Campaign text messages: Effective or Invasive?

As young people’s rise in activism within politics surges, text messaging has become the current favorite campaign strategy of political candidates to get the young voters to the polls. 

            President Obama’s famous use of social media during his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns has inspired current political candidates to turn to technology as their primary way of reaching young voters.

            Volunteers for Andrew Gillum’s campaign, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida and current mayor of Tallahassee, hosted a text messaging event in Tallahassee, Florida, on Sept 18 where some of Gillum’s supporters sent out mass texts to voters informing them of Gillum’s platform and answering questions voters might text back with.

            “We’re thrilled that our campaign uses texting to reach voters, and the Mayor really loves interacting with users on social media,” said Geoff Burgan, the communications director for Andrew Gillum’s campaign.

Arthur Vanden Houten, an associate professor of political science at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, claims that young people are more easily accessible through technology which makes texting an effective way for candidates to reach that demographic.

            “So we think we know at least that young people are on Snapchat, Instagram and they’re texting. So, I think the idea is if we can reach them this way, we can put the issues in front of them and we will then have greater success,” said Vanden Houten. “It’s a kind of micro-targeting which has been this key feature of 21^st century politics.”

            With any new campaign strategy comes questions of its effectiveness. Are these text messages helping candidates at the polls?

            Adam Morley, a candidate for Florida’s House of Representatives for District 24, claims that although there are not exact numbers that prove its effectiveness that he knows of, the strategy behind sending out texts to voters is based on creating a more personal connection with citizens, which in turn could urge voters to become more active.

            “Just before the primary, I ended up getting probably a total of six messages from people hustling for Gillum. I got text messages saying, ‘Hey can we count on your support? Here’s his platform,’” Morley said. “It gave me the chance to respond on my own time instead of having to answer immediately. And then when I did respond there was somebody at the other side that would respond back and there’d be a dialogue there rather than this static material of flyers and pamphlets.”  

Young voters are notorious for having the lowest voter turnout at the polls during elections, even though the issues that are being decided by those elected into office will be impacting them the most, claims Morley.

            “We have a generation of people in power and control making decisions that they’re not even going to be around to deal with,” Morley said. “It’s important that the younger voters get active and involved because the sooner they do, the sooner their issues are going to be addressed and the longer they will have to benefit from the policies that they helped influence and get started.”

Concerns over the legalities of political candidates texting voters have been brought up, questioning candidates’ infringement on voters’ privacy.

Starting during the 2016 presidential campaign, campaigns could text citizens using the phone numbers that were voluntarily provided when they registered to vote, making text messaging voters perfectly legal. One rule that campaigns must adhere to when texting citizens is that there must be a live volunteer on the other end of the phone, according to ABC7 News.

Now that text message campaigning has been established in the political sphere, it is time for young voters to use that easily-accessible information to continue to get involved in politics, said Morley.

“What’s really important is that we’re able to inspire and motivate the younger voters to take the initiative rather than sitting around and waiting for them to act on the opportunity that’s in front of them with the tools they already have,” Morley said. “They already have that cell phone and they’re already texting people. Let’s insert the campaign into that so they can say ‘Hey did you hear about Adam Morley’s campaign,’ or ‘Let’s get involved.’”

Jorge Rivera, St. Augustine, FL Profile Piece

Those who live in the nation’s oldest city can typically be labeled as eccentric and diverse, although those characteristics barely scratch the surface when describing the life of Jorge Rivera, a well-traveled humanitarian and local talk show host.

            Rivera is known around St. Augustine as the local online personality. He hosts the St. Augustine Tonight Show and started producing content with First Coast.tv three years ago. The journey to get to where he’s at now in his career didn’t start off the way most would typically expect it to. While sitting at Dos Coffee & Wine, sporting a red beret that he got from East Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall and an assortment of jewelry across his body, Rivera began recounting his story.

Rivera was born in New York and was raised traveling back and forth between Puerto Rico and the city. After having spent most summers back in New York, Rivera moved to Orlando, Florida, and started his life-long journey centered around the theater and helping others. Shortly after moving to Orlando, Rivera went through schooling to become a fire fighter.

