When Democrats were resoundingly defeated on November 8th, one of the biggest questions was how? How could a party, which was expected to win both the presidency and the senate, lose not just both but resoundingly fail at the state level? How could we lose to political laughing-stock Donald Trump? The answer (one of them, of course): failure to appeal to the younger generation.
Yesterday in the UK we saw Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour Party bring about one of the biggest electoral upsets in modern history. Not only did they thwart Prime Minister Theresa May’s attempt to gain seats and increase her power in government but instead forced a hung parliament where May is forced to rely on other parties for the thinnest of a majority. There is little question on which part of the electorate brought about this result, and why. Youth voters.
Specifically, the 72% of voters aged 18 to 24 voted in the election. That’s up from the 43% of that demographic who voted in 2015. 63% of that group voted for Corbyn’s Labour Party, compared to less than 30% for the Conservatives. A populist-left leader, a populist-left agenda, and the energy to hit the pavement and speak to young voters effected this monumental success. Meanwhile across the pond, our General Election only turned out around a measly 50% of young voters (likely lower among the 18-24 group specifically).
The failure of the Democratic Party to not only turn out youth voters but to capture their vote is most evident in one of the biggest surprise defeats for Democrats: Wisconsin. Exit polls showed that Clinton astoundingly lost voters aged 18-24 to Donald Trump there, undoubtedly propelling Donald Trump to victory in a state which sat in the Democrats’ column since 1988. Had Democrats seen a turnout and the level of support from youth that Corbyn saw, not only would the White House and Senate be blue, but the House would be teetering on the edge of a Democratic majority.
The verdict is clear: The Democratic Party must adopt a populist progressive message and agenda if we aim to win in 2018 and 2020.
Whomever the nominee if in 2020, they must speak to the issues of youth not with platitudes but with solid progressive policy and be able to energize them to come out in the millions (sound familiar?). If not, we’ll be seeing 4 more years of 45 and draconian Republican policies.
EDIT: Mistake in title, reported turnout is 72%
EDIT: There was also a significant surge in voter registrations close to the election.