Jacob Braziel

As the midterm elections are going on in this country, there is a very important senate race happening in Texas. Beto O’Rourke and Ted Cruz have been neck and neck campaigning around Texas. As of now Ted Cruz still holds a 3-point lead over Beto O’Rourke. One thing that Beto has over Cruz is that he has the majority of college populations vote. The only problem is that college students have infamously known to not turn out to the polls. I have decided to do this project on a close friend of mine, Jacob Braziel, who besides being a full-time student majoring in computer science, prides himself on campaigning for Beto O’Rourke and making sure his fellow students make it to the polls November 6th.

I sat down with Jacob to ask him a few questions about why he has decided to support this candidate so seriously. “Well it starts with the issues, I really find myself coinciding with Beto’s views on education and immigration” Jacob said. “Beto O’Rourke is really focusing on using no tax dollars on private schooling programs, instead using that money to promote public funding for lower income households and schooling districts.” Jacob is from an upper-middle class family and attended two separate private school programs before making it to college. “Being from that kind predominantly conservative background really showed me that tax money whether it’s for education, security, or construction, is not distributed equally in our society.”

Being from southern united states especially Texas, immigration is a very important issue that is always either a deterrent or selling point for a candidate running for office. Beto O’Rourke takes a more liberal approach to immigration of the Texas border. Based on this last presidential election, it is obvious that those views aren’t adopted by a large portion of this country. Jacob makes light of this by focusing on college students view of the situation. “I believe that a majority of college students want there to be looser immigration regulations and don’t stand with President Trump’s current view of immigration reform. The key is to get those students to make it to the polls,” Jacob said. “That’s the main reason left wing voters have such problems getting the results they are looking for.”

After sharing some of his views on the situation, Jacob gave me an insight to what he does to help contribute to Beto’s campaign. “Mostly I just go around and spread awareness by making sure everyone is registered to vote, planting any extra Beto yard signs I have left, offer ride programs to people who aren’t able to make it to the polls, and make as many cold calls as I can advocating for Beto.”

Beto O’Rourke isn’t the only political involvement Jacob has had in his life, in 2016 Jacob served as an election judge for his hometown precinct. Not only that, Jacobs father was that precinct chairman for the GOP at the time of that election. “Growing up with parents who both have government jobs and are strictly republican was not easy when my brother and I didn’t always agree with the political ideals my parents were trying to instill in us,” Jacob said. “The great thing about my parents is that even when they recognized that we had different beliefs, we were still able to hold a conversation about our differences. I don’t think a lot of households that are as political as mine would act the same way.”

As I was following Jacob around the apartment complex where he was going door to door advocating for Beto and offering rides to the various voting locations, we began to discuss life after college and whether that involved some kind of political aspect or aspirations of running himself. “Personally, I don’t think I would want to run for any kind of seat in congress or office, I see how much direct scrutiny your family and your-self goes through and I’m just not interested in that,” Jacob said. “But I really want to use my computer science background to do data processing for the huge presidential elections not just midterms. Responsibly processing all of those votes and analytics is so important in determining how we as Americans perform our civic duty”

After making his way around the complex, talking to a few people, and hopefully bringing Beto a few more voters than he wouldn’t of had before, Jacob decided to call it a day and head back home.

November 7th, 2018

one day after election results..

I got back with Jacob to see what his thoughts where on the election results and his overall take back from volunteering and following Beto O’Rourke campaign so intensely the last few months. “ I am really disappointed about the outcome of these midterm elections,” Jacob said.” I think Beto really proved himself this campaign, the way he moved and reached out to all locations of Texas should be a good jumping place for future positions in politics.” I have met a lot of people who follow politics very heavily but none like Jacob. I really enjoyed following Jacob around and talking with him about his view of politics and the world.

Contact me:

b_o68@txtstate.edu