            “I had worked when I was younger as a translator in emergency rooms,” said Rivera. “I always found myself working around people that needed help.”

            When he was young, Rivera remembers expressing an interest in the arts while in high school. After putting off his love for painting and poetry while in Florida, a friend suggested that Rivera apply to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After auditioning and being invited to the Academy, Rivera moved back to New York to try his hand at acting.

            “I started my life as an actor when I moved back to New York and began auditioning for off-Broadway shows,” said Rivera. “I was part of playwright circles, I worked with the Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, and when I got to my late 20’s I saw that there wasn’t really a future in what I was doing so I became an electrician for the New York Public Library.”

            Rivera moved on to work with the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts as tech help for private screenings. Through this job, Rivera was able to meet some of Hollywood’s biggest names in the film industry including Steven Spielberg, Tom Cruise, Brigitte Nielsen and Sofia Loren.

            “While working there, I kept going to evening workshops for acting and met an amazing group of friends,” said Rivera. “Then around 1989 when the AIDS epidemic and homelessness issue was going on in New York, I started losing a lot of friends. Many of them were passing away and dying and I started to ask myself if I really wanted to stay in New York.”

            After some consideration, Rivera, then age 34, quit his job and sold his belongings so he could start traveling around the world for a year. With the money that he got from selling his things, Rivera bought a car and started driving to San Francisco.

            “I met so many kind and interesting people,” said Rivera. “I stayed with a lesbian colony in D.C. and they would invite me to watch them play rugby. Man, those girls were tough. I also stayed with some farmers in Oklahoma and stopped in Nashville and Memphis and went to see the Grand Canyon. After a few months, I made it to California.”

            San Francisco was not Rivera’s final destination; he was saving up money to buy a one-way ticket to Japan. After securing a ticket from a friend he made in Chinatown, Rivera flew to Tokyo and kicked off his journey across the globe.

            “When I was traveling through Europe, I worked with an organization called Volunteers For Peace to do a language program for five weeks in Russia in order to better relationships between Russians and Americans,” said Rivera. “So I was there for five weeks in the summer, it was beautiful but it was still communist Russia.”  

            Through the organization, Rivera was placed in camping grounds to teach English to Russian children who were sick and poor.

            “In Moscow, there was a food shortage, so we as students, we would break up in groups and search for food,” said Rivera. “We would meet around 7:30 p.m. and someone had found rice, someone had found a piece of cheese, someone had found a bottle of champagne and some eggs and we’d cook it all together. That’s how we would survive at that time because there was a horrible shortage of food in Moscow.”

            After leaving Russia, Rivera left through Scandinavia and traveled through continental Europe, stopping in East Germany after the fall of the Berlin wall.

            “My one year trip ended up being 14 years.” Rivera said. “I stayed in Italy, London, Paris, and I went back into theater working with the universities putting on productions in English.”

            In 2003, Rivera married a French woman that he had met in the theater in Germany and moved to Maui, Hawaii, starting a family with his wife, Rachelle. The couple moved to St. Augustine, Florida, when she was six months pregnant so they could be closer to her family.

            Rivera and Rachelle separated two years later, and in 2008 Rivera brought his mother to St. Augustine from Puerto Rico to live with him.

            “I still have many, many, many cousins and relatives in Puerto Rico,” said Rivera. “This past year we had set up a GoFundMe page to try to get my godfather to the United States because he needed dialysis which he was unable to get in Puerto Rico after the hurricane. Unfortunately, he passed away on Christmas Eve but I’m very thankful that the rest of my family fared well after the storm.”

            Rivera fell in love with St. Augustine and realized that no one else had been reporting on the lives of the people that live there. The only coverage that the city got was through blogs and some photography.

            “I said to myself, the world is video, why are we still blogging? We need a video blog at the least. So about three years ago I started FirstCoast.tv and I started with an iPhone,” said Rivera. “Then about a year ago I had met so many wonderful people that I decided to start a TV show, a tonight show, and people loved it.”

            Rivera hosts the St. Augustine Tonight Show and posts his segments online for the community to interact with. The show has filmed all over town, at the Lightner Museum, at the St. Augustine Lighthouse and at the Corazon Cinema and Café.

