Gen Z and millennials are changing the rules on voting expectations — and the political landscape

Earlier this month, young people again defied stereotypes by turning out in droves to elect progressive jurist Janet Protasiewicz to the Wisconsin State Supreme Court. Their determination to advance more humanistic and equitable policies on issues from reproductive rights to gun control, immigration to climate change, racial justice to economic fairness, is creating a new normal: Young citizens willing to lift up their voices and their votes to bring this country’s practices in line with its principles. 

Wisconsin’s off-year spring Supreme Court election usually draws low enthusiasm and low participation. But this year, at the University of Wisconsin campuses in Eau Claire and Madison and across the state, students stood in line for hours to cast their ballots. As reported in The Washington Post, “In Eau Claire, a city with 77 voting wards, the highest turnout was in Ward 20, which covered the upper campus of the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire and residence halls. A total of 883 votes were cast and Protasiewicz got more than 87 percent of them. […] Four years earlier, during another state Supreme Court election, turnout in the same ward had totaled 158 people.” 

The outsized impact of young people in Wisconsin is only the latest evidence of a revolution in young voter engagement, following record turnouts in the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm elections. In each case, young people were critical in winning tight races in key battleground states.  

As the leader of NextGen America, the country’s largest youth vote organization, I’ve learned that while candidates matter a great deal, young voters are focused on the policies that will affect their lives and the direction of the country.

The clearest reason for Protasiewicz’s win is her strong position on reproductive freedom. With Wisconsin’s 1849 abortion law, which would make it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of pregnancy, set to resurface in the courts, the stakes could hardly have been higher. But, throughout her campaign, Judge Janet staunchly and consistently affirmed her belief in the right to abortion access and care. This position, among other key issues like protecting voting rights, motivated young people to turn out at extraordinary levels.

On top of that, older millennials, who are now exiting the youth-vote demographic and turning middle-aged, are defying trends and aren’t breaking for conservative candidates. They remain steadfastly committed to their progressive views, often remaining as progressive as in their younger years. With 70 million eligible voters, Gen Z and millennials now make up the largest, most diverse and progressive generational voting bloc in our nation’s history. 

 “The challenge that Republicans have is that their current MAGA values are misaligned, to put it lightly, with the values that these two generations hold, John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics and author of a newly released book on younger voters, told Politico. “What we’re talking about is the impact of two generations with similar values who feel the urgency in America to change things, and that’s an incredibly powerful voting bloc.” 

Politico noted that Della Volpe’s latest survey indicates that “a strong majority of millennials and Gen Z voters are unlikely to vote for a 2024 presidential candidate who holds different views than them on abortion, gun safety, climate, systemic racism and the events of Jan. 6, 2021. Of the Gen Z voters who took part in the survey, only 22 percent self-identified as conservative (9 percent) or conservative-leaning (13 percent). More than twice that many, 46 percent, identified as progressive (26 percent) or progressive-leaning (20 percent).”

As we have seen in the past three election cycles, young voters are overwhelmingly rejecting the harmful ideologies of the Republican Party, and simultaneously, pulling the Democratic party toward justice. In the process, they are charting a more progressive trajectory for the nation. Whether it’s our reproductive and gender rights, addressing the climate crisis, rectifying income inequality, quashing gun violence, or upholding our democratic values, young people believe that we can do so much better.

Our true remedy lies not in one candidate, nor in one election cycle, but in the boldness, the impatience, and the imagination of young people, who will hold the feet of our politicians and office-holders to the fire and to transform our politics and government.

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is president of NextGen America.