20 YO Kennedy Laplante Garza Socially Influences While Working To Stop Backyard Data Center

This morning, Michael and I welcomed our youngest guest to the podcast. Youngest, maybe, but who would know. Kennedy Laplante is one of the most mature people under 25 I’ve ever met.

Currently the Director of Youth Outreach for the Oklahoma State Republican Party, Laplante wasn’t always involved in politics. An Oklahoman by way of California (through Arizona!), Laplante originally got involved in Oklahoma politics to impress a young man she was dating. Studying up on current events to hold her own in conversations, she realized that she had concerns about the issues she was studying. Though she may not have been immersed in politics at a younger age, she was old enough to remember that her family wanted out of California largely because of over regulation and lack of freedom and seeing similar issues in Oklahoma made her uncomfortable. Wasn’t Oklahoma a Red State?

Attending Republican women’s meetings steered her activity in local politics, while speaking out on social media about the issues important to her gave her a following of over three thousand people on Facebook alone.

Last Thursday (before the Independence Day holiday), she found that the County Commissioners in her area were set to approve a data center on 500 acres a mile from her home at a 9am meeting the Monday after the holiday. Seeking out other social media influencers who had been tackling the issue for advice, Laplante rapidly put together some of her own social media posts and rounded up enough people to attend the meeting.

Below is a clip of Laplante talking about how important it is to speak up. You are your own expert – especially if a data center is about to plop down in your backyard. Don’t wait for an expert, be your own!

Throughout our conversation, it became clear that Laplante was mindful and deeply concerned about her adopted state and what she saw happening within its borders.

Part of our conversation steered toward party politics and her thoughts on what that looked like in the state today. Below, Laplante makes several comments not unlike those Michael and I have often made on the podcast when I asked her what her age cohort seems to be thinking about Oklahoma politics today.

Please watch the full live conversation with Kennedy here on our YouTube and Rumble channels. It’s absolutely worth the time to hear this bright young lady advocate for Republican principles and standing for what she believes in.

Also, if you’d like to sign the petition Kennedy has set up against the data center, please find it here. You can also find her on Facebook – and I suggest you do! She’s the future and I’d start following her ASAP.