High Young Voter Turnout in Pivotal US Midterm Elections; Youth Prefer Democrats Over Republicans

GG News Bureau

Washington, 11th Nov. Young voters, including first-time voters, turned out in large numbers this Tuesday to vote for Democrats, which many experts believe is the reason for the ruling party’s better-than-expected performance under President Joe Biden.

While the vote for the Senate is extremely close, the Republicans, led by former president Donald Trump, have made some progress in the House of Representatives.

The Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, have made some progress in the House of Representatives, but the Senate vote is close.

Democrats are trying to maintain control of the Senate, the upper chamber of Congress. Prior to Tuesday’s election, the Senate was split 50-50, but Democrats maintained control thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’ casting vote.

While Republicans have won 210 of the 435 House seats, President Biden’s Democratic Party has won 192. According to US media outlets, Republicans have won 48 seats in the race for the 100-member Senate, while Democrats have won 46.

Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) from the prestigious Tufts University said on Thursday that it estimates that 27 per cent of youth (ages 18-29) cast a ballot in 2022, making this the midterm election with the second-highest youth voter turnout in almost three decades.

“We also estimate that youth turnout was even higher in some battleground states,” it said.

CIRCLE also estimates that the aggregate youth voter turnout in a group of nine electorally competitive states for which exit poll data is available – Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – was 31%. These are preliminary estimates of youth voter turnout, which could change in the coming days.

After hovering around 20% turnout in midterm elections since the 1990s, young people shifted that trend in 2018 and are expected to maintain it in 2022, with more than a quarter of young people voting.

“Youth are increasing their electoral participation, leading movements, and making their voices heard on key issues that affect their communities,” it said.

Another exit poll found that young people supported the Democrats more. According to the Edison Research National Election Pool exit poll, the Democrats received 63% of the national youth vote for the US House of Representatives, while the Republicans received 35%.

“That’s almost identical to 2020, when youth preferred Democrats to Republicans by 62 per cent to 36 per cent, and a small shift in favour of the Republicans from the previous midterm in 2018, the youth vote between Democrats and Republicans was 67 per cent to 32 per cent—which was the largest margin ever for Democrats among young voters,” it said.

In his nearly two years in office, Biden, the oldest President in US history, has taken several steps to protect the interests of youth. The most important are his decisions regarding student debt.

Surprisingly, according to this exit poll data, youth ages 18-29 were the only age group in which the Democrats received a strong majority. Voters aged 30-44 split their votes nearly evenly, 51% to 47% for Democrats and 47% for Republicans, while older voters favored Republicans.

According to the survey, in recent years, young people of color, particularly Black and Asian youth, have shown extraordinary support for Democrats, while white youth’s vote choice has been more evenly split.

“That was again the case in 2022: 89 per cent of Black youth and 68 percent of Latino youth voted for a Democratic House candidate. Among white youth, the vote was 58 per cent for the Democrats and 40 per cent for the Republicans,” it said.

According to CIRCLE, in close races decided by a few percentage points, young voters’ double-digit vote margin for Democrats can swing a race in which older voters backed the Republican candidate.

For instance, in the Pennsylvania Senate race, where Democrat John Fetterman won by a slim three per cent margin, youth ages 18-29 years preferred Fetterman 70 per cent to 28 per cent compared to 55 per cent to 42 per cent among voters aged 30-44, with voters over 45 preferring Republican candidate Dr Oz, it said.