{Photograph} courtesy of Michael Brent IV
Forward of this yr’s presidential election, younger voters are gearing up for the polls in November However for Michael Brent IV, civic engagement is a year-round venture. Brent, 21, is a senior at Clark Atlanta College finding out political science with a focus in public coverage. He additionally serves as president of the CAU Democrats—a corporation that promotes political consciousness and engagement on campus and helps register college students to vote.
In the course of the summer season, Brent was a discipline organizer for RISE, a student- and youth-led nonprofit that helps school college students construct political energy. He was capable of go to folks the place he was and attempt to register them to vote. Nonetheless, what he discovered was that many college students “simply weren’t excited.”
Traditionally, youth voter turnout has been low in the US, however the numbers have elevated lately in Georgia. Within the 2020 presidential election, a record-breaking 51 % of registered voters aged 18 to 29 turned out—a modest determine in comparison with the general turnout of 67 % however nonetheless a pointy improve from 2016, when solely 37 % of younger voters forged a poll.
This November, everyone seems to be questioning – will they be efficient once more? Though the youth vote was essential to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, many Gen Z voters have turn into more and more outspoken concerning the points they care about most, from the surroundings and girls’s rights to immigration and well being care. Maybe no concern has infected American youth greater than the continued Israeli assault on Gaza, which many younger voters accuse President Biden of supporting regardless of Palestinian civilian deaths. Within the spring, school college students arrange protest camps on campuses throughout the nation, resulting in lots of of arrests and a heated debate over free speech in college areas. Biden’s resolution to drop out of the 2024 race, and Kamala Harris’ rise to the highest of the Democratic ticket, have shifted polling on the keenness of youth voters, however some younger voters have mentioned they could select to not vote in any respect.
When he meets younger individuals who inform him they plan to sit down out, Brent urges them to contemplate what it would imply in the long term. “Do not do it based mostly on how you’re feeling,” he says. “I really feel some ways. I do not really feel like getting up. Some days I do not really feel like going out. And there have been days in the summertime once I did not wish to go register folks to vote due to the warmth.”
To fight that disinvestment, Brent encourages younger voters to get civically engaged past the presidential election. “You do not prefer it, however, , it is definitely worth the work,” he mentioned. “It is good work, and it’ll result in one thing.”
This text appeared in our November 2024 concern.
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