By Molly Hunter
Political activist and transgender Des Moines native Elliot Smith has been selected for Channel One News’ Team OneVote.
Out of more than 100 applicants, he is one of eight teenagers from across the country who have been chosen to represent American youths’ political views. OneVote 2016 is run by the media organization Channel One News.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the company that owns Channel One News, said in a media alert, “OneVote 2016 will culminate in a mock election in later October 2016 in which millions of students are expected to vote.”
Smith said he is excited to represent transgender youth.
“It was interesting because when I applied [for Team OneVote], I realized that I hadn’t said anything about my being trans,” he said.
When Channel One found out, Smith said, “They didn’t make it a big deal … but for me, that’s something that I like making a big deal about, because … people need to acknowledge that there are trans youth who are doing things, because the predominant narrative is that they’re all depressed.”
When he was 15, Smith began volunteering with One Iowa, Iowa’s largest LGBTQ advocacy organization.
“They lobby for a lot of political decisions, he said. “Right now, they’re working with the police and the jails to try to make that more friendly to transgender people.”
Keenan Crow, deputy director at One Iowa, said Smith is known for his work ethic and intelligence.
“I’m not really sure I’d be able to list everything that he has done,” Crow said. “The thing that he participated in the most was collecting signatures for our petitions.”
Crow said Smith also stuffed envelopes and did data entry, noting, “If he could be at an event, he was there.”
It was this kind of work, Smith said, that got him into politics and public health.
“For one thing, as a public-health major, I see guns as a public-health crisis,” Smith said. “The rates that are going on are ridiculous as compared with any other developed country. We have the right to feel safe when we go out anywhere.”
The importance of gun-control policy, Smith said, was part of why he started volunteering for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in April 2015. Smith said he also caucused for Clinton, and around the time of the caucuses he first interacted with the Channel One News team.
“They had done a story at [my high school] for the caucuses,” he said. “They came to my AP Gov class and they took a few students out who volunteered and talked to us about political stuff.”
Later, Channel One sent Smith an email suggesting that he apply for Team OneVote.
“I think there were a few online mini essays,” Smith said about the application process. “Then there was also a phone interview.”
Hillary Creedon, a senior communications associate for corporate communications at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, said, “each candidate submitted their name, age, school, and political platform, as well as the candidate they support and the issues that are most important to them.”
Creedon said the organization “tried to have a combination of students from across the country who support all political candidates and have a diversity in age.”
As for representing the state of Iowa, Smith said, “I think you can see when you come here that we have these really grass-roots advocacy organizations and … really grass-roots politics. It’s very local. I hope that I’m able to show that as Iowans, yes a lot of us are farmers, but even farmers have a lot to advocate for.”
