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Oks, a rising first-year at University of Oxford, and Williams, a rising sophomore at Columbia University, met in high school through Model UN and debate. Williams proclaimed that Oks is a \"savant when it comes to history and politics.\"

\"He can probably tell you the exact electoral totals and every candidate who ran and every presidential election since the beginning of American history,\" Williams said. As for himself, he said, politics is \"more of an interest than it is an obsession.\"

The two are known to test unconventional ideas. Previous plans have included a \"future bike\" with a camera so \"parents could watch their kids\" and Oks' 2017 mayoral run in his hometown of Ardsley, New York, for which Williams served as chief-of-staff.

\"I did run for mayor. I remember that. That was that was a disaster. That did not go well,\" Oks said.

\"PHOTO:
Mario Anzuoni/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Gravel speaks during his turn onstage at the Visible Vote '08 Presidential Forum, sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation in Hollywood, Aug. 9, 2007.
>

In terms of why they're running this campaign, Williams said, \"We're making a sort of point, especially to young people on the left, that your politics can be more than this, and that where Mike Gravel is now might be where the center of the party is in another decade.\"

\"[Gravel] was probably the furthest left senator when he was in Congress,\" Williams said. \"At that time, he was the only Democrat to support gay marriage, he was the only Democrat to support ending nuclear testing in the Pacific, to paying reparations to victims of our wars, to reading the Pentagon Papers in the Russian record.\"

While Oks and Williams supported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential race, they don't believe Sanders or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren are taking a strong enough stance on foreign policy.

\"Bernie and Warren aren't perfect. They are especially lacking on foreign policy and on being genuinely anti-imperialist, and you need someone calling that out,\" said Williams.

Still, Gravel, Oks and Williams all mentioned Sanders as part of their \"ideal ticket\" in the case Gravel does not win the nomination. Gravel told ABC he also supports Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, \"because she's got the courage to challenge the military industrial complex.\"

Initially, Gravel said, \"I was not running for president to be president; I was running for president to get into the debates.\"

But now, he said, he is running seriously as his teen advisers informed him it \"would help our efforts if you really said you're going to run for president.\"

\"PHOTO:
Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters, FILE
PHOTO: Former U.S. senator Mike Gravel talks to demonstrators at their camp at the Lindenplatz square in Zurich, Oct. 31, 2011.
>

\"I mean, we're wanting to win as seriously, as, you know, Andrew Yang or Seth Moulton,\" Williams claimed. \"Most of them in reality -- and they won't tell you this honestly -- they're running to raise their speaking fees, they're running to run for another office down the line, you know, they're not serious.\"

So far, Gravel has not made it into the debates. He was one of three candidates to not qualify for the first debates, which were held in late June, as he fell short of the 65,000-donor threshold. Oks said the campaign has over 40,000 donors.

Gabbard invited Gravel as her guest to the first debates, and while he couldn't attend due to surgery recovery, Oks and Williams went.

\"PHOTO:
Brynn Anderson/AP
PHOTO: Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders pauses while speaking during a forum on June 21, 2019, in Miami.
>

Despite missing the first round of debates, Gravel praised the \"kids.\" He said he speaks with them every day and joked sometimes he thinks \"they're just checking to make sure I'm still alive.\"

\"I have a sense of how precocious the two kids were. I refer to them as kids and that's not derogatory. That's honorary from my point of view because they truly are very talented. They know the issues up and down,\" Gravel said. \"I'm just proud to be associated with them, and obviously, they're proud to be associated with me.\"

Gravel has yet to attend an official campaign event in person due to his old age and limited mobility.

\"I'm reluctant to travel. I'm 89 years old. I use a cane,\" he said, chuckling. \"Well, I sit on my patio. And so I've got a patio campaign being conducted primarily by the kids.\"

If Gravel were to qualify for a debate in the future, however, he said he would most \"certainly\" attend in-person.

The campaign will make a big push to qualify for the July debate, but one thing is for certain: this venture has already proved much more successful than many may have thought for two teenagers.

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