Increasingly active younger voters liberalize US electorate
By Reid Wilson - 05/15/21 05:00 PM EDT
President Biden, the oldest man ever elected to the White House, won on the strength of an emerging cohort of younger voters who are increasingly finding their political voice — and growing their influence in an electorate in which older voters are losing sway.
More members of the millennial generation and Generation Z voted in the 2020 presidential election than in any prior election, according to several studies of the electorate that have taken place in recent months.
And for the first time in American history, a majority of eligible voters under the age of 30 cast a ballot in an election.
As the oldest millennials creep toward their 40th birthdays and more members of Generation Z age into the electorate, the data show those two groups became substantially more powerful within the electorate, as occasional voters cast ballots more regularly and first-time voters began their voting careers in greater proportions.
“Basically 40 percent of the electorate are essentially Gen Z and millennials and some young Xers in there,” said John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics who helped the Biden campaign survey younger voters. “They are replacing the Silent Generation and the Baby Boomers. For every one of those who are exiting the electorate, they are being replaced by someone more progressive.”
About 21 million voters between the ages of 18 and 29 cast a ballot in 2020, up from 18 million in 2016, according to data from the Democratic firm TargetSmart. And 23 million voters between the ages of 30 and 39 cast ballots, an increase of almost 3 million from the last presidential contest.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/553634-increasingly-active-younger-voters-liberalize-us-electorate
