Nearly 60 years ago, on a rain-soaked South Lawn with humidity so dense it weighed on your shoulders, President Lyndon B. Johnson challenged the youth of small-town America to go forth and do good.

“You can't find better talent to work on than you young people who come from rural America," Johnson said, pounding the podium and slicing his hands through the muggy air for emphasis. “You have a very strong, compelling obligation to your country."

When he finished on that June day, Johnson walked among nearly 1,000 youths from 27 states whose outstretched hands strained to connect with him as part of the 1968 Electric Cooperative Youth Conference.

Nearly six decades later, that challenge still sits at the heart of NRECA's Electric Cooperative Youth Tour. What's changed is how NRECA seeks to fulfill it.

“Youth Tour alumni stay engaged with their co-op when they return home, and many go on to serve on local boards and become leaders in their communities and beyond—including staff we see working in offices on Capitol Hill and inside federal agencies," says NRECA CEO Jim Matheson. “It's a strategic investment in the future of rural America, and one we're proud to keep making."

While Johnson envisioned the tour as a way for young people to see democracy in action, today's program aims to help them become leaders in their communities, cooperatives and country.

“We've changed the way we think about the program," says Cale McCall, NRECA Youth Programs manager since 2024. “It's shifted from the trip of a lifetime for delegates to an opportunity to grow as a leader.

“A lot of these kids are already leading in their communities. We want to give them the skills and the connections to go back to their hometowns, start making an impact and be able to point to this time in D.C. as the catalyst for their futures."

The 2026 Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, held in mid-June, was the largest in the program's history, drawing 1,800 delegates and 300 chaperones from 44 states. The first trip, organized by Iowa cooperatives in 1958, included just 34 students.

McCall, a 2015 Electric Cooperative Youth Tour delegate from Florida, says NRECA and participating co-ops view the program as an investment in rural America. It educates young people about the cooperative model and deepens their understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing rural America, lessons they carry into adulthood.

On Youth Day this year, all 2,100 delegates gathered at the Gaylord National Resort, the host site. NRECA President Mike Partin described how his upbringing in rural Tennessee led him to a leadership position within the association. Next, a trio of tour alumni discussed how the trip moved them to pursue their interests in cooperatives and public policy.

“These people are at very different points in their lives and careers," McCall says. “But the one common thread among them and the work they're doing now is Youth Tour."

Co-op Connections night highlighted career opportunities across the cooperative network, from engineering to communications to line work and operations.

Delegates were updated on scholarship opportunities and ways to market the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour as a major plus on their college applications. There was also an hourlong leadership class.

It all falls under the rubric of connections, McCall says: the connection between a delegate and the sponsoring co-op, the connection with democracy and advocacy captured in Capitol Hill visits and voter registration drives, and the connection among other delegates from far-flung places.

“That way, Youth Tour is not the end, but rather the opportunity for them to start making their mark when they get back into their hometowns," he says.

The results can be found in the careers of former delegates who have gone on to become elected officials, congressional staffers, educators and co-op leaders. As the following profiles show, each still points back to the same starting place: a week in Washington at the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour.

The Pioneer

Boyd, whose family belonged to North East Mississippi Electric Power Association, traveled as part of the Tennessee delegation and about 900 other delegates. When she returned, she presented her findings to cooperative leaders across the state.

“My job was to sell. I was all about everybody going to Washington because I just knew how important it was for me to see things bigger than my little postage-stamp perception of the world," she says.

Mississippi co-ops embraced the program, and this year's delegation numbered 84 students.

“It's fantastic to see how it's grown," she says. “In a day and age when there is a lot of cynicism out there, I love that they can continue to learn about cooperatives and the rural electric system."

The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour experience helped shape Boyd's interest in public service. After graduating from Mississippi State University and law school at the University of Mississippi, she built a career in law and government before winning election to the Mississippi Senate in 2020.

“I came back wanting to make a positive change," she says. “I wanted to be part of the policymaking process and I wanted to be part of the things that are good and are going to make our state and our country grow."

