Why Vote?
USSA believes voting is more than an Election Day activity it is a pipeline for student leadership and a stronger democracy. Through nonpartisan voter registration, voter education, campus organizing, and Get Out the Vote campaigns, students learn how to build team, organize their peers, forms coalitions, and lead campaigns that make their communities heard.
Our vote work develops the next generation of student leaders while building the long term infrastructure students need to participate in and shape our democracy.
For Members Only: Your hub for building student power. Access members-only PowerPoints, training recordings, toolkits, campaign resources, and more to help you organize your campus, develop leaders, and turn student priorities into action. Whether you’re launching a campaign or strengthening your student government, USSA has tools to support your next steps.
Watch the Recap: USSA Student leaders on the Midterm 2026 Elections
What are students right now to build power for the midterm elections and fight for education? In this USSA conversation, student leaders from Florida, North Carolina, Washington, and California connect college affordability, voting access, and civil rights to the work of building student power.
For students ready to organize big on campus, this discussion offers five organizing principles:
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Start with what students experience. Tuition, rent, food costs, and barriers to voting are starting points for conversations. Listen to your peers, identify shared concerns, and turn them into clear demands.
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Make participation possible. Encouraging students to vote means addressing the barriers that keep them from the ballot box. The fight for on-campus voting at NC A&T shows how access itself can become an organizing campaign.
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Build through relationships. Use student government, campus organizations, and trusted peer networks to reach students, recruit organizers, and move people into action.
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Demand commitments—and organize for accountability. Ask candidates specific questions about students’ needs. After the election, keep students engaged to press elected officials to deliver.
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Connect your campus to a bigger movement. National student organizing brings campuses together around shared demands, strengthens local campaigns, and creates opportunities to learn from one another.
Watch with your campus team, then reach out to our staff to join the movement.
