Last election cycle, Democrats were able to capture the trifecta of the White House, the U.S. House, and the U.S. Senate by thin margins. On this week’s episode of The Brief, hosts Markos Moulitsas and Kerry Eleveld break down the fragile coalition—young people, people of color, and LGBTQ folks—Democrats pulled together to eke out victory in 2020 and why losing just one of those groups could spell doom for their prospects in 2022 and 2024. In particular, a surge in turnout among young voters (aged 18-29) made a huge difference in deciding the presidential election and several competitive downballot races in 2020. Guest Ben Wessel, former executive director of NextGen America and a passionate advocate for increasing the youth vote, joined to offer his thoughts on how and why we can get more young Americans involved as reliable voters and activists.

With President Joe Biden now well past his first 100 days in office, Eleveld noted that there has been “a little bit of a cooling off as … jobs and infrastructure drags on … a number of things like that, that a little bit of the honeymoon period is starting to wane a touch.” Moulitsas and Eleveld hesitated to weigh in with their predictions about election results in 2022 and are looking to see how well Democrats can retain crucial portions of their voting base. A big part of this will include how they conduct outreach to young voters, especially voters of color.

Wessel joined the show at this point to provide perspective into how Democrats can continue courting youth voters. Young people are getting more and more politically engaged and active, which offers a significant opportunity for Democrats. It’s also worrying Republicans—and many of their voter suppression tactics, whether directly or not, target and will impact younger voters. In the last election cycle, young voters made a huge difference, Eleveld noted, “accounting for 14% of the vote last year.”

Despite attempts to silence younger people or suppress their votes, Wessel remains enthusiastic about the potential for members of the millennial and Gen Z generations to continue pushing important political conversations and holding elected officials accountable by making their voices heard at the ballot box. In fact, 2020 demonstrated this well, he noted:

Wessel also predicts that millennials and young voters will surpass boomers in terms of voter turnout within the next few years:

With these massive shifts happening, corporations are taking notice as well. As Wessel explains, young people now expect large companies like Coca-Cola to make statements on social issues or help register voters. “As a political movement we often forget that corporate social responsibility can be one of our best legislative tools,” he added. “It’s a good way to move some of these swing legislators, who won’t listen to the people, but who will listen to their corporate benefactors.” He feels optimistic but recognizes that corporations have let millennials down many times before.

Eleveld noted how these corporations are marketing to these young people and young voters and want to attract diverse talent to fill their own ranks. Yet at the same time, she noted, they give a lot of money to Republican lawmakers. “How do we hold them accountable for talking out of both sides of their mouths?”

“Corporate America is going to do what’s best for America. Right now, they’ve decided that they [play] both sides,” Wessel replied. “I don’t expect them to do anything that’s not profit-seeking … it’s a matter of young people coming in and changing policies.”

Moulitsas worried about the unpredictability of young voters and wondered how to ensure that young voters are a reliable constituency and aren’t lured away by third-party candidates.

Wessel thinks that part of living in the information age and having experienced so much generational trauma means that younger people aren’t necessarily going to be dependable if their elected officials don’t deliver, no matter which party they belong to. “Part of the reason is that they’ve never seen Republicans or Democrats or anybody deliver for them,” Wessel opined. Having lived through 9/11, crippling student debt, several recessions, and a pandemic, he believes younger people are less likely to vote strictly along party lines because they don’t have any good feelings around a specific party.

Another issue that remains is elected officials, including Biden, dragging their feet on certain issues that disproportionately impact young people and young people of color—such as student loan debt. Wessel expressed frustration, joking that government officials “could just press the delete key” to cancel millions of dollars of this debt with no detrimental effect to the economy. Eleveld cited polling that shows between 65% and 75% support for cancelling student debt among young people of color. “It’s one of the smartest and easiest ways to close the racial wealth gap in this country,” Wessel agreed.

As we look towards 2022 and 2024, there are so many important strategies we can employ to ensure that young voters continue to be able to express their voices. Many are simple fixes, including making mail-in ballots easier to obtain and automatic voter registration. Wessel emphasized the importance of registering young voters, noting the millions of Americans who turn 18 every year and aren’t even reached out to or informed about registering to vote.

Young voters are the future and will likely make up a larger and larger portion of the Democratic base in the years to come. Wessel cited the youth turnout for Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, as exit polls estimate around 70% of young voters who voted in January’s special election in Georgia voted for Ossoff and Warnock.

In terms of retaining young voters and other voters who may have only been barely swayed to vote for Biden in 2020, Moulitsas, Eleveld, and Wessel urged Democrats to be louder and bolder about taking credit for their accomplishments, lest they be co-opted by Republicans or come off as a party that is unable to get anything done. “For Democrats, it’s not enough to be loosely associated with a lot of the ideals that millennials and Gen Z voters like … some of those people got to the polls simply because Donald Trump scared the living crap out of them,” said Eleveld.

You can watch this week’s episode below:

YouTube Video

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