after a long election and days of
meticulous vote counting
here's what we know a record-breaking
159.8 million americans voted in the
2020 election
and a record-breaking number of those
votes went to president-elect joe biden
who received over 78 million votes
roughly 5.5 million more
than donald trump and young people
played a significant role
in both of those records nbc news exit
polls tell us that 65
of those between the ages of 18 and 24
voted for biden
11 more than any other age group and in
states like georgia and pennsylvania
young voters proved to be key to biden's
success
this election these young voters made up
nine percent of all voters but as
generation z
who's currently between the ages of 8
and 23 grows up their
impact is sure to be even greater here's
how generation z
left their mark on the 2020 election
one big variable in many of these states
that we've gone to
is the young vote one of the key
questions in this election is
is the role of the younger voter the
young people
on both sides that would be one of the
most important stories of this election
this election is going to be my first i
just turned 18 years old this will be
the first time i am voting this was my
first
presidential election this is the first
election that i have been old enough to
vote in
this was my first presidential election
voting is the most important thing we
can do and i'm so excited as an 18 year
old and as a member
of the youth i can finally have a say in
our democracy i've been doing
demographic analysis about the changing
american electorate for two decades
we're looking at 53 to 55
of registered 18 to 29 year olds appear
to have voted
that may be the highest ever recorded
both generation z
and millennials are voting generations
the preliminary data says in fact this
was the election with the highest
turnout rate
of young people that we've ever seen
rosenberg says that this historic
turnout of young voters was caused by a
perfect storm of motivating factors
it was the economic and physical
dislocation
of covid it was climate change it was
the protests that we saw
this spring and summer which really
turned huge numbers of
young people into political activism for
the first time
and it was the gun violence movement
that you know came out of parkland
number of things that appeared to be
driving young people
level of participation and level of
excitement about the campaign
it wasn't joe biden though they
certainly liked joe biden overall
they were voting more against donald
trump than they
were for joe biden racial justice and
systemic racism
was a top top issue for young people and
this is reflected in the fact that more
than 80 percent of young people
supported the racial justice movement
that happened earlier this year
indeed the black lives matter movement
has been credited for inspiring
vast numbers of young democrats to
register to vote in early june
millions of people took to the streets
to protest the police killing of george
floyd in minneapolis minnesota
during the first half of that month 1.1
million americans registered to vote
a majority of them democrats upwards of
three-quarters of young people
regardless of party affiliation
supported black lives matter protests so
for this particular demographic that was
hugely important
and while young people have long had a
reputation for leaning left
rosenberg says gen z's political
preference is not a passing phase
there's a great myth in life that young
people are liberal when they're young
and then they're more conservative when
they get older and that's actually not
true
20 years ago 18 to 29 year olds were 50
50 for bush and gore
it was dead even there wasn't a
democratic lien to young people
in that era and now there's sort of a
substantial
democratic lien in every election by
between 10 15
and then up to 35 points there's been a
structural shift
where young people are much more
democratic than they used to be this
structural shift may be because of how
young people see issues as
interconnected
the issues that matter most to young
voters defeating the coronavirus
jobs in the economy climate change but
what's interesting to me
in reviewing all of this this research
and listening to younger voters is that
they recognize the intersectionality
all of these issues are interwoven
young voters tend to take a more
progressive attitude
towards addressing each one of these
issues
cohen adds that another cause for the
shift in party loyalty has to do with
changing demographics
the millennial generation was the most
diverse generation in the history of the
united states
and then generation z came and
generation z is the most diverse
generation in the history of the united
states because of the changing
ethnicity and demography of the youngest
age cohort
in the population becoming more racially
and ethnically diverse and therefore a
little bit more democratic and i think
you're seeing that play out in voter
preference
when you start to desegregate the young
vote based on race you see different
voting trends
to be sure young white voters
disproportionately supported trump
53 of those between the ages of 18 and
29 voted for him
but much greater percentages of black
and latino voters who make up larger
shares of their generations than ever
before
voted for biden we spoke with young
first-time voters across the country
and here's what they had to say about
the issues they care about
i voted for trump because basically
everyone from monroe county were real
big trump fans because i think trump
deserves it knowing that we can't face
four more years of a trump presidency is
what really galvanizes me
to not only bring myself out to vote but
my communities as well
i feel like he speaks for us the ones
that don't make a whole lot of money i
feel like he's there for us and that's
why
i vote for trump i think that this
election was a referendum on the last
four years
from racial justice to health care
to the state of our planet there's a lot
at stake right now
the biggest issue for me that i focused
on while voting was
immigration everything about minorities
black lives matter
i have friends and family that are
undocumented so my vote definitely
represented them
climate change really incorporates it
all into one single issue that we really
have a time stamp to tackle within the
next
10 years police reform that stuff right
now is
at the forefront of my mind the taxes i
worry for the taxes
i don't want more taxes coming out of my
paycheck because i feel like i have
enough taxes being taken out
and abortion definitely abortion young
people are finally realizing that
in order to see change for whatever
change you want to see you have to vote
you can't just sit around and wait for
someone else to save the day no one's
coming and you have to save the day
what appears to be unique about young
voters on the left and the right
is that they tend to vote based off of
issues rather than political personality
i think a lot of people were slightly
reluctant about supporting some of the
policies
that joe biden represented we know that
no one man no one president no one
politician is going to bring us to the
ends and
worlds that we're trying to build
because whether or not you
agree with every single thing he stands
for what his movement represents as a
whole is far more important
the alternative not voting not
supporting these policies
is definitely far more dangerous and i
think a lot of young adults understand
that
especially in that 18 to 29 cohort that
we have seen be so important in these
last elections
but some wonder how permanent is this
leftward shift of voters
and what would it take to move them i
think there's still
a lot of opportunity for competition for
the republicans going forward they have
a lot of
attractive candidates who may run in
2024
and that said i still think the group
will lean
heavily democratic and i think the real
question is for
younger millennials in gen z is will the
republican party ever be able
to reestablish itself as a legitimate
option historically young people tend to
be more reluctant about their vote
there is a share of the electorate they
tend to be smaller than other groups in
the population
but young people in particular
millennials and gen z
seem to be particularly enthusiastic
about this election candidates and
campaigns are waking up now to the fact
that
young voters are engaged they are
interested they do want to be heard they
do want to have a seat at the table
the way that trump handled the protests
and the rallies you know this
spring and summer i mean trump really
sort of the antithesis of a lot of
gen z and younger millennial values they
didn't like many of the things that
donald trump stands for and they were
particularly concerned i think about
racial issues and climate change
and if we do contact them and
invite them to participate they in fact
will do so
there's this overused narrative by a lot
of people
that young people are lazy that they
don't
get up off their butts to do anything
and that's just completely false
throughout all of american history from
civil rights to
anti-vietnam war protests we've seen
that young people have
led the charge on every key social
movement that has
garnished and cemented institutional
change in american society
and i think that's what young people are
really bringing to light now
they're saying you know what yeah sure
this election is pretty high stakes but
we're not going back to brunch once this
is all over while it may feel like a
relief
for this election to come to an end it
seems unlikely that things will return
to normal
and that's because gen z isn't going
back to brunch
they're going to protest and advocate
and vote
for years and years to come