HOUSTON – Every election cycle, there will be people who will vote for the first time in America.
Many have reached the age of 18, where they can legally participate in the civic process. For many others, the action is even more special as their efforts and work to become an American comes to fruition in a symbolic and special act.
This is where Houston Life correspondent Melanie Camp falls. Camp was able to vote for the first time since becoming an American citizen in 2022.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be as emotional as it was,” Camp said.
Originally from Perth in Western Australia, Camp came to the United States in 2008, where she started working at a local newspaper in the Los Angeles area. She moved to Buffalo, New York in 2020 to work on a lifestyle show before moving to Houston and starting at Houston Life in 2022. She said being able to vote for the first time as an American is a special moment for her.
“I am dedicated to being an American,” she said. “First I had visas, then I had my green card, it’s a whole process to become a citizen and making that choice that this is my country and I’m an American, and now being able to have a say, over the years even though I felt American, I felt like I couldn’t have a say.”
Camp said she thought a lot about the people that came before that fought for her right to vote.
“As a woman, once upon a time I wouldn’t have been able to vote. So that was first, I thought about all the women before that fought so hard for the right to have their voice heard and knowing that I could step in that day and at least have my say, no matter what the outcome is I get to have my say,” she said.