I’m just gonna get right to it — black voters won this race. Especially black women! And black men did even better than their usual 90-10 Dem split, with only 6% voting for Moore. And I absolutely love this tweet from Bree Newsome, who correctly states that black voters didn’t save us all, they protected themselves first and foremost:
Please read and recommend Denise’s diary and use her words as a call to action.
Now that I’ve acknowledged the key voter group for this race, I do want to point out the significant contribution from young voters. Of course, the youth vote and people of color vote are certainly not mutually-exclusive, but I think looking at the youth vote demos overall shows a promising trend for the future.
As you can see in the header image, the youth vote went strongly for Doug Jones. Jones received 59% — 66% of voters in the 18-24, 25-29, and 30-39 demos. In Alabama. And it’s not just the post-Millennials (the 18-29 voters, or whom I like to call “The Meme Generation”), voting demos all the way up to 49 years of age went for Jones. Even the 40-49 voter block, which made up 20% of total voters, went for Jones 53% — 46%.
This is remarkable. Yes, Alabama is conservative and many young voters there still define themselves as so, and yes, this was an election with totally unique circumstances, but you can’t argue the trend lines. In every state or federal election across America, the younger the voting group, the greater vote margin for the Democratic candidate. And it’s not even a nail-biter circumstance, Dems are getting 3:1 ratios in some races. In a few, the margins have been even higher.
Sure, the old adage (with a fair amount of truth to it) is that voters get more conservative as they get older. I think that will hold true for current and future generations. But I don’t think it will nearly be as tipped toward the GOP as we age, certainly not for our middle years. When the Democratic candidate wins the 40-49 age demo (which again, made up a sizable 20% of the total vote) by a solid 53%-46% in Alabama, only someone living in the delusional bubble where Roy Moore and his supporters reside could not see which party is in the much better medium- and long-term position. And we’re having an immediate impact as well.
Now that I’m 31 years old (yay birthday last week, December 6th!), I guess I’m not really a young voter anymore. But those that still are, they are just as Dem as my fellow Millennials are. Get them to the polls and we win.
