As the voices and minds shaping future elections continue to evolve, Knowa De Baraso remains committed to educating the electorate of the future, one conversation at a time. After his viral moments during the 2024 Democratic National Convention for questioning MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, De Baraso’s star has continued to rise as he keeps his mission and goals clear.
The young political commentator was a recent guest on “The Breakfast Club” and while the Atlanta native is gearing up to put November’s gubernatorial race between former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and billionaire healthcare executive Rick Jackson into proper perspective, he’s also keenly aware about how social media plays a critical role in how young voters head to the polls.
“[The younger generation] care more than the the older generations because it is their future and they care but they’re often misguided which is unfair to the young people because of the hand they were dealt,” De Baraso said. “And the social media we’ve been given. We have to clean it up to make it a better place.”
De Baraso was one of the advocates to fight a Georgia law that would have limited social media access for children under 14. Just before the age verificaiton bill was set to beocme law in 2025, a judge blocked it, deeming that the bill would be a violation of free speech protections.
“The Court does not doubt the dangers posed by young people’s overwhelming exposure to social media,” Totenberg wrote. “But, in its effort to aid parents, the Act’s solution creates serious obstacles for all Georgians, including teenagers, to engage in protected speech activities and would highly likely be unconstitutional.”
For De Baraso, focusing on young voters is key, even if he wishes voter registration was a bigger topic of discussion at mass protests like “No Kings.” But the 14-year-old believes as the midterms approach, both parties will have to deal with a misconception about those beginning to become engaged in politics.
“What they’re getting wrong about America right now is that they think we don’t care,” De Baraso said. “They think all we can do is Instagram Stories about it and for that, I say they’re completely false … if we’re more active in voter registration and instead of organizing these protests that really don’t do much, we should be focused on registering more voters. Even Republicans are falling behind in that and I think Democrats will catch up in the midterms.”
