[Banging pro-choice drums has a distinctly positive effect, but
Democrats have to address the economy, too. ]
[[link removed]]

HOW TO TURN OUT YOUNG VOTERS IN NOVEMBER  
[[link removed]]


 

Harold Meyerson
September 20, 2022
The American Prospect
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Banging pro-choice drums has a distinctly positive effect, but
Democrats have to address the economy, too. _

John Fetterman, Democratic candidate for Senate, greets supporters at
Montgomery County Community College, in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania,
September 11, 2022., BASTIAAN SLABBERS/NURPHOTO VIA AP

 

By the evidence of every known survey, today’s young Americans are
the leftmost generation in many decades, perhaps in our entire
history. But will they vote in sufficient numbers this fall to block a
Republican takeover of the Senate and the House?

The conventional wisdom is that their pro-choice sentiments may drive
them to the polls, but their economic challenges may either keep them
away or even move some of them into the Republican column. A new poll
[[link removed]] by
Hart Research of nine states with closely competitive Senate contests,
which oversampled voters under 40 (it polled more than 800 of them),
shows, however, that the Democrats can still campaign profitably on
the economy, inflation notwithstanding.

Even though Republicans outnumbered Democrats in the poll’s overall
sample, young voters in those states favored the Democratic Senate
candidates by a 57 percent to 29 percent margin. The top three most
important issues to those voters were “prices and inflation,” with
55 percent highlighting that concern; “wages and salaries that keep
up with the cost of living,” with 47 percent; and “abortion,”
with 43 percent.

The poll then teased out themes from that “wages and salaries”
issue. Asked whether companies or workers had too much power today
over the other, or whether their power was roughly balanced, 79
percent of young voters said it was the companies that had too much
power, versus the 7 percent who said it was workers and the 14 percent
who said the relationship was balanced. Seventy-seven percent of young
voters said they’d prefer a pro-union candidate, while 23 percent
preferred an anti-union candidate. After hearing a description of the
PRO Act, which is the latest iteration of congressional legislation
making it easier to join or form unions, 64 percent of young voters
said they’d back a Democrat who supports the act, while just 22
percent said they’d back a Republican PRO Act opponent.

Singling out swing voters among the young, the way to their hearts,
and to get them to the polls, Hart Research concludes, is to emphasize
such messages as raising wages and salaries (which 63 percent of those
young swing voters say is an “extremely strong reason to support a
Democratic candidate”), and making sure that workers are not
“punished or even fired” for speaking out about problems on the
job (68 percent).

In other words, abortion is still a crucial issue for Democrats to
stress, but there’s also some economic messaging, despite inflation,
that will help turn out the young.

Coincidentally, today is the publication date of an important book
aimed chiefly at progressive readers that offers a sharp analysis of
the voter mobilization campaigns that enabled the Democrats to win in
2020, with particular emphasis on what worked and what didn’t in
minority communities. Edited by Linda Burnham, Max Elbaum, and Maria
Poblet, with essays by a host of movement activists and
analysts, _Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins
Elections _is the best how-to guide to come out in recent years, at a
moment when empirically based how-to guides have never been more
important.

_HAROLD MEYERSON is editor at large of The American Prospect. His
email is [email protected].  Follow @HaroldMeyerson
[[link removed]]_

* elections
[[link removed]]
* youth vote
[[link removed]]
* youth issues
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]

Manage subscription
[[link removed]]

Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]