GEN Z LOWDOWN

Democrats struggle to harness enthusiasm of Gen Z voters

Naina Agrawal-Hardin is only 17, but she feels like her generation is running out of time.

Naina Agrawal-Hardin is only 17, but she feels like her generation is running out of time.

“With each of those different events that are universal across the American Gen Z experience, we’ve seen our government put profits above the well-being of people and of the common good. … We have no choice but to demand better of our government.”
While Gen Z voters are often progressive, youth activists and organizers are not yet sold on a party many feel does not listen to them and is unsure of how to communicate with them.
Two decades’ worth of climate inaction, mass shootings, widening income inequality and ballooning tuition costs, expedited by a triple threat of health, economic and racial crises this year, has shaped Gen Z’s political identity.
Seventy percent of Gen Z survey respondents told Pew they want an activist government. Only 14 percent believe the U.S. is better than all other countries, and just 22 percent of eligible Gen Z voters said they planned to cast a vote for President Trump in November.
“Republicans are in very deep trouble when it comes to appealing to young people,”
only 27 percent of Gen Z respondents identified as Republicans, while Democratic Party identification stood at 45 percent, with 28 percent of those calling themselves “strong Democrats.”
In NextGen’s polling, 56 percent of young voters disagreed with the statement: “The more I hear about Joe Biden, the more I like him.”