Kayty Himmelstein is 16, and will be a senior this fall at the Cambridge Rindge & Latin School in Massachusetts. She spent a few weeks in D.C. interning with the Nader 2004 campaign. "I made phone calls to ask people to volunteer, tracked down petitioners to hand in their signatures, called different states to line up electors, read resumes... I'm interested in math, so Theresa Amato, the campaign manager, asked me to look over some survey data and summarize the significance of the data." Between assignments, Kayty read Ralph's book about his 2000 campaign, Crashing the Party. "I was surprised at how entertaining it is - I was expecting a more 'This Is What Happened' retelling. He has some funny stories in it."

Kayty will soon apply to colleges, and she might choose African-American studies as her major. "I really like history, learning about race relations and seeking solutions for racial tension in the United States. Ralph obviously knows history - he makes a lot of references to political and social justice movements, and he draws on it for inspiration. It's interesting to see how he uses history in his work."

"Of all the issues, education policy affects my life the most. I'm also interested in health policy." Kayty's parents are doctors, co-founders of Physicians for National Health Program - they were involved in writing the proposal for the Universal Health Care Plan in 2000. Kayty says, "If you're a teenager - unless someone is telling you about it - you're not that involved in the health care system. People my age aren't thinking about it that much."

Kayty is on her school's cross-country and track teams, and likes to sketch and do pottery. "When I said I was coming to work for Ralph Nader, I got a fairly negative and confrontation response from a number of my friends - not that they don't think that Ralph is a good person or they don't agree with his policies - but they take the 'Why is he spoiling it for John Kerry?' attitude. I debated with them and discussed it with them, and I think I got most of them to the point that they don't necessarily hope that Ralph does well in the election, but they respect my decision to come work for Ralph. I felt that was a minor victory."

Sharnell Green and Mike Spreadbury are from Buckeye, Arizona. Mike is in career transition; formerly a schoolteacher, he's thinking about going to law school. "I'm interested in working in civil rights. A lot of people who vote for Nader have been squashed by corporations. I think it's important to hold corporations accountable."

"Everyone knows that Ralph is an honest man. When I'm petitioning, people come up to me and say, 'I'll sign - I'm tired of Democrats, I'm tired of their lies!' and other times, people will say, 'I'm tired of the Republicans, I'm tired of their lies!' I especially like that Ralph is saying, "Before giving senators a raise, I want everyone to have a living wage." Nader is still a Raider!"

Sharnell teaches music and drama at two local high schools. When Ralph came to Arizona, she had a great time driving him around town (in her car - not on Mike's motorcycle!). "He's just a normal person - he even flies coach!” Sharnell wrote an editorial in response to someone who said she was wasting her vote on Nader. "This is the first time I’ll be voting in an election, and it's very serious to me. I want many options, but all I hear is 'Bush and Kerry, Bush and Kerry.' Ralph Nader is so intelligent - if you just listen to him for two minutes, you'd never think about voting for anybody else! Every time I talk to someone about Ralph Nader, they can never say one bad thing about him, never! I ask people ‘Why would he not make a good president?'’ They just have that knee-jerk reaction, 'Oh, he's not going to win!' The only vote that is wasted is a vote for someone you don't believe in. I believe in Ralph Nader."

Carol Dunn is a single mom who went petitioning in Austin, Texas for an hour here and there, and brought her son Taebin along for the ride, instilling the democratic process in his impressionable young mind. Her favorite spots were in front of health food stores and Book People, an independent bookstore. Carol's arms got a great workout, and Taebin was a trooper, enduring the Texas heat and people who snapped at his Mom, "No, I don't WANT Ralph Nader on the ballot! He spoiled the last election!" But Taebin kept his cool and stopped angry voters long enough for Mom to talk some sense into them. Taebin, your sweet face and winning personality might be the reason Ralph gets on the Texas ballot!

Christopher Driscoll comes into the office four nights a week to make phone calls to promote Ralph's appearances, raise money, answer people's emails, file papers, "any little job that needs to be done. Amy Auer, our volunteer coordinator, has everything all set for us to jump on when we come in. I also went petitioning in Maryland, where I live." When not volunteering, he's a trade journalist for the information technology industry, covering new developments in computers and software and communication systems.

"Ralph's honesty and integrity are stellar. I can't think of another human being who sets a higher standard for the way public figures ought to act. I also think that his message about fighting the corporate crime wave and seeking more balance between the power that corporations have and the power that individual citizens have - that balance is...well, you can't even call it a balance anymore! We're totally out of whack. Citizens, who make up 99% of the population, end up with just a tiny, tiny fraction of power. As we've seen, this kind of excess power has ended up in a disastrous situation for the average citizen. The fight for the rights of citizens that Ralph has carried out for over forty years is quite compelling, and I genuinely think that he's the best person in America to be President. And I'm going to continue working to see that happen."

Ralph has been volunteering his services as a public advocate to the American people for fifty years. As a student at Harvard Law School, Ralph earned money by working in a bowling alley, typing fellow law students' papers and selling imported goods, and used the money to travel to Denmark, Sweden and Finland, where he researched their ombudsman systems (an ombudsman is an official whose job is to represent a citizen with a grievance against the government). He introduced an ombudsman bill to the Connecticut legislature in 1963. Also while at Harvard, at his own expense, Ralph lobbied members of Congress to support statehood for Alaska and Hawaii. Ralph even volunteered to join the U.S. Army, where he developed a top secret banana bread recipe (he was a cook!).

Ralph was concerned about auto safety since his student days (many of his classmates were killed in auto accidents). In 1965, Ralph worked as an unpaid advisor to Senator Abraham Ribicoff's subcommittee exploring auto safety. His years of unpaid research gave him the credentials to write his landmark book Unsafe at Any Speed, which exposed the dangers of American cars - in particular, General Motors' Corvair. G.M. hired private investigators to dig up dirt to discredit Ralph. Of course, all they found out was that he was a clean-cut guy who spent all his time working for public safety. In 1970, Ralph won a large settlement against G.M. for invasion of privacy, and used the money to start student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) and other citizen groups and projects.

Ralph is not just a volunteer, but a philanthropist: he makes money lecturing and writing books, and plows 80% of his earning into funding citizen groups all over the country. These groups have worked tirelessly for forty years to take dangerous drugs out of the marketplace, raise auto safety standards (seat belts, airbags, padded dashboards...), create affordable auto insurance, safer X-rays, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Freedom of Information Act, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Occupation Health and Safety Administration (O.S.H.A). Thanks to Ralph, you get free flights when the airlines bump you, and your children's clothing doesn't burst into flames when they stand too close a furnace.

Even though there will be tremendous pressure for Ralph to drop out of the race and hand over his hard-earned votes to John Kerry, Ralph is committed to running the race to the end: "It's a matter of principle for me. You cannot go all over the United States and ask tens of thousands of volunteers to sweat and give their heart and soul to the campaign, and then at the last minute, turn your back on your volunteers and say, 'Well, you know, it's just politics as usual - see you later!' Principle is the essence of politics - otherwise, politics become corrupt."

"We're building for the future, and the progressive movements that put the American people before giant business are going to persist beyond November. You cannot drop out, because you will break the momentum and feed the cynicism that the two parties have already provided in excessive amounts. This isn't about a 'career' - this is about a political movement that is going to try to open the doors for the civic groups in Washington - which have been closed for twenty years by both parties. You have to heed Thomas Jefferson, who said when you lose your government, you have to go into the electoral arena to free up the democratic opportunities in this country."