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youth voting
The Kids Are Alright and They’re Taking Over
Mamdani’s win comes as youth voter registration is climbing across the board. And it’s not because anyone suddenly handed us hope; it’s because we’ve been forced to create it for ourselves.
Jun 28, 2025
As someone who’ll soon join those ranks of “first-time voters,” witnessing 33‑year‑old Democrat Socialist Zohran Mamdani defeat a seasoned political heavyweight like Andrew Cuomo feels revolutionary. Watching what’s happening right now—watching young people turn their disillusionment into infrastructure, their rage into organizing—makes it clear: The next generation is coming in hot.
The numbers say it all. According to the Financial Times, 52% of voters under 45 backed Mamdani. Cuomo only got 18%. A remarkable age gap, it’s a generation breaking up the political status quo. And what’s even more staggering? So many of Mamdani’s voters were casting a ballot for the very first time.
We’ve been told for years that young people don’t vote. That we’re apathetic, distracted, too caught up in our phones to care about policy. But this election shattered that myth. The campaigns were built on grassroots energy. To mobilize voters, especially newbies, Mamdani’s team organized over 46,000 volunteers and knocked on more than 1 million doors. And, the people showed up like their lives depended on it—because in so many ways, they do. Youth voter registration is climbing across the board. And it’s not because anyone suddenly handed us hope; it’s because we’ve been forced to create it for ourselves.
So to my fellow future voters, my peers who are just now stepping into the political arena: This is our moment!
Our generation was raised on crisis. Climate collapse. School shootings. Incredibly normalized economic anxiety. We don’t remember a world before mass surveillance, before “once-in-a-century” storms became routine. So, we’re pushing for better with everything we’ve got.
Mamdani’s campaign won because it was real. He spoke in a language of inclusion that we understand. His unapologetic support of human rights and liberation for all, including the Palestinians, resonated with us. His promises—affordable housing, public transit, community-owned groceries—speak directly to the world we’re inheriting. The one we’re expected to fix.
All of this is happening against the backdrop of Donald Trump’s presidency, which continues to cast a long, toxic shadow. But even his chaos doesn’t scare us as much as apathy does. Because what scares me, more than another four years of extremism, is the possibility that people will sit this one out. That they’ll believe the lie that nothing ever changes. That the game is rigged. But Mamdani’s win proves otherwise. When we organize, we win. When we show up, we matter. And we are showing up as strategists and leaders.
So to my fellow future voters, my peers who are just now stepping into the political arena: This is our moment! We are deliberate. We are strategic. You don’t have to be a politician to change the game. You just have to show up, again and again, until they can’t ignore you anymore.
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Youth Coalition Presses Biden to Declare Climate Emergency Ahead of Earth Day
"As the election approaches, young people are mobilizing to demand President Biden take bold action to protect young peoples' futures."
Apr 11, 2024
Ahead of Earth Day on April 22, youth organizers across the United States are planning protests in hundreds of communities to demand that President Joe Biden declare a climate emergency and take other action to tackle the fossil fuel-driven crisis.
"President Biden promised to be a climate president. Ahead of the 2024 election, young people are mobilizing to hold him accountable to that promise," reads a joint statement put out by the coalition composed of Campus Climate Network, Fridays for Future USA, and the Sunrise Movement.
While they are focused on the president in power, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump—a Big Oil ally whose plans for the planet if he returns to office are to "drill, baby, drill"—offers no hope for the groups' demands.
Biden has won praise for some climate progress during his first term, particularly his recent pause on liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports. However, the Democrat has also come under fire for supporting the Willow oil project and Mountain Valley Pipeline, continuing fossil fuel lease sales, and skipping last year's United Nations summit.
On Tuesday, the Biden administration approved the construction of Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners' Sea Port Oil Terminal off the Texas Gulf Coast.
Sunrise called the move "very disappointing," and pointed out on social media that the project is set to "be the largest oil export terminal in the U.S."
"It threatens lives, just so Big Oil can profit big exporting abroad," the movement added. "This is a dangerous mark of Big Oil's power in politics."
Despite marks of progress on climate, the groups lamented that "U.S. oil and gas production has surged to record highs" under the Biden administration.
They also acknowledged previous protests, including one by Sunrise in February that led to arrests at Biden's campaign headquarters.
"As the election approaches, young people are mobilizing to demand President Biden take bold action to protect young peoples' futures," they said. "That begins with declaring a climate emergency that meaningfully addresses fossil fuels, creates millions of good-paying union jobs, and helps us prepare for incessant climate disasters."
Last year—the hottest in human history—Biden claimed that "practically speaking," he had already declared a national climate emergency. The People vs. Fossil Fuels coalition responded that he "should follow through on his rhetoric and immediately declare a national emergency that would unlock new executive powers to speed up the deployment of clean energy and halt fossil fuel expansion."
As the Center for Biological Diversity has laid out, if Biden declared an emergency, under various federal laws he could then halt crude oil exports; stop oil and gas drilling in the outer continental shelf; restrict international trade and private investment in fossil fuels; grow domestic manufacturing for clean energy and transportation to speed the nationwide transition off fossil fuels; and build resilient and distributed renewable energy systems in climate-vulnerable communities.
To renew pressure on the president, Fridays for Future USA is planning a Day of Climate Action—part of a global strike next Friday, April 19. Organizers said that "in New York City alone, thousands of students will walk out of their classes and march from Foley Square in Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge to Brooklyn Borough Hall."
On Earth Day itself—April 22—Campus Climate Network is organizing actions at over 100 campuses calling on colleges and universities to "become true environmental justice leaders and cut ties with the fossil fuel industry."
Meanwhile, the Sunrise Movement plans to lead dozens of Earth Day teach-ins at congressional offices and other locations to urge members of Congress to demand a formal declaration.
Sunrise is also part of another coalition—with Gen-Z for Change, March for Our Lives, and United We Dream Action—that is pushing the president to embrace a broader youth agenda that addresses not only the climate emergency but also gun violence, immigrants' rights, and the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
"In 2020, young people sent Biden to the White House. In 2024, how many young people turn out for Biden will determine if we stave off a second Trump presidency," the group's political director, Michele Weindling, said last month. "Right now, young people are shouting for what we need from Biden to mobilize our generation this November."
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Youth Organizers Launