“Elections belong to the people, It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their back and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” This was a quote from Abraham Lincoln, the 16th US President. However, the potency of the words is resounding today as it was in his time. In the US presently, there is a massive level of political apathy. And that is reflected in the way people vote.
Given the countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the US ranks among those with below-average voter turnout. Other countries in this category include the UK, Japan, Canada, and Chile. Similarly, only one out of four eligible voters casts ballots. There are numerous reasons presented for this situation. But a major factor is inadequate voters’ education. It’s beautiful, therefore, to see people actively working on it.
Kendall Hill was raised in Southeast Texas, in a city of about 120,000 people called Beaumont. His college education at the University of Houston was one of the springboards for what he does today. He majored in finance and minored in law policy and values. And interestingly, he had the opportunity to be in the honors at college.
In high school, he was the president of Jack and Jill America, a prominent organization that started in the early 1900s. Their activities included helping people with the voting process since they could not do it as they were ineligible. They also observed election processes and had conversations with the officials. Safe to say, these propelled him to do what he’s doing today. But there’s more to the influence of his school (college) and course of study.
Being a deliberately diverse school and “being in the heart of Houston’s historic third ward, there were a number of unique opportunities presented.” One way is being a part of the “UH brand new and just amazing diversity and inclusion office.” Another was “joining organizations around Bauer business school that had to cater to finance or investment banking.” The latter contributed to literacy and inclusion. Kendall said, “I think all of those things helped me get to where I am now.” He was exposed to a lot of deficiencies in public civic health. And he decided to take the passion long-term by engaging in voters’ education.
Kendall’s journey into This is Project Texas has other influences. After all, he served in roles from which he brought transferable skills and energy to bare in his present initiative. His first employment role was at the United States Attorney’s Office in Houston. He worked in the organized crime and drug enforcement task force. And in that line of work, he could see how the government operates on a high level. He was exposed to how different individuals have resources and how inequities may play out regarding trials and other related matters. From there, he worked at NASA as a finance and business specialist and was appointed to the diversity board. His last role was as a wealth manager at a wealth management firm in Houston.
In 2017, he moved to Dallas to work with The Boeing Company and was part of a competitive program. He was involved in a lot of community work and deeply interacted with the city. And so, he ended up accepting the position within Boeing as chief of staff, where he had the opportunity to work closely with many executives. While working with an executive in charge of what you could call the company’s corporate social responsibility arm, he learned more about Dallas. That was how everything began to piece together.
The COVID experience was all the clarity he needed. In his words, “when COVID happened, which, of course, exacerbated inequities that communities face, whether lack of transportation or lack of access to broadband internet, or lack of healthcare in general, or just even equitable access over mental healthcare, which was a huge thing in the pandemic. And then. . . just a month or two later, you see the death of George Floyd, and it seems like there’s this entire resurrection or a moment for the country and the world to wake up and see what’s happening.” Kendall noted that the lack of civic health, i.e., “the pride of the city that you’re in,” is a major factor for voting disinterest among Texans. You don’t get to “interact with your elected officials, in hopes of better understanding how your government functions at a local level, state level, and federal level.” Again, Texas “is also one of few states that do not teach civics in schools. And so, unless you are taking AP government in High School, or are going to college and majoring in government or political science, the chances of you learning how our process works in the state are very slim.” This spurs Kendall and his team to be at the forefront of voters’ education in Texas. He discovered the lack “of education around why it’s so important to vote and what these officials do” would stifle the democratic growth and inclusive representation among the people. And this, in turn, would affect the types of financial aid and scholarships open to students.
This Is Project Texas is thus an organized effort that promotes the general welfare of the state and the Texas community. The secretary of state of Texas incorporated the organization. And a soft launch was done in September 2021 on zoom with over 100 people. The in-person launch followed in downtown Dallas in December 2021. They began to tackle the different issues revealed in the cost of voting index. Texas, as a state, ranks last in the cost voting index. And the reasons for this include lack of transportation, lack of excitement around candidates, not understanding or seeing the effects of voting in an election, and lack of knowledge around election dates.
Project Texas has volunteers involved in increasing voter engagement in Dallas County. And from there, they replicate their operations model throughout Texas. Their work model largely hinges on meeting people at their level. For example, Kendall noted that they’d “be setting up around poll locations to have poll working volunteers have guidance in a sense around the important IDs that you need to vote. Individuals who may have left their IDs at home can, of course, cast a provisional ballot.” Their strategy also includes working “more in grocery stores around Dallas, around gas stations.”
Of course, they would also work with the ISD, who they had previously worked with in another district around the state of Texas. They also plan on having a stronger presence on college campuses. Similarly, they are partners for unique community engagement and outreach events such as games being the official civic engagement partner of the WNBA Dallas Wings. At these events, they award swag, partnership apparel, and “of course, register voters on site. They also recruit more volunteers here. And they facilitate their awareness campaigns to “let others know about our mission and what our goals are to really modernize civic engagement in Texas within our community.”
Currently, they are actively involved in creating exciting initiatives to cater to the mission. They aim to “increase equity and raise the ranks of Texas from where it is right now.” And no aspect of the state would be left out “whether that’s in higher education or mental healthcare access or healthcare access.”
Their efforts are reflecting the stats for Texas. One is that it is number five among the top places to do business. And they are very excited to implement their strategic ideas for more communal growth in Texas in the coming days.
