Teen Activist Rhea Maniar on the Power of Abortion to Turn Out Young Voters

Rhea Maniar has been “hooked” on politics since she was 9, when, donning a shirt that said “Future President,” she attended a 2016 Hillary Clinton rally with her parents. Now, the 18-year-old is one of the leading forces in youth organizing and politics in Florida. She revamped and chaired the Florida High School Democrats, interned for state Rep. Anna Eskamani and organized rallies after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

This week, Maniar saw Clinton speak again, this time at the Democratic National Convention, the first since Roe was overturned, where she’s volunteering and attending as a guest of South Asians for Harris .

She’ll be flying straight from Chicago to Boston on Thursday and then moving into her freshman dorm at Harvard University Friday. She plans on studying  government, education and Spanish and continuing her work as a youth organizer.  She’ll also be spending time in Boston Public Schools helping teach civics education and curriculum through Harvard Civics.

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This election cycle, Maniar has been particularly motivated to collect signatures for an abortion amendment that will appear on the November ballot in her home state. If passed, Amendment 4 would establish a statewide constitutional right to abortion up until fetal viability, a major shift from Florida’s current law, which bans abortion after six weeks except in rare cases.

Currently, eight statewide ballot measures related to abortion are certified for the 2024 general election, the most on record in a single year. Vice President Kamala Harris, now leading the Democratic ticket, is seen as a particularly effective voice on reproductive rights and has already done much to win over Gen Z.

In an interview with The 74, Maniar said she thinks these ballot measures can mobilize youth voters, who are feeling particularly energized both by the abortion issue and Harris’s campaign more broadly.

“I think autonomy right now to young people means a lot, because — especially in this state — we know what it feels like to feel like you have none,” she said.

In late July, Harris spoke with Maniar’s peers when she made a virtual appearance at the Gen-Z-led Voters of Tomorrow summit.

“We need your support,” Harris said. “In this election we know young voters will be key, and we know your vote cannot be taken for granted. It must be earned. And that is exactly what we will do.”

Days before leaving for the convention where Harris will accept her history-making nomination, Maniar talked politics with The 74’s Amanda Geduld.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The 74: How did you first get involved with local politics and civic engagement?

Rhea Maniar: When I was 9, my parents took me to a Hillary Clinton rally in Sanford, Florida, in 2016, and they’ve never been the most politically involved people, but they saw that this election was really exciting because it was our first female nominee from the Democratic Party. And they took me in a shirt that said “Future President.” I think ever since that, I’ve just been hooked.

I actually signed up to volunteer for Hillary Clinton on my own — after my bedtime — on my mom’s computer. I snuck in afterwards, and then they called my mom because I didn’t have a phone, so I just put her phone number, and they’re like, “Can we speak to Rhea Maniar?” And she was like, “You can, but she’s like 9 and in bed.” So I ended up phone banking at a neighbor’s house … and that was kind of my first foray into politics: Me and my mom phone banking together for 2016.

… In 10th grade, I did the Florida Senate Page Program … and then I also met Rep. Anna Eskamani, who kind of became my biggest inspiration and mentor in this process. And she offered me an internship just as I was going into 10th grade, and that internship was life changing for me. It was my first experience on the legislative side.

… That summer was also the summer that Roe v. Wade broke. So that was insane. I was a rising sophomore in high school. I couldn’t drive, but I was at the rallies, and I planned events all centered around really advocating for Roe v. Wade , and that summer was amazing.

[Maniar spoke about her efforts to rebuild the Florida High School Democrats and the Florida College Democrats, which she ultimately became chairperson of.]

… I spent the majority of my senior year really talking to adults and advocating for the fact that high schoolers are here, college students are here. We’re ready to get the vote out in 2024, but we need adults to really get us the resources.

You mentioned your experience with the Dobbs decision and your response to that. Can you walk me through that a little bit? Do you remember hearing about that decision for the first time, what your immediate response was and what you’ve done around that issue since?

Yeah, when it broke out … I think everyone at Rep. Eskamani’s office was just shocked, but we didn’t have any time to be shocked. It was time to get to work.

So this meant we jumped into planning the rallies and the events and the speaker panels, and so it was crazy, because we didn’t expect such a large response from the Central Florida community. But sign-ups for our rally and our march were going out the door. So many people showed up. We didn’t know what to do. I think, like, three or 4,000 people showed up, literally, on that day. They just dropped what they were doing to come and we were so grateful for the fact, but also that was our first time really seeing, “Oh my God. People who are not typically involved with these kinds of things are coming out in full force.” There are so many civically engaged people here who this is their first kind of major protest, major rally, major movement.

…  And so since, we’ve been trying to capitalize on that type of energy, and I think that we’ve been really effective in the fact that abortion access affects everyone — even if you’re a man. I think for a lot of Floridians, this is definitely top-of-mind with the new ballot initiative.

