14-year-old makes history as Chicago's 40th Ward's youngest Democratic Deputy Committeewoman

At just 14 years old, Ana Lopez-Alcantar has made history, as Chicago's 40th Ward's youngest Democratic Deputy Committeewoman.

"With adults, their reaction is like 'You're 14?,'" Lopez-Alcantar said. "I'm like, 'yeah there aren't many teenagers that care about politics but here I am standing right in front of you caring about politics and my future.'"

Monday morning, the Northside teen and Democratic Committeewoman Maggie O'Keefe distributed postcards to neighbors, encouraging them to vote in the upcoming presidential election.

"Ana is truly an inspiration for our future generation of voters," O'Keefe said.

The two met in 2019 when O'Keefe ran for Alderman of the 40th ward. When O'Keefe decided to run for Committeeperson, Lopez-Alcantar was first in line to campaign.

Lopez-Alcantar has campaigned for Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and even Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

"I feel like people perspective they're like 'She's a little young," Lopez-Alcantar said. "But I feel like it's fun because I get to see everything that's going on with politics and I get to see my perspective and other people's perspectives."

Lopez-Alcantar wants to inspire other teenagers to get involved in politics and learn more about the democratic system. She said the more people learn, the better-informed people will be when they go to the polls.

"There might be people who are like 'She's a little too young, she doesn't know what she's talking about.' But I feel like as long as I can go to the table, it doesn't really matter what everybody else thinks," she said.

"If we can prime young people to become sports stars, musicians, nurses, doctors, people we look up to, we should be priming young people to become public servants as well," O'Keefe added.