For many Gen Zers in Ohio, this coming November will be their first time voting in the presidential election. Kent State University students say they are ready to have their voices heard, especially on social issues.
The Pew Research Center defines Generation Z as people born between 1997 and 2012. “Zoomers” grew up in the Internet age, but they also experienced the 2008 recession, rapid climate change and an escalate in school violence.
These events shaped the way Kent State University senior Zach Graves views politics.
“We grew up with shootings happening daily, weekly and monthly in our generation across the country,” Graves told me. “I’m looking for someone who is passionate about making a difference on this issue.”
My analysis of the data shows that he is one of over 1,125,000 Gen Z voters in Ohio, which is about 15% of all voters in the state.
KSU, like most college campuses, is a more liberal bubble in Republican-leaning Portage County. Portage is known as a key county that has voted for both Republicans and Democrats for decades.
However, each of the several dozen students we talked to told us that social reasons pushed them to the polls.
“Abortion – I just think it should be a woman’s decision,” freshman Olivia Drago said.
Most of the students we spoke to cited reproductive rights and gender equality as the most vital issues they cared about.
“As an LGBTQ member, I’m definitely looking for someone who will support me and many of my friends,” junior Zoe Griffith said.
According to them, Generation Z is the most progressive generation when it comes to social issues Pew research. But that doesn’t mean they only vote for Democrats.
The expansive majority of Gen Z voters in Ohio are not affiliated with a party or have a party affiliation on the voter registration roll. This may be because most registered Ohioans do not vote in primary elections, in which case the vote usually falls on a party’s side. Or voters could be like freshman Viera Fink, who just registered to vote and found that Gen Z may care more about specific issues than party labels.
“I’m more of an independent person, I take things on a case-by-case basis,” Fink said.
And like older generations like Boomers, Zoomers also care about the economy. But Griffith said it was because of the unique difficulties her generation faced.
“Someone to help students, because I know that for some people, financial issues are a factor in their decision to go to college,” Griffith added.
Other issues on the minds of voters include health care costs, protecting the environment, ensuring America remains a democracy and helping those struggling with poverty.
“Someone who will help support lower-income communities,” sophomore Isaac Britton said. “I just want to make sure that everyone in America has an equal fighting chance.”
Once voters told us what they wanted, we asked for anything else they could think of. Not a single person mentioned immigration or concerns about immigration. This is where Generation Z seems to differ from their older counterparts, e.g Pew research found that over 60% of voters overall believe immigration policy is vital to their vote.
According to Pew Research, another major problem for older Americans is violent crime. When we asked several students about violent crime, they explained that crime could be solved by addressing other social issues and promoting gun safety laws.
Getting the vote
How can campaigns target this demographic?
For Vice President Kamala Harris, it’s social media and sharing her ideologies.
KamalaHQ, the vice president’s campaign account on TikTok, is clearly aimed at attracting younger Americans. He has 4.8 million followers, 189.8 million total likes and hundreds of millions of views. Some Gen Zers told us the meme campaign helped them learn about Harris’ beliefs.
She recently appeared on the women’s-oriented podcast “Call Her Daddy,” which has garnered approximately 625 million views on YouTube. It’s unclear how many listens it has on other streaming platforms.
But a meme can work.
Survey conducted by Harvard Kennedy School Policy Institute found that 64% of youthful voters say they support Harris and 32% are voting for former President Donald Trump.
By gender, youthful women are more likely to identify as progressive Gallup poll. Harvard found the same association – the likely number of women voting was 70% for Harris and 23% for Trump.
Gen Z male voters still followed the liberal trend, but not as strongly. Likely male voters are 53% Harris and 36% Trump.
But Trump is still fighting for youthful votes.
He participates in online celebrity podcasts and video game channels that primarily target youthful men.
The former president recently joined comedian Theo Von for his podcast and YouTube channel, and the video has racked up 13 million views. It’s unclear how many listens it has on other streaming platforms.
Trump’s official non-meme-based TikTok account has 11.8 million followers, 65.7 million likes and hundreds of millions of views. However, it is not addressed to Generation Z.
Can Generation Z influence the election results?
Gen Z is a growing voting bloc, but there are many unknowns as this is the first presidential election for much of the generation. It all depends on turnout.
Half a million people have already cast ballots in Ohio since early voting began on October 8. New state data shows that the majority of ballots cast are from voters 65 and older, with the fewest coming from voters 18 to 24 years ancient. .
However, all the students we talked to agree on one thing. Young people have the power to change the country if they actually turn out to vote.
“I think Gen Z is a really engaged group of people,” Graves said. “We just want our voices to be heard as often as possible.”
Follow WEWS House reporter Morgan Trau on X AND Facebook.
This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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