(EL PASO, Texas) — El Paso is a city that marches to the beat of its own drum, opting out of the state power grid and following a different time zone than the rest of Texas.

Since 1912, the city has also voted mostly blue in the presidential elections in a state that leans red toward the Republican Party.

“It’s been the party that’s represented El Paso,” said Michael Apodaca, the chairman of the El Paso County Democratic Party. Sitting down in his light olive and blue T-shirt that says simply,  ‘Harris,’ he said the Democratic Party, “represents its values; it represents what we care for.”

Apodaca and the organization hope for a record-breaking turnout of residents to elect Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president. According to Apodaca, this hope is in large part due to the positions she cares for, including women’s reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, immigration, housing, and child tax credit.

Over the last several months, the El Paso County Democratic Party initiated weekly events to include block walks, canvassing door-to-door, and phone banking.

The organization plans to hold one more event today, serving as the last day for registered voters to make their voices heard. Their “goal is to talk to as many passive voters” as they can and “to ensure that El Paso stays Democratic for the next generation,” said Apodaca.

Born and raised in the city, the 43-year-old El Pasoan graduated from Austin High School in 1999 and the University of Texas, El Paso in 2007. He called himself an “X-lineal” leaning slightly forward in laughter as he explained why he feels a part of Generation X while technically being a Millennial.

“I don’t feel like I’m a Millennial,” said Apodaca with salt and pepper wavy hair and light hazel eyes moving to the side while briefly contemplating. “I feel like more Gen X. I remember having a landline, and then, in high school, it was just AOL with dial-up.”

While each generation holds a cultural marker that separates them from their predecessors, Apodaca noticed one thing uniting Gen Z, Generation X, and Millennials: the upcoming presidential election.

“You have some Gen Z folks who are super excited and got really motivated with Harris becoming the Democratic nominee,” said Apodaca.

Spending 24 years with the El Paso County Democratic Party, Apodaca described his elected position as completely voluntary and unpaid.

“During the primary election, we are the administrators of our primaries. The sole responsibility is to the 254 county chairs [that] are elected in the state of Texas,” said Apodaca.

He began his journey with the organization as a volunteer before joining the Democratic Party’s executive committee. He later served as the party’s treasurer before entering his current position as the chairman for the El Paso County Democratic Party.

Apodaca said he envisioned becoming a chairman years prior to the opportunity coming along.

“In 2016, I actually did want to run for it, but someone else also wanted to run for it. So, to avoid [spending on] an election because you do have to campaign, I’m like I’m not going to raise $60,000 to run for a chair and for an office that doesn’t pay,” said Apodaca.

Six years later, his “time came.”

Apodaca stated that “it just fell in my lap, essentially” because the former county chair decided not to run. People who work alongside Apodaca rallied around his advancement to the position. They described him as an “energetic,” hard working leader who is “proof to young people that you can accomplish a lot in a short time period.”

His interest in political volunteerism within his community came in large part from his great-grandmother’s influence who became involved with the city council at her local senior citizen center.

It was Apodaca’s mother who influenced his political ideology.

“My earliest memory that I do remember, like anything relating to politics, was my mom taking me with her to go vote at that senior [citizen] center,” said Apodaca. “It was [at] the polling site in 1987. It was Dukakis versus Bush. That’s where I asked her who she was voting for, and she [said she’s] voting for Dukakis. And, I did ask her why, and she’s just like ‘because Democrats care about us.’”

Poll from Semafor highlights American
distrust in journalism. [Graphic by Jeronimo Gonzalez]

“You do have some that do get misinformation from social media sites,” said Apodaca with his focused light eyes widening. The El Paso County Democratic Party chairman believes that the top three pieces of misinformation “goes back to Biden’s record,” immigration, and LGBTQ rights.

“We’re seeing a complete attack on the trans community for things that are just untrue,” said Apodaca. “Like there’s no school for example, which is in I think one of the Trump commercials, where there’s a supposed mother who’s like, ‘I would be mad if my school changed my kid’s gender automatically at school.’”

He described an interaction from a few weeks ago at Walgreens where a man was watching one of these commercials on YouTube.

“And I had to say, like, ‘what are you watching? This is not news,’” said Apodaca. “And he also got very upset that I called him out on it.”

Apodaca mentioned how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s is “violating our constitution by putting our DPS [Department of Public Safety] folks on the border versus having them focus on our communities.”

The chairman believes that more people should start “just calling BS” because there is no clear data that shows how Abbott’s border measures make a positive impact.

One such measure is Abbott’s decision to place the Army National Guard and Texas Highway Patrol troops, who are often referred to as DPS, at the border, using a $11 billion of taxpayers’ money and state resources for a federal issue.

“Even the Supreme Court has overstated this numerous times, our federal government is supposed to lead on immigration, not the states,” said Apodaca. “I think the most important thing and kind of going back to why Vice President Harris needs to be elected is that [Trump’s] ego killed [the] bipartisan border security bill.”

Known as the Border Act of 2024, the bill sought to expand Department of Homeland Security’s authority by providing funding for more border patrol agents. However, after initially receiving support from both the Democratic and Republican party, Trump’s suspected influence led to only four Republican Senators voting for the bill.

Apodaca encourages El Pasoans to volunteer and get involved with family and friends in battleground states, like Arizona, Nevada, and Pennsylvania to ensure that they vote. Volunteers can sign up to assist the organization on the El Paso County Democratic Party website and can visit vote915.com.

He also encourages voters not to feel overwhelmed by every issue on the ballot.

“If you know you’re going to vote for Harris, [and] you know that you’re going to vote for our Congresswoman [Veronica Escobar], but you don’t know anything else, make sure just to at least go vote for them,” said Apodaca. “As you become a voter, you get on our voting list, and then, this is where campaigns and candidates reach out to you. I mean the best thing is not to be scared.”