And so part of our job was explaining the ballot initiative and why it was so important in November to come out and vote …

What made it so exciting to see this in 2024 is — we knew that abortion was literally the number one issue on top of Florida students’ minds — college students, especially — along with rent and housing and education. But abortion after Dobbs quickly rose to the top of that.

… The fact that voters will literally have the chance in November 2024 to actually speak their minds on this and make sure that their legislators actually represent them in their best interests, was something that I think is really powerful to a lot of Florida students, and it’s definitely something that we are trying our best to uplift and then make as obvious as possible.

… Whenever we did voter registration at schools, we would also have petitions for the 18-year-olds, just to make sure that we were really helping to get that ballot on the table and to pass the threshold.

So what will it mean for youth voters that this abortion ballot will be on the ticket this November?

I think it means a lot to youth voters, because with the combination of having such a powerful and energetic candidate at the top of the ballot — obviously Kamala Harris has greatly improved her numbers in polling amongst youth, especially in Florida — I think what that means is a higher chance of success for our down-ballot races, which are obviously just as important.

Obviously, we have Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is running against Rick Scott [both face primaries Tuesday in the U.S. Senate race]. We have a bunch of really competitive, flippable seats in [state] House districts and Senate districts that are literally right in colleges —UCF [University of Central Florida], FSU [Florida State University] and FAMU [ Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University] in Tallahassee — and so I hope, I am pretty sure — that the abortion amendment has done its job in that we’ve excited these voters, we’ve prepped them, we’ve informed them that so that they know that this year, abortion is on their ballot.

And I think that in November, we’re going to see record-breaking — or at least higher — turnout amongst youth voters aged 18 to 29 than we ever have seen, because with the combination of abortion, weed [Florida ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana ] and Kamala Harris, I think — and obviously massive outreach efforts on behalf of the Florida High School Democrats and the Florida College Democrats — I think all this combined is just a recipe for success, and I don’t really see it going any other way at this point. And I’m very glad I can say that.

When you’re tabling or giving out petitions, what are you hearing from young people about this ballot measure — and about the issue of abortion, more generally — within this political climate and then also within the context of the upcoming race?

I think in a world where our governor has made the decisions constantly for high schoolers … and we’ve kind of lost autonomy over that — over what our teachers can say in school, what books we can have in school, what’s being taught, what can we take — I think autonomy right now to young people means a lot, because especially in this state, we know what it feels like to feel like you have none.

And so that’s why the abortion ballot initiative — and just in general … amendments — are so popular …

It sounds like this ballot measure brings a sense of empowerment to a population in Florida that — like you said — feels like their autonomy has been taken away. And I’m wondering, for young people in states that don’t have a ballot measure coming up in November that deals with this issue, what is your message to them?

… My message to folks in states who are passionate about abortion, but don’t know where to start because they don’t have a ballot amendment, is, I’d always say, organize your community. There’s power in numbers. There’s power in voices. All you have to do is start speaking up, whether that’s planning events, whether that’s registering your friends to vote, and whether that’s calling and emailing your representative and knocking down their door. I would say anything helps.

Outside of abortion, what are other issues that you hear young people getting really excited about this election cycle?

I think especially in Florida, rent is a really, really big problem. And so many older folks will come up to me and be like, “Oh, what issues matter to young people?” And most of the time I’m like, “The same issues that matter to you.”

Young professionals are also looking for places to work, jobs and homes … We held a [youth] poll, and that was top of mind. Property insurance is a massive deal here — especially to young people who are just getting on their feet, who have a college degree, who need a job and need rent help. Things have become so ridiculously unaffordable for everyone.

The second priority was abortion. The third one was education, because obviously our public colleges have seen such a major shift with political ideology and the governor trying to get his hands into curriculum. The fourth one is usually always gun control — being the state of Pulse, being the state of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School [scenes of massive shootings in 2016 and 2018]. Especially to our high school students, who have lived high school every year, having to do active shooter drills every two months, I think this is a really top-of-mind issue.

And Gen Z is one of the most diverse generations in history — racially, ethnically, ideology-wise — and we have a very large population of Gen Z who identifies [as] LGBTQ. And so I think the queer community here is also being very outspoken that their issues are also top of ballot, because Florida has done a very poor job with that. So those are probably top five.

So now a question about you: Will this November be your first election?

Yes, I’m actually old enough to do it in our August primary, so I just did that.

Amazing. And how did it feel to be a first-time voter?

It was so fun. I put the sticker on my computer. I took a picture. I wanted to memorialize this moment. After organizing around so many issues for so long, I felt really good to finally mark my name down on the ballot — and I’m really excited to vote in November.