like him, and what are your reasons for liking him, and he’s got a lot of them.”
“I like what he stands for,” Ben said. “I think he is a very successful businessman and I think he would be good in the White House. I also like how he wants to defend our troops because my grandfather was a green beret in Vietnam.”
Ben may be several presidential elections away from being able to cast a vote, but that doesn’t mean he is going to sit back and wait. The sixth grader says he will continue phone banking and possibly knocking on doors for as long as he can—with his Mom’s permission, of course.
“When Trump wins I’ll know that I made a little bit of a difference to help him win,” Ben said.
