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When you think of a Super PAC, the image that comes to mind probably isnt a few dozen people gathered at a community center in historic Filipinotown in downtown Los Angeles snacking on sliders and vegan tacos. But the founders of theYouth Interest PAC arent looking to act or spend like traditional war chests in US politics. Theyre launching this political action committee to fund progressive campaigns that its founders sayyoung people care about: gun control, tackling climate change, battling far-right disinformation campaigns, and training a new generation of political organizers.

Sim-Marcel Bilal, 22, and Lorenzo De Felitta, 18, two LA activists who worked on the successful campaign for the new progressive LA controller Kenneth Mejia, founded the super PAC, which launched on February 5. They want to take the samescrappy Gen Z techniques they employed in that race viral online campaigns, Twitch streams, clear messaging around the breakdown of city funds and taxpayer dollars, brazen attacks on the establishment, and a strong ground game on the road ahead of the 2024 elections.

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We were fed up with young people being used as political pawns for any politician that just wants to run. We're often an afterthought when it comes to the political process, even though progressive candidates or Democrats depend on us to win elections, but they wait till the last minute to either engage with us or don't keep the promises that they make to us, Bilal toldTeen Vogue.

The result ischildren keep getting shot up in schools. You can't walk anywhere. I grew up doing so many different gun drills and active shooter drills in school. It's just really sad to see every single year how many lives are lost to gun violence, to police violence, to everything, Bilal said. A lot of times, politicians or progressive candidates that run can't take on establishment power because theres so much collective money running against them. So we started this PAC to basically fund, not just candidates that are running on progressive values and interests for young people, but to also teach young people how to organize and become activists in their communities.

From Left: Youth Impact PAC founders Sim Bilal and Lorenzo De Felitta, outreach and communications coordinators Danielle Nunez and Shekinah Deocares at the launch event for their youth-issues Super PAC at The Robinson Space in downtown Los Angeles on February 5, 2023.

The team is rounded out by two other Mejia campaign alums, Shekinah Deocares, 25, and Danielle Nunez, 26. They plan to launch campaigns on gun control, public safety, climate change, and human rights in pivotal states like Louisiana, Texas, and Arizona, as well as train other leaders to build networks to campaign for these issues.

Deocares, a community organizer, said she was profoundly impacted by the 2020 campaign for Proposition 22. Corporations led by Lyft and Uberspent over $200 million to win the ballot measure that allowed California to classify gig workers as independent contractors instead of employees.

At the time, she was working at the Pilipino Workers Center with people who were either undocumented, gig workers, or both, and she saw how the deeply financed campaign worked to deprive them of full-time employee benefits, further destabilizing the fragile economic situation for many in the community.

People with money will use the language that we use, or token representation, to pass laws that harm us. We cant afford to have that continued system where all of the labor and suffering is on us, but all of the power and control is with those who dont have the same interests, Deocares said. She remembers seeing a commercial that featured a Black woman saying she needed a gig to be able to provide for her child, which Deocares considered deceptive advertising.

We did not have the money to go up against their ads and marketing. It was just one of thousands of moments where it's obvious who has money affects whether people survive and exist like humans, Deocares said. I dont think its a fair fight at all.

The reason we created this PAC is that were going to inherit this world, but were often overlooked, she added.

Youth Interest PAC cofounder Sim Bilals dog, Jeju, takes a break from hosting duties at the launch.

But does it seem contradictory for a group of young people who lean heavily into theBernie Sanders brand of democratic socialism, to adopt the very establishment, Big Money tool of a Super PAC?

De Felitta addressed the question head-on at the launch: We all know that banks are a tool of capitalism and white supremacy. Is there a good bank out there? Unfortunately not. We found the least bad bank.

Later, Bilal told me that finding a bank had been a major holdup. A credit union wouldnt be able to handle the millions of dollars they want to raise ahead of the 2024 elections. After vetting, he said they settled on Amalgamated Bank, which isunionized and majority union-owned, has clear progressive values, andhas pledged not to lend to fossil fuel companies.

Similarly, the Youth Interest PAC founders say they will refuse contributions from fossil fuel companies, police and the prison industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, and unsustainable corporate money. Nor will they support candidates who accept contributions from those sources. Instead, theyre courting grassroots donors, young people and their families, civic groups, and sustainable and environmentally focused investors and business owners.

When I pointed out that those arent necessarily avenues to sizeable donations, De Felitta responded, As progressives, we know how to use our money efficiently, noting that theyhandily beat the opponent in the controller race who had campaign coffers nearlyfour times the size of theirs.

Alison Gash, an associate professor of political science at the University of Oregon and co-author ofDemocracy's Child: Young People and the Politics of Control, Leverage and Agency said that Gen Z has been effective at organizing political campaigns that dont require deep funding. Look at what you can do with small donations, Gash said, referring to the success Barack Obamas first presidential campaign had withcrowdsourcing smaller donations. The community organizing approach to this is really savvy because ultimately you want those dollars spent to be transferred into votes. That's the key, right? So if you're engaging directly with other young people in asking for money, then using that money directly representing young people through the filter of young leaders, you're a lot more likely to get those folks to vote than you are in other ways.

The Youth Interest PAC leaders also plan to use funds to pay young people who are working on political campaigns. Being paid to work on the Mejia campaign, Deocares said, made a big difference. She found it liberating, underscoring the importance to compensate young people for their labor in politics.

We plan on running more issue-specific campaigns relevant to the state and paying local youth with specific skill sets to engage on the ground. When necessary, if we choose to support specific candidates we'll run independent campaigns hiring our own local youth staff to target youth voters and other key demographics, Bilal said.

Since they cant pay to fund campaigns or candidates directly, they will likely grant stipends to the young activists working on the campaigns that align with Youth Interests goals, Deocares added.

She emphasized that their Super PACs approach to money is unique: Were not lining our own pockets or buying candidates to help us make more money. Having money and spending money is not our end game. Were identifying candidates that youth in local areas support. Were investing in people and actions.

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Link:
The Youth Interest PAC, Founded By Mejia Campaign Alums, Will Fund Progressive Campaigns - Teen Vogue