Cordie Aziz

Seated behind a bare executive desk at Cindy Ayers-Elliott’s campaign headquarters, Cordie Aziz seems right at home. She radiates hope for her future and confidence in her ability to do anything she decides to do.

Aziz, 22, graduated in May with a degree in mass communications and a minor in marketing from Jackson State University. In February, a member of the Jackson advertising and PR firm Maris, West, and Baker had told her class that the most vital experience he ever got was working on a political campaign. Was it a coincidence that in March Ayers-Elliott’s son Eric asked Aziz if she would help with public relations and volunteer coordination for his mother’s campaign for state treasurer? Probably not.

Peoria, Ill., native Aziz’s earliest political memory is making cold calls soliciting votes for a friend of her parents at the age of 7. When she didn’t know how to respond to a man’s query—”Why should I vote for her?”—he hung up on her. Smiling brilliantly, Aziz says she learned early that politics can be harsh. But that doesn’t stop her from realizing the importance of political involvement for her generation of Americans.

Several aspects of politics, when understood by today’s voters between the ages of 18 and 30, will empower them to, she says, “basically go and see that you have the power to change the world and the law.” First, you must educate yourself about how each elected official’s decisions will affect your life. Next, you must, as her candidate Mrs. Elliott says, “Inspect what you expect,” by knowing the track record of each candidate.

Her own personal goal—educating minorities in how to change policies by becoming more actively involved in politics, starting with voting regularly—Aziz sees as a means to relieve the double burden she feels as an African American—to uphold and to change the status of her people while not interfering with the rights of other Americans. This can be hard, she says, “because everyone has a different level of thinking as far as what freedom is and what they need to be free.”

Aziz’s advice for those running for office is three-fold. Stop talking just about the problems; formulate viable solutions. When elected, work hard to enact those solutions. And put in place a means to evaluate the impact of those solutions on the communities you were elected to serve.

After she’s had children and they’re all grown up—in about 40 years—Aziz plans to run for governor. Where? “In whatever state I’m in.” We’ll hope that’s Mississippi.

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The Mississippi Free Press produced this story through the MFP Solutions Lab, supported by the Solutions Journalism Network. This series digs into Mississippi’s systemic issues and sheds light on responses to them in other communities. Beyond just reporting on problems, these stories interrogate their causes and inspect potential solutions.