New book explores how Gen Z's politics differ from previous generations

In the last three elections, voter turnout hit record highs among those born after 1997. This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns are heavily courting this generation. A new book, “The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters Will Shape Our Democracy,” looks at the effect they’re likely to have on American politics for years to come. John Yang speaks with author Melissa Deckman for more.

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John Yang : Younger voters have already made their presence felt. The last three elections’ turnout has hit record highs among those born after 1997 that’s the generation known as Gen Z, their votes were critical in electing Joe Biden and maintaining the Democrat Senate Majority. This year, both the Harris and Trump campaigns are heavily courting them.

A new book looks at how Gen Z is different from other generations and the effect they’re likely to have on American politics for years to come. It’s called “The Politics of Gen Z: How the Youngest Voters will Shape Democracy.” The author is political scientist Melissa Deckman, who is CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute.

Melissa, you write, not only are they going to be changing the future, but you write that they’re already making changes that, for instance, long term trends have flipped in terms of political participation.

Melissa Deckman, Author, “The Politics of Gen Z” : Yes. So in my book, I chronicle how Gen Z women are now participating in politics at higher levels than their male counterparts. And this is really unique in American history. I demonstrate how in earlier generations, younger women were not as likely to participate as men.

But today, you see a surge of activism among young women, and I think it’s carrying over into 2024 in this election cycle too. And you talk about how there are more critical of the parties, and they’re less partisan than their older counterparts.

Melissa Deckman : Yeah, that’s true on both sides. We find at PRI when we ask young Americans about their partisan identity, they’re more likely to say that they’re independent or that they’re neither party or no party at all. And I think it’s a reflection of the fact that Gen Z is very distrustful of institutions more generally in society, but they’re also far more likely to care about issues.

We find among Gen Z, especially Gen Z women, they care passionately about climate change, about gender equality and also about preventing gun violence. Those are things that have really galvanized them in ways to march in the streets, to form their own organizations and to really lobby elected officials on those issues too.

John Yang : Talk about political participation. Is it different from older generations?

Melissa Deckman : Yes, it is. I think one of the things that helps us to understand Gen Z’s politics is really the influence of social media. We find that PRI, for example, that generation Z is actually outperforming their older counterparts with respect to political engagement, and part of that is really due to social media, which allows them to learn about politics, but also to actually facilitate political engagement in all kinds of ways.

John Yang : And what are the forces that have led them to these issues?

Melissa Deckman : Well, I think with Generation Z women in particular, they came of age during the Trump presidency. Many Gen Z women activists I spoke with were really alarmed that someone like Donald Trump who says misogynistic things, could defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016 coupled that with the MeToo movement, and it’s raised a lot of feminist consciousness among young women, and those values have propelled them to be more involved in politics today.

I think also we see that Gen Z really cares again about climate change, about gun violence prevention, and I think for those in Generation Z, both many young men and young women as well, is that they view these as existential threats. They’ve had to live through these experiences. They know that climate change will affect their generation more than older generations, and so it’s galvanized many of them to become involved.

John Yang : It used to be in politics that people said that younger voters were unreliable voters compared to older voters. The fact that their voter participation is rising. What do you account for that?

Melissa Deckman : Well, It is notable that in the last three election cycles, we’ve seen a surge of turnout among Generation Z. Now, to be fair, Generation Z still votes at lower levels than older Americans, but I think what has drawn them to the polls really again, are those issues, not just climate change they talked about before gun violence prevention that really produced this surge in 2018 in the midterm, but in 2020 for example, during the presidential election, you had Black Lives Matter, and it really again galvanized and encouraging people to go and vote.

And in 2022 it was the Dobbs decision, where you saw more young women voting than young men in that election cycle.

John Yang : You point out that this generation is the most diverse generation in history. How is that affecting them politically?

Melissa Deckman : Absolutely. Demographically, Gen Z is very different. They’re more diverse from a racial, ethnic perspective. They’re also more likely to identify as LGBTQ, and both of those ways, I think Gen Z cares passionately about having an inclusive democracy. So they look at, for example, with gun violence prevention as an issue. They often look at how gun violence disproportionately impacts members of the Black community or members of the Latino community.

And there’s an awareness that a lot of these problems in societies proportionally impacts those communities of color. Again, that reinforces, for them, a desire to want to participate at higher levels compared to earlier generations of Americans.

John Yang : All these changes, all these characteristics of Gen Z you’ve talked about, how is that likely to affect November and even many Novembers beyond, when this generation is in charge?

Melissa Deckman : Well, you know, no generation is politically monolithic, but I think with respect to this election, especially with the change from Biden being the presidential nominee of the Democrats to Harris, there’s a renewed enthusiasm happening among Generation Z.

And so all of a sudden, you see, I think polling showing that generation Z is going to be probably voting far more democratic compared to, you know, maybe earlier in the year, when Biden, again, was a presumptive nominee.

But there also is some data suggesting that young men might be trending a little bit more Republican in their vote choice. And so I think that’s something that we have to kind of bear in mind. But I think, generally speaking, with all of that in mind, we should expect Generation Z, I think, to move our politics in a more center left, left direction, moving forward, because those are the issues that they really care about, those issues including climate and reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights and racial equality, all of those things are really critical to understanding Gen Z’s political priorities.

John Yang : Melissa Deckman, thank you very much.

Melissa Deckman : Thank you.