Americans abroad have a federally protected right to vote. It’s crucial that they do so. Democracy and basic human decency are on the line.
An 18-year-old McGill student walks into a bar (no, this isn’t a joke); two years later, I’m mobilizing the up to 1 million U.S. citizens in Canada who can vote in the 2024 U.S. election.
I’ve been passionate about U.S. politics for a while. In 2018, when I was in Grade 8 in Virginia, where I grew up, the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. devastated me.
I then volunteered for Democratic state Sen. Jennifer Wexton’s campaign to unseat Comstock in Congress. I knocked on doors, made phone calls, and even spoke on a gun control panel with Wexton, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — a mass-shooting survivor — and her husband, now Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. When Wexton won during the “Blue Wave” in the 2018 midterm elections, I saw first-hand the power of every vote.
Fast forward to McGill, where I stumbled into an informal event at a bar with the Democrats at McGill club and Democrats Abroad, the official Democratic Party arm for the millions of Americans living outside the United States. I learned for the first time about the power of overseas voters. I hadn’t realized that overseas voters represented the margin of victory for the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket in key states like Georgia and Arizona in 2020.
Inspired by this, I ran for a leadership position. At 18, I was elected executive vice chair of Democrats Abroad Canada, the youngest in its history. Today, I’m helping mobilize one of the largest untapped groups of American voters who can swing elections in all 50 states: Americans living in Canada.
For Americans, the freedom to love whom they choose and to make decisions about their bodies — and for all of us to live on a planet with clean air and clean water — is on the line. Democracy and basic human decency are on the line. So, if you are a U.S. citizen living in Canada, please vote.
Jacob Wesoky studies political science and international development at McGill University. He is the executive vice-chair of Democrats Abroad Canada and president of Democrats at McGill, the largest college Democrats group outside the United States.