MOVE Texas is a left-of-center voter engagement and advocacy organization in Texas operating in ten cities and on the campuses of over 60 colleges and universities to register new voters and engage in voter mobilization. MOVE Texas has backed lowering criminal thresholds for arrests, banning no-knock warrants, deprioritizing enforcement of marijuana and abortion crimes, fighting global warming, getting rid of oil and other conventional fuels, supporting the Green New Deal, and mandating polling locations on all college campuses with more than 8,000 students. MOVE Texas has advocated banning corporate-run prisons and organizing students to lead walk outs at schools until the state bans youth jails.

History

MOVE Texas began in 2013 as a left-of-center advocacy organization founded by students at the University of Texas at San Antonio to increase participation in local elections. ¹ MOVE Texas currently operates in San Antonio, Laredo, Seguin, Austin, San Marcos, Houston, Corpus Christi, Fort Worth, Dallas, and Denton. ² MOVE Texas operates an action fund and a separate civic fund that is a program of the Alliance for Youth Organizing. ³

MOVE Texas has field teams throughout the state with students running chapters at universities in Texas. ⁴ As of 2020, MOVE Texas was operating at over 60 college campuses in the state. ⁵ MOVE Texas engages in voter registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, hosts candidate forums, and distributes educational literature to young voters on candidates and election issues. ⁶ The civic fund also runs a leadership development program training young people on running a field campaign, engaging with voters, and being a citizen lobbyist. ⁷

In 2020, MOVE Texas claims to have registered 50,000 new young voters, sent out 1.4 million pieces of voter mailings, and recruited 1,500 new younger poll workers to replace older poll workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. ⁸

Positions

MOVE Texas is involved in recruiting students and promoting Zoom meetings to form school walkouts across the state to show support for abolishing youth prisons. ⁹ MOVE Texas has been an advocate for the proposed 2023 San Antonio Justice Charter that would deprioritize enforcement of abortion and marijuana crimes, expand and codify the county’s cite-and-release program, ban no-knock warrants, and appoint a city Justice director to oversee city justice policy. ¹⁰

Artwork Messaging

MOVE Texas hosts an artist fellows’ program to complete artwork for the organization. In 2021, art it promoted supported fighting global warming, protecting abortion centers, fighting a heartbeat bill to ban abortion, winterizing windmills, raising the threshold for police arrests, and calling Texas “THE voter suppression state.” ¹¹ In 2022, promoted artwork supported ending corporate-run prisons, getting rid of oil and other conventional fuels, supporting the Green New Deal, and stating racial justice is environmental justice which is economic justice which is racial justice. ¹²

Voting Laws

In 2023, state Representative Carrie Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) filed two legislative bills banning the use of any primary, secondary, or higher education campuses as voting locations citing security concerns. ¹³ Representative Isaac stated Texas already allows voting every day for two weeks leading up to election day and in 2022 many schools decided not to hold classes because of safety concerns. ¹⁴

MOVE Texas responded that the government of Texas should focus on gun restrictions to make campuses safer rather than moving polling locations. ¹⁵ In 2022, state Representative Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) proposed a bill supported by MOVE Texas requiring polling locations at any college with at least 8,000 students. ¹⁶ In November 2022, state Representative Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) proposed legislation that would make having a college student identification card an acceptable form of voter identification. ¹⁷

Funding

According to MOVE Texas’ annual report, in 2020 MOVE Texas recorded a combined civic and action fund revenue of $4,252,844 and $3,184,685 in expenses. ¹⁸ In 2020, the 501(c )(3) civic fund’s revenue made up 65 percent of that total while the 501(c)(4) action fund made up 35 percent. ¹⁹ In its 2019 tax return, MOVE Texas action fund claimed net assets of -$107,736. ²⁰ MOVE Texas is affiliated with left-of-center groups the Alliance for Youth Action and Alliance for Youth Organizing and the civic fund is a program of the Alliance for Youth Organizing. ²¹

Leadership

Claudia Yoli Ferla has been executive director of MOVE Texas since April 2021. ²² From 2018 to 2021, Yoli Ferla was co-executive director and previously director of student organizing at pro-abortion feminist group Deeds Not Words. ²³ Previously, Yoli Ferla worked for former Texas state Senator Jose Rodriguez (D-El Paso), for the left-of-center Texas Freedom Network, and as a campus organizer for Democratic-run Battleground Texas. ²⁴ Yoli Ferla has advocated for increased gun control, linking mass shootings to white supremacy, toxic masculinity, and institutionalized racism. ²⁵

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20. MOVE Texas Action Fund, Return of a Nonprofit Corporation (Form 990), 2019.
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