The 2020 Youth Vote

What the Shifting Makeup of the Country Means for Future Elections

December 16, 2020, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET

#YouthVote

We're hosting an event at the Center for American Progress! You're invited to join Generation Progress and the Center for American Progress for a timely and critical discussion about what motivated youth voter turnout and how vital young people are to campaigning and the future of progressive policies in the United States. Check it out:

Panelists:

• Malik Hubbard, Senior Advisor, NextGen America
• Abby Kiesa, Deputy Director, Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)
• Preston Mitchum, Policy Director, URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity
• Jennifer Nwachukwu, Counsel for Voting Rights Project and James Byrd Jr. Center to Stop Hate, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law

Moderator:

• Brent J. Cohen, Executive Director, Generation Progress

If you have questions for our panel, please submit them on Twitter using the hashtag #YouthVote.

With the backdrop of racial justice uprisings, a pandemic, and an economic crisis, this year’s election was one of the most consequential in United States history.

Despite, or perhaps even because of, these challenges, initial data suggest that young people overcame voter suppression-oriented disinformation and turned out to vote at or near record numbers in the 2020 election. Not only that, but Millennials and Generation Z appear to have played a significant role in determining election outcomes. Preliminary data from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University estimate that 52 to 55 percent of youth voted in 2020. Young voters’ impact—especially youth of color’s overwhelming support for progressive platforms—was decisive in key races across the country.

It is time that young voters are seen as the crucial constituency that they are and retire once and for all the worn-out narrative that young people are too disengaged to vote.

December 16, 2020
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. ET

This event will be live captioned at americanprogress.org/livecaptioning.

Closed-captioned-enabled video will be posted following the conclusion of the event.