By Ross Ramsey, The Texas Tribune Editor's note: If you'd like an email notice whenever we publish Ross Ramsey's column, click here. Derek Ryan, a young Texas voter who also happens to be a political consultant, is finally starting to see some of his peers talking and posting about politics and showing up on lists of voters. It’s taken long enough: He’s in his early 40s.

Growing Empowered Together (GET) is a new grassroots nonprofit in San Antonio with the mission of inspiring progressive Texas millennials, Americans born between 1982 and 2000, to want to vote and to volunteer in their communities. Like most other nonprofits, GET was born of a sense of urgent community need.