Young people voted in record-breaking numbers in 2018 and according to our recent poll with HIT Strategies, Millennial and Generation Z voters are more than excited to vote in the 2020 primaries. The question is: what are candidates doing to engage the largest voting bloc in the country?

In our poll of 1,000 young people, 66% of registered voters said they were extremely likely to vote in their state’s primary. This level of excitement to vote creates a massive political force that could define the outcome of the election. Despite this level of energy around the primaries among young voters, there is a lackluster performance from campaigns to effectively reach out to young people.

64% of registered young voters have not received a text message from a campaign, 67% have not talked to a campaign on the phone, and 69% have not talked to a campaign at their home. 

This poll is a clarion call to the candidates: young people are ready to engage, but the youth vote needs to be earned and not taken for granted. If candidates want to win the youth vote, they need to do a better job of reaching out and engaging with young people. Not fully engaging young people in the primaries could prove to be a huge misstep that the Democratic presidential candidate can’t recover from during the general.

As we all await the results of the “first in the nation” primary, we’ve been excited to watch youth organizing partner New Hampshire Youth Movement make their voices heard. And with Super Tuesday around the corner, we can’t wait to see how network organizations turn up and turn out. 

We’ll have more polling results to share with you over the next week. 

To building young people’s political power,

Sarah Audelo
Executive Director