By ALEXANDRA MIDDLEWOOD
Insight Kansas
With a coveted Taylor Swift endorsement rolling out earlier this month, everyone seems to be talking about the engagement of young voters this election cycle.
Young people — typically, this is measured by those under the age of 35 — are often touted as apathetic and not caring about politics.
But political science research suggests this assertion couldn’t be further from the truth. Young people are very interested in political issues, they’re just less willing to engage in mainstream forms of political participation like voting and joining political parties.
They’ve replaced these traditional forms of democratic participation with alternative approaches like social movements, rallies, protests, and consumer boycotts.
The 2022 election cycle in Kansas shows us, perhaps even more than previous generations, that young people are issue voters. They’re less mobilized by candidates and parties but they are mobilized strongly by salient political issues.
In 2022, the issue was the fall of Roe v. Wade and Kansas’ constitutional amendment on abortion access.
The week following the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the average age of new voter registrations was 25. During that same week in 2020, the average age of new registrants was 36.
This increase in voter registration among young people led to their higher than normal turnout in the primary election that year.
37.4% of registered voters under the age of 40 cast a ballot in the 2022 primary election.
However, if we compare turnout to the 2024 presidential primary in March of this year, young voter turnout drops significantly. Only 1.5% of all registrants under the age of 40 cast a ballot.
In total, only 7.1% of registered voters turned out in this election, but the age disparities are stark. For comparison, 17.4% of registered voters aged 65 and older turned out.
Even among registered Democrats and Republicans, turnout was 20.1% for those 65 and older and only 2.3% for those under 40.
This suggests that young voters are not necessarily translating strong issue preferences into partisan vote choice, but when issues are directly on the ballot they turn out in droves.
Whichever candidate or party can overcome this youthful rejection of traditional political participation by finding ways to connect themselves directly with specific policy issues will have the potential to sway every election.
Academic scholarship on civic engagement points to four factors that increase political participation: trust (in government and others), resources (time, money, knowledge), engagement (psychological engagement, attitudes, efficacy), and invitations (from activists, elected officials, parties, candidates).
Historically, young people have had the lowest levels on all of these indicators.
But the tide seems to be turning. Nationally, young people had higher than average turnout in the 2018 and 2020 elections. Here in Kansas, they had higher than average turnout in 2022.
These higher turnout levels were in direct response to candidates and parties targeting young voters and their policy preferences.
Young people represent a significant portion of the electorate and as they become a larger share of eligible voters, their influence on elections and policy decisions only grows.
Their engagement has the potential to shift political priorities and electoral outcomes.
Don’t count out Kansas’ young voters.
Note: All Kansas voter registration data is from IKE Lab, a project affiliated with Wichita State University focused on data and analysis about Kansas elections.
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Alexandra Middlewood, PhD is an associate professor and chair of the Political Science Department at Wichita State University.