Albert Terry, the Carlisle County Democratic Executive Committee’s 20-year-old vice chair, says young people who think voting doesn’t matter should take a look at the November 4 elections, which were dubbed “The Blue Tsunami” after his party romped in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City, California, and elsewhere.
“As yesterday shows, voting does matter,” Terry said after his Nov. 5 classes on the Paducah campus of the University of Kentucky College of Engineering. He is studying to be a chemical engineer.
The youth vote mattered, big time, according to the Associated Press. “Most voters under 30 voted for the Democratic candidates in the New Jersey and Virginia governor’s races, and the New York City mayoral campaign, but young women were particularly likely to support Democrats,” the AP reported. “About 8 in 10 women under 30 supported [Mikie] Sherrill in New Jersey, compared to just over half of men under 30. That was similar in Virginia, where roughly 8 in 10 women under 30 voted for [Abigail] Spanberger and about 6 in 10 men under 30 did.”
Terry, who lives near Bardwell, the Carlisle County seat, gets it that many other young people “might think that our voice doesn’t matter, especially in this environment. But that’s because [President Donald Trump and his Republican Party] … want you to feel hopeless so that you won’t fight back against what they are doing to the country.”
Terry is tied with Johnson County chair Nicholas Hazelett as evidently the youngest number one or number two county party officials in the state. Hazelett was elected at age 19 last year when he also waged a write-in campaign that won him a seat on the city council in Paintsville, the Johnson County seat.
Terry became his committee’s vice chair at the panel’s Monday night meeting when County Judge Executive Greg Terry (no relation) stepped down as chair, while choosing to remain on the committee. Albert Terry replaced Vice Chair Roxie Toon, who was elected the new chair.
Terry lives at home with his parents, Melchora and Kim Terry, both Democrats, according to their son. His father, Kim Terry, a retiree member of Paducah-based International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 816, is also on the Carlisle Democratic Committee.
Albert went to Carlisle County High School for two years before transferring to Western Kentucky University’s Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science. He graduated in 2023.
“I got interested in politics at home looking at the news and becoming upset at what Trump is doing to the country,” he said. “But when I went to Gatton, I realized I wanted to help people like the ones I met, especially people in the minority like LGBTQ people.”
The Kentucky Democratic Party brass is fired up over Terry and Hazelett. “Rural communities may find no fiercer advocates than their youngest members,” said Nat Turner, KDP director of communications. She added that, like Hazelett, Terry proves “that Democratic ideals are alive and well at the local level, both in and outside of big cities. As our party works to build strongholds in every corner of Kentucky, young Kentuckians don’t just have a seat at the table — they are often leading the conversation, fighting to ensure the next generation won’t have to cross a county line for quality health care and education.”
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