As a state senator, Boyd has seen firsthand how co-ops do more than provide electricity.

“They're about connecting people and that's not a partisan issue," she says. “They are absolutely essential to the workforce in this day and age. Broadband expansion had to be a critical component for the state of Mississippi to develop because that's one of the things that industries are looking at, and rural electric cooperatives are an essential part of that."

Four decades after her Electric Cooperative Youth Tour experience, Boyd still considers it unlike any other leadership program.

“I think this one's unique," she says. “I learned very early on about the need to understand very, very important policy matters and that has stayed with me. I don't see anything around the country that does something like the Youth Tour for rural areas."

The Communicator

As deputy communications director for U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Hannah Eddins meets with Electric Cooperative Youth Tour delegates visiting Capitol Hill.

In 2014, she was one of them, traveling from her south-central Alabama hometown of Samson to Washington as part of the delegation sponsored by Andalusia-based Covington Electric Cooperative.

Eddins had an early introduction to the cooperative principle of concern for community. Covington, along with Hartford-based Wiregrass Electric Cooperative, donated appliances to her high school, where her mother taught family and consumer science.

“I remember cooking an omelet on an electric stove with a little Covington sticker on it," she says. “So I knew about their involvement in our community and our school system from her."

A school counselor connected Eddins to the state youth tour, which led to the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in D.C. before her senior year of high school.

“The opportunities were limited in a place that small and it was a struggle to meet many people from the outside world," she says. “But seeing the experience that was given to me as a student from a rural small town and being able to come to D.C., it made me just appreciate where I'm from even more."

The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour was Eddins' first time away from home, and she chuckled that a $50 stipend gave her a taste of what it was like to be an adult. On a serious note, the tour included visits with Alabama's congressional delegation—including Rep. Mike Rogers, and Sens. Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby—that taught Eddins a lesson she carries with her.

“I'd always been interested in politics from an early age, so it meant a lot that they took time to speak to our group," she says. “Now, when I'm planning meetings on this side, I remember what those moments meant to me and my fellow participants and I try to bring that to our event planning."

After graduating from Auburn University and completing a White House internship, Eddins joined Tuberville's Senate operation in 2021 and now serves as deputy communications director.

“This is a city where relationships really matter," she says. “Relationships are what drive the needle on moving legislation or drawing attention to your issues.

That was one of the key components of Youth Tour because we were building relationships with other people who were going to be leaders, even if it was not in the political space."

Today, she enjoys welcoming Electric Cooperative Youth Tour delegates to Washington, knowing she once sat in the same seats and asked many of the same questions.

“I want to give people that microphone to share their stories and their experiences. Even though D.C. is far away from Alabama, I don't want it to feel that way. I want people to feel that they have a voice, and that they also have direct line to their senator's office because we work for them," she says.

The CEO

The experience exposed her to people from different backgrounds and helped develop relationships that would shape her career.

“I really appreciated—and still appreciate—the opportunity to interact with other youths my age and build relationships with people who were not from my hometown or even my state," she says. “That was a good experience for me to be able to build those relationships and just meet people from other walks of life."

After earning a political science degree from Cedarville University in Ohio, Hauser worked for Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., and built a career that could have kept her in Washington. Instead, the relationships and sense of community she found through the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour guided her back to rural Pennsylvania.

“I thought, 'This isn't where I want to make my mark long-term,'" she says. “We need people who will work in D.C. and work on the Hill, but I realized that I wanted to have a more localized impact at the grassroots. Ultimately, moving back home and being at the co-op was a great avenue to do that."

After returning to Pennsylvania to work as a program manager with the Northern Tier Regional Planning and Development Commission, Hauser frequently collaborated with Tri-County on grant and economic development projects. Her work impressed then-Tri-County CEO Craig Eccher, who recruited her to the cooperative in 2017.

“She can read the room and is comfortable with hard chargers and the co-op culture," Eccher said at the time.

