OutVote announces 2026 Fellowship cohort of LGBTQ+ Leaders
OutVote Deploys First Wave of 2026 LGBTQ+ Youth Organizers Across Three Battleground Districts
JUNE 17, 2026 — OutVote, the first and only organization focused exclusively on LGBTQ+ youth civic engagement and voter education, today announced the launch of its 2026 Fellowship Program. This year, more than 20 OutVote Fellows will serve communities across Iowa's 1st District (IA-01), Michigan's 7th District (MI-07), and North Carolina's 11th District (NC-11), expanding access to civic resources, voter education, and leadership development opportunities for LGBTQ+ young people.
The Fellowship Program equips burgeoning LGBTQ+ Gen Z leaders with expert-led training, tools, and resources to build the local civic infrastructure needed to register, educate, and mobilize their peers.
"Gen Z is the queerest and fastest-growing voting bloc in America, and this generation has the power to determine outcomes where it matters most," said Isaac James, Co-Founder and Executive Director of OutVote. "At the same time, civic disengagement is a real and growing risk. OutVote is meeting the moment with relevant and authentic programming that proves civic participation is worth showing up for. Young voters are forming civic habits now and the organizations that reach them first will shape their participation for decades.”
Building on 2024 and 2025 pilots in Arizona, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia, OutVote Fellows receive training in relational organizing, digital mobilization, and culturally-competent civic engagement.
"The Fellows we selected care deeply about their local queer and trans communities and are eager to learn what it actually takes to organize their peers," said Kassie Phebillo, Programming Director at OutVote. "Training sessions equip tomorrow’s LGBTQ+ leaders with skills they’ll carry throughout their civic lives and the tools they need to make an immediate and measurable impact.”
The three target geographies were selected because they represent places where investments in LGBTQ+ youth civic engagement can have an outsized impact on both local communities and broader democratic participation. IA-01 is home to Iowa City and the University of Iowa, one of the Midwest's most vibrant LGBTQ+ youth communities. MI-07 is ranked by Tufts CIRCLE's Youth Electoral Significance Index as one of the highest-impact districts in the country for youth civic engagement. NC-11, anchored by Asheville, combines strong LGBTQ+ cultural hubs with rural communities where affirming civic infrastructure is harder to find and more urgently needed.
Fellows include a rural Appalachian trans organizer serving as First Vice Chair of the NCDP Trans Caucus, a Lansing social worker advocating at the intersection of disability and LGBTQ+ rights, and a University of Iowa student organizing in the community where she grew up.
Opportunities to join OutVote’s programming this year are still available at outvotehq.org
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About OutVote
OutVote is the nation’s first and only nonpartisan organization focused solely on LGBTQ+ youth voter education and mobilization — led by Gen Z, for Gen Z. Since launching its Fellowship pilots in 2024 and 2025, OutVote has reached more than 2.5 million young LGBTQ+ voters.