James Talarico speaks on election night in Austin, Texas. Talarico won his U.S. Senate race by 12 percentage points overall, but if you look at just Generation Z, he won it by 60 points. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide title toggle title i Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Democrats have done well in recent elections when they win young voters by a margin of at least 20 points. On Tuesday, they surpassed Generation Z (those under 30) by nearly 50 points, according to exit polls. It is a striking change from 2024, when the party lost critical ground among young people. Long considered part of the Democratic base, voters under 30 turned toward Donald Trump, motivated by his promise to improve their economic prospects. But this week, the younger generation of voters issued a sharp rebuke to Republicans, giving Democrats and their message focused on change another chance at a time when many of them feel the American dream is out of reach. How Young Voters Powered Democrats to Victory Americans ages 18 to 29 have a history of lower turnout than older voters, and this year was no exception. Generation Z got 11% of the total vote on Tuesday. Where young Americans may have made the biggest difference, however, is on the margins of the House and Senate races, where Democrats swapped seats. The Texas Senate race is a key example. Democrat James Talarico won the state by 12 percentage points; however, if you look at just Generation Z, they won by 60 points. Explaining the massive shift since 2024 Assessing developments more broadly, Democrats argue that the party’s strong slate of candidates helped generate greater enthusiasm. But another motivating factor remains the strong opposition to Trump. Throughout his second term, Generation Z grew increasingly angry with the president, with some arguing that he failed to deliver on a number of central campaign promises, from pledging to lower prices and repeatedly promising “no new wars” to calling for a crackdown on federal corruption and the release of Epstein’s files. Much of that disappointment was reflected in exit polls. Economic issues were the main concern for a plurality of young people between 18 and 29 years old, at 43%, and these voters expressed widespread frustration with Trump’s handling of the issue. More than eight in 10 said Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions, and a similar percentage oppose his tariff strategy and decision to go to war with Iran. The Young Voters Trump Lost Early analysis from CIRCLE indicates that 15% of young people who backed Trump in 2024 voted for a Democratic House candidate in this year’s midterm elections. Democrats made gains with some young voters who backed Trump two years ago, including white men and Latino men, two blocs who narrowly voted Republican in 2024 and then voted blue on Tuesday by double digits. Democratic candidates also narrowed the margins among young rural voters and people without college degrees. Some of those gains may have been helped by young Trump voters who opted out of this election, but it’s unclear how many of them there were. How the election results broke down by age The midterm results underscore that neither of the two major parties owns Generation Z, according to John Della Volpe, a left-wing pollster who has extensively studied American youth politics. “The cohort of younger people in this cycle had a different set of experiences than the cohort of people from two years ago, or four years before,” he said. “Each candidate, each party has to earn their votes.” Della Volpe, who directs the Harvard Youth Poll, notes that in the last survey, released in October, there was a considerable enthusiasm gap between young Democrats and young Republicans. While half of Democrats said they definitely planned to vote, only a third of Republicans and less than a quarter of independents said the same. “I also think we shouldn’t read too much into what happened,” he added. “Clearly this is an important historic rebuke to the party in power, that’s obvious, but I think we need to more fully understand, in some ways, the contours of the electorate, who showed up and who didn’t.” By 2028, Gen Z and millennial voters will make up more than half of the electorate, a demographic shift with enormous implications for Democrats and the Republican Party. “Young adults can make a difference,” said Elizabeth Matto, director of the Center for Youth Political Participation at Rutgers University. “They care about politics. They can influence the outcome of elections. And they are a voting bloc worth paying attention to.”