            “Where it’s gonna go, I don’t know. It’s not making any money but you know, my dad used to say ‘You could do something for love or for money; love lasts much longer.” Rivera said.

            When asked why Rivera has stayed in St. Augustine after having experienced the world in ways that many will never get the chance to, Rivera said that he enjoys seeing the city in a new dimension.

            “Because of the show, I’ve gotten to experience the spiritual pulse of the city,” said Rivera. “Of course there’s still things that need to change in this town, but doesn’t everybody need to change something in their lives?”

            Rivera envisions himself moving back to Europe in a few years after he has gotten his fill of St. Augustine and its people.

            “People really do inspire me,” said Rivera. “I’ve found so many people that are treasures in my life. I will always be thankful to God for the opportunities he has given me.”

A Deeper Look Into Veganism's Delicious Benefits

From pad thai to creamy white truffle pesto pasta, the list of delicious vegan meals is endless and per dietary specialists, the number of health benefits of eating a plant-based diet are almost as great.

“Weight loss is definitely the number one health benefit, but going vegan also helps to boost immunity which decreases the chance of illness,” said Sheila Gallagher, a dietary specialist at Southern Maryland Regional Hospital. “It also just helps you lead a more holistic lifestyle with many overall health benefits including weight loss and helping with diabetic issues.”

Older, overweight individuals with chronic illnesses can benefit the most from switching to a plant-based diet, Gallagher said. Although the vegan lifestyle might help those types of individuals the most, everyone can greatly benefit from eating more vegetables and slowly transitioning to veganism.

“I used to have chronic migraines and high blood pressure issues before I became vegan about a year ago,” said Eva Mireles, chef at Present Moment Café, a vegan-friendly restaurant in St. Augustine, Florida. “Now my blood pressure is back to where it should be and I rarely get migraines. When I do get them, there’s different things that are vegan friendly that I can eat that help to make them more bearable.”

Mireles began working as a chef at Present Moment about a year ago in November 2016 and she truly is the perfect picture of a die-hard vegan. With a tattoo on her forearm of the word “vegan” and shirts that promote healthy eating, Mireles spoke about the main reasons why she started her vegan lifestyle and her desire to help the environment and the animals.

“By going vegan, we’re not contributing to unnecessary farming and mass production of animals and animal bi-products,” Mireles said. “There’s tons of documentaries that really go in depth about the effect our diets have on the environment. ‘Forks over Knives’ and ‘What the Health’ are both really good examples that are on Netflix.”

Veganism has been a trend across social media for the past few years with different popular YouTubers creating videos titled “What I Eat in a Day: Vegan Diet.” This jump in popularity has helped boost local St. Augustine vegan restaurants’ business as well.

“Going vegan is absolutely trending now, especially with younger people,” said Tabitha Mays, another employee at Present Moment. “We’re seeing a lot more of an interest in this vegan lifestyle. Doctors from around town are actually referring people with heart and cholesterol issues to us so they can start eating better.”

Unfortunately, there isn’t a large selection of fully-vegan restaurants in St. Augustine, but more chain restaurants and local eateries are slowly starting to incorporate vegan-friendly options into their menus.

“Planet Sarbez has a really great vegan grilled cheese that a lot of people don’t know about. The Floridian, Manatee Café and Back 40 all have pretty good vegan options too,” Mireles said. “Larger businesses like Tijuana Flats also have different things on their menu that you can customize to make more vegan-friendly.”

As is with any other change in diet, people struggle with transitioning into veganism, focusing on the all the foods that they can’t have while not thinking about all the delicious new meals that they can incorporate into their daily lives.

“It takes more focus and time to eat vegan. It really is a step-by-step transition,” Mays said. “You really just have to be more creative.”

Present Moment Café offers a variety of creative dishes, including a DLT, which is a vegan play on the classic BLT sandwich, served with smoked dulse, a type of seaweed, in place of bacon.

“People are so afraid to eat healthy food because they think it’s going to be bland,” Mireles said. “Vegan food is a lot of fun and you feel so good after eating it.”