Jahnavi Rao
President and founder of New Voters, a youth-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps high school students run voter registration drives and engage civically. She has been identified as a Gen Z civic leader focused on youth voter registration and youth participation in democracy.
Young State Lawmakers Are Building Trust Without the Staff to Sustain It
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, young state lawmakers and Future Caucus CEO Layla Zaidane argued that statehouses are becoming the more consequential and more reachable arena of American democracy. Indiana Republican Beau Baird and West Virginia Democrat Kayla Young described legislatures where bipartisan work is still possible because officials remain close to constituents, but also warned that part-time pay, minimal staff, safety risks, weak local news and supermajority incentives make the work hard to sustain.
A 10-Year Civic Campaign Aims to Turn Local Trust Into Action
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Heather Gerken, Brian Hooks, Jane Wales and other civic and philanthropic leaders cast Be the People as a decade-long effort to counter civic isolation by reconnecting Americans with local problem-solving. Their argument is that Americans retain more trust, generosity and desire to contribute than national political narratives suggest, but need institutions, cultural messengers and community organizations that make that shared agency visible and usable.