After leading economic development efforts and helping secure $64 million for the co-op's broadband subsidiary, Hauser became president and co-CEO in 2022.

She sees delegates from Tri-County's service territory heading to the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour just as she once did.

“I hope they go on this trip and want to work in a co-op or maybe go into politics or another field to affect their community in a positive way," she says. “The real hope is they move back into co-op territory in their adult life, become involved in their co-op and understand you can still trust your co-op in an age when you can't trust a whole lot.

“I think that's really important for young people to hear and know as they go into the working world and get involved in their communities."

The Treasurer

“I hadn't been to D.C. before. It was unusual to leave the county growing up," he says.

The Electric Cooperative Youth Tour led Johnson to seek a position on the Youth Consulting Board, now known as the Youth Leadership Council. Through the board, he gained a deeper understanding of how cooperatives operate and the role they play in developing future leaders. His fellow board members elected him president for the 1983-84 term.

This role gave Johnson opportunities to represent the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour delegates to co-op leaders across the country, including that audience of 10,000 at NRECA's 1984 annual meeting.

Steven Johnson credits NRECA's Electric Cooperative Youth Tour with shaping the leadership philosophy he uses as Kansas state treasurer today.

“It was a friendly audience," Johnson says. “They wanted to hear the message that we had from the Youth Consulting Board. They were kind enough to give a standing ovation at the end. So I felt pretty good standing at the top of the escalator as everybody was leaving. It was a significant moment to get to have that experience."

The experience reinforced Johnson's belief in the cooperative model and its ability to solve community challenges.

By the time he entered Kansas State University, where he later became student body president, he had fully embraced the cooperative way of doing business.

“When something goes wrong, sometimes we say, 'Well, the state, the school, the city should fix that for me.' The cooperative model reminds us that we are the state, the school or the city," Johnson says. “It's not for every solution, but the cooperative model is by definition a collaborative one and it has served its purpose well in problems that I have had the opportunity to address."

After careers in financial services and farming, Johnson entered politics in 2010 and was elected Kansas state treasurer in 2022. More than four decades after the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, he still applies lessons learned through the program.

“A lot of our job is keeping the trains on the tracks so that those local entities are able to operate," he says. “So it's very much a cooperative effort between levels of government."

The Traveler

“The most important capital you could ever visit is your state capital," Dossett says. “What happens at the state capital affects your day-to-day life much more. If you want to be involved and educated about public life, that's what you should be following."

Dossett's high-school English teacher required all students to submit an essay for the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour competition sponsored by Collinsville-based Verdigris Valley Electric Cooperative.

Dossett's essay earned her a spot as one of 58 delegates from 24 Oklahoma co-ops. For the native of Owasso—a town just north of Tulsa—the trip offered more than a chance to visit Washington. It broadened her understanding of Oklahoma.

“Where I'm from in Oklahoma is much more of a metro area than where a lot of my fellow students were from," she says. “They were from small towns and rural areas. It was definitely eye-opening and enriching to meet kids from all the way across the state, and getting to know a little bit more about the rest of Oklahoma."

The experience proved valuable as Dossett pursued opportunities far from home. She studied at Oxford University in England and later served in the Peace Corps in Cape Verde before discovering a passion for education—ironic given that Dossett, the daughter of public school educators, says she grew up with zero intention of following in their footsteps.

Returning to Oklahoma, she earned a master's degree and spent nearly 16 years teaching English as a second language before winning election to the Oklahoma Senate in 2020. The lessons she learned through the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour continue to influence her work as a legislator.

“We have a responsibility to not only represent our own constituents, first and foremost, but, especially in the Senate, you have to be capable of making good decisions for all of Oklahoma," she says.

She also credits electric cooperatives with helping young people understand how civic engagement works at the local and state levels.

“The electric cooperatives have a very strong presence at the Capitol," Dossett says. “They're there every day, making sure we're doing what needs to be done on behalf of their constituents. Their presence is very much needed and it's kind of funny how it's come full circle for me."