[WATCH] Bernie Sanders’ Press Secretary Talks Black Lives Matter Movement and Advice to Young Voters

Symone Sanders Advice to Voters-SD(1) from Sonja Mack on Vimeo.

When Symone Sanders took stage at a campaign rally in Seattle to not only introduce Sen. Bernie Sanders, but to also announce her alignment with his presidential race, news headlines exploded in regards to who the Vermont senator’s latest campaign member was.

Sanders, who is of no relation to the senator, is a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and a young, black criminal justice advocate. At the young age of 25, she is the national youth chair of the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, and prior to joining Sen. Sanders campaign she worked as a communications officer for Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch. While her position in the national spotlight may seem like one that happened overnight, Sanders makes it clear that her passion for the law and social reform dates back to her early childhood years in Nebraska.

“When I was 10 years old, we had the opportunity to have mentors at the school I went to,” Sanders tells BlackEnterprise.com. “They came into the classroom and said, ‘Write down whoever you want for a mentor and we’ll get them.’ I wrote down I wanted a judge, not thinking I’d get a judge, and I got two federal court judges as mentors.”

[Related: Bernie Sanders Names Young, Black Organizer as Campaign Press Secretary]

While Sanders desire to be a judge slowly faded, her love for law, communications, and

politics remained high. At 11, she ran a campaign to become president for her local Girls, Inc. affiliate and won. In college, at Creighton University, she interned for the mayor of Omaha, Nebraska and later worked part-time at a political consulting firm called Little Smith’s Strategies. She says her opportunity to work as Sen. Sanders national press secretary came after someone forwarded her resume to the head of his campaign. After two conversations with senior staff members, Sanders finally met with the presidential candidate. After talking for over an hour and a half about everything from education to Sandra Bland, climate change, and trade, Sanders was offered the position on the spot.

With just a few months on the job, the pressure is on to see what impact young Sanders will have on Sen. Sanders campaign, and what she and the presidential hopeful will do to address the racial and social issues that face us today.

BlackEnterprise.com: What are your thoughts on the Black Lives Matter protests that have taken place at several campaign rallies? Do you believe them to be effective?
Sanders: You know, I don’t know if they’re effective or ineffective, or even what the motives of the protesters are. But what I will say is, I think the issues that activists across the country–that are associated with the Black Lives Matter movement–are raising are important issues. I definitely think they’re issues that people care about, and they’re causing people to pay attention.

I would say that Bernie Sanders has been committed to issues of racial justice and reforming the criminal justice system for a really long time. It comes out in the speeches that he’s given. When we were on the west coast we were talking about getting big money out of politics. We were talking about the wealth gap. We were also talking about the fact that the U.S. has more people in jail than any other country, and that’s not good. We talked about it being an epidemic and that we have to do something about the massive incarcerations of African Americans. We talked about education. We talked about jobs, and the [high] unemployment rate for young black kids between the ages of 16 to 24.

So I definitely think the issues that the Black Lives Matter movement is raising are important issues. We have had conversations with Black Lives Matter activists and they have given us feedback on our policy platform. We’re open to hearing from them, you know, we have an open door. And I think that’s definitely what’s needed, just as we’ve reached out to other constituents.

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With a lot of youth being behind the Black Lives Matter movement, what do you think will be Sen. Sanders key to helping attract the youth and minority vote?
I’ll say this, I think that right now it’s still early in

the game and there are people that still don’t know the Senator yet and still haven’t really heard his platform. I think what would be key for us is not just for the African American constituency–because that is a very important constituency–but really, all millennials and women, bringing our message to their front door. Letting them know where we stand on racial justice issues, but also where we stand on climate change. Climate change adversely affects people of color, but particularly African American communities. That’s something we are going to continue to talk about.

Also bring the issue of the wealth gap and economic inequality. Letting people know where we stand, letting them get to know who the Senator is, his track record, and what he’s been fighting for. I think that will really make the difference, and so we are actively doing that already.

What advice do you have for young people who will be first time voters in 2016?
Regardless of what anybody tells you, I’m telling [you] to vote. I encourage all young people to get out there and know the issues. I definitely want you to vote for the presidential candidates. I want you to vote for Bernie Sanders, but I also think it’s important that people don’t overlook their state and local candidates.

All politics is local. So find out if you’ve got city council men and women up for reelection. Find out if there’s

school board elections, if your county commissioners are running again, your state legislatures, those are really important. Educate yourself on those issues because the policies we make at the federal level trickle down to the state level. So it’s important that young people–especially if it’s your first time voting–educate themselves on a wide breadth of issues and candidates.

If you can narrow it down to three, what are the top three things you hope to get accomplished as press secretary?
Well one, I want to build strong relationships with a diverse pool of national and local reporters. I think that goes to getting the message out. Two, I would say develop a proactive communications strategy that promotes the senator so his candidacy becomes a household name. I don’t want people to stop talking about Bernie Sanders in the barbershop. And the third goal is to get people get excited. I think people were very excited in 2008 about President Obama, and just about going to the polls and voting. I think what’s so exciting about Senator Sanders campaign, is he brings that same kind of energy that we remember feeling all those years ago. I hope as the press secretary, that when people see me and they hear me, when we’re at these events, when I’m doing these interviews, that people hear that I’m excited and I want them to get excited about Bernie Sanders for president.