DAHLONEGA, Ga. — It's heard every election season: your voice is your vote.
It's a reminder that behind every vote is real a person who had a reason to cast their ballot.
As the race for the White House heats up, campaigns will be spending serious money on polling and staff to try to decipher the Georgia electorate.
But nothing beats a face-to-face conversation. Each week, 11Alive's political show, The Georgia Vote, goes one-on-one with a potential voter to hear, in their own words, what's on their mind.
Meet Sam Zamarripa: businessman, vineyard operator, and former state legislator
Zamarripa owns and operates Doghobble Wine Farm in Dahlonega. A multi-year project, it's scheduled to open to the public the week of June 7.
Before starting Doghobble, Zamarripa built a career in finance and investing. In 2003, he became one of Georgia's first Latino elected officials, serving in the state senate until 2007.
"My father is from Mexico, and I grew up with a Mexican-American identity," he said. "I was the first person who would admit it. I was very proud of it."
Zamarripa said campaigns sometimes miss the mark when attempting to engage Latino voters.
"Just saying 'hola' is not enough," he said. "You've got to understand the transition of people, the assimilation of people, from immigrant status all the way into the sort of blended American like me."
His biggest political issue:
Zamarripa said he's paying close attention to many issues in the leadup to the November election, but one looms larger than the rest.
"I'm very interested in women's rights and reproductive rights. I'm very interested in a good resolution towards immigration. I'm very interested in our energy policy. I'm very interested in our global policies in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East," said Zamarripa. "But I don't think of the election as voting for one resolution of those things or another. I really am voting for character and moderation because I don't think there is a slogan answer to any of the problems I just mentioned."
His biggest worry:
Zamarripa said that, in his view, many of the biggest political issues "are not new. It's just today they seem to have a little more tension in them."
"When I think about what really worries more than the issues, it's cynicism," he continued. "It's the idea that we've reached a point where we can't believe anything or trust anything."
"It's easier to be cynical than it is to be productive or to contribute or to resolve something," said Zamarripa. "Cynicism is like a viral intellectual disease."
What he's optimistic about:
"I'm optimistic about smart people," said Zamarripa. "I'm even optimistic about our exploration of space right now because I think those things raise different questions. The Hubble Telescope that showed us those pictures recently, I think that if you're a thinking person, I think if you're a philosophical person, and you look at those photographs, you go 'wow, Are we asking all the right questions?'"
"At the end of the day, I am 100% an optimist, and I fall in the category of believing in the good nature of humanity," he added.
Watch our Voice of the Voter segment during The Georgia Vote Sundays at 11 a.m. on WXIA.