VOTER DRIVE
OU H-back Brayden Willis' political activities go far beyond casting a ballot
NORMAN — Throughout his young life, Brayden Willis wanted to make a difference when he saw things he felt were wrong.
“Even when I was 12 with the Trayvon Martin incident and everything like that ,” the Oklahoma H- back said Monday.
“It's been a couple times. But I never felt like I had the lead-by-example enough to be able to do it, because I wasn't actively voting. Now that I'm actively voting and I know
the process and I can educate people on the process, it' s become a real priority for me.”
So Willis, who just missed the cutoff to vote in 2016, not only cast his first presidential vote in this election cycle but made a push for voter registration in the lead-up to Tuesday's election.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic limited what he could do, Willis talked to students at his alma mater, James Martin
High School, in Arlington, Texas, about the importance of voting. He talked individually with people he knows, especially younger people and Black people, about the importance of voting and how to register. He was vocal about the issue on social media. He was one of the drivers behind an internal voter registration event in late August on the
Sooners football team that got every player registered to vote.
“A lot of my community really doesn't know the ins and outs of voting,” Willis said. “Not even my community, but a lot of the younger generation just doesn't know about voting, the in sand outs and all the details about registering.
“That was the biggest thing I learned about for me and also teaching other guys and teaching younger generations.”
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 59.6% of eligible Black voters turned out in 2016 while overall voter turnout was 61.4% of eligible voters.
“It's not something that is very educated in our community,” Willis said. “And it's not really something that's put a value on as it should be.
“I would like to change that.”
Willis' great grandmother was his biggest influence when it came to the importance of voting.
She is from Center, Texas, a small town in the southeast part of the state near the Louisiana border.
“A lot of those conversations stem med especially from my great grandmother not being able to vote, or trying to and meeting some type of resistance,” Willis said. “A lot of it ( the basis for his political activity) is lessons I've learned from history that they had.”
Willis has already cast his ballot — he mailed it in about a week ago — but he still plans to be active Tuesday beyond just watching the returns roll in.
Teammate Chanse Sylvie was among the OU players who were vocal in the wake of George Floyd's killing at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in late May. Sylvie released a plan for police reform, visited with elected officials and police and talked openly about the importance of voting.
Willis said Sylvie told him he planned to go to a voting location in Norman, and Willis said he was considering either going with Sylvie or doing something similar.
One of his regrets about his voter-registration efforts is that he wasn't able to see people face to face much, due to the pandemic.
“I think that can be one of our visible interactions right there with different people,” Willis said. “There's a lot of voter intimidation and things like that going on. It's just better if you can have someone out there that' s comforting and you know in the community and that is helping. It's better if someone's out there to help out and just make you feel better about voting and also encourage you to stay because the line might be long.”
Willis and Sylvie will be able to do that in part because of an NCAA mandate that no athletics activities can be held on elections day. So while the day is normally a practice day for the Sooners, they won't be practicing Tuesday.
“It gives us a chance to get out there and help people,” Willis said. “We've got carpools of guys going to go and vote in Norman. We're organizing different things — some guys don't have cars or whatever the case may be and some don't feel comfortable … but I think it's big. It really helps.”
In 2016,46.1% of eligible voters aged 18 to 29 cast ballots, a 1.1% increase from 2012. Willis hopes that number rises dramatically and wants to do his part in making it happen.
“I don't care which way you go and whatever the case may be,” Willis said. “I just want people to get out there and exercise their rights because in past elections, we haven't shown up — my demographic at least, younger people.
“We're getting better about that. We need to keep on getting better, but we have that right for a reason so let's get out there and use it.”