Students and faculty can join MOVE Texas at Texas A&M University-San Antonio for politics and sweets at “Primaries and Pastries” at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Feb. 29, in Room 209 of the Classroom Hall Building.
Dylan Villalon, communication and psychology junior, says the event will encourage students to participate in the March 5 primary election in which voters choose the Democratic or Republican candidates to be nominated in the general election on Nov. 5.
“Primaries and Pastries is really just a way to entice students to come in and learn … What is a primary? Why do they happen? What are the different dynamics in primaries that have happened in the past?” said Villalon, the regional coordinator of MOVE Texas.
Each session will include a slide presentation, after which a Q&A discussion.
The focus of the inaugural event is to inform students about lesser-known elections by party platforms and primary candidates.
Villalon said he wants to encourage students to think “about how their values line up with the candidates that are being presented.”
Villalon said that many students who are not majoring in anything related to politics are often unaware of the less-publicized elections, like primaries.
Shortly after the 2016 election, Villalon said politics was unavoidable and MOVE, which stands for Mobilize, Organize, Vote and Empower, got him into political work.
MOVE Texas began in 2013 at the University of Texas at San Antonio with a small group of students who saw that voter participation did not match participation in elections. They began registering their peers and classmates, bringing a youthful energy to the conversation.
Villalon has been involved with MOVE Texas since late 2019 and is responsible for six campus chapters throughout the city.
“Voting for MOVE — and me personally — is a foot in the door to a larger conversation of what it means to be a responsible member of our community,” Villalon said.
Voters can cast their 2024 United States primary 7 a.m.-7 p.m. March 5 ballots at the Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement Building.
For more information, visit https://tamusa.campuslabs.com/engage/event/9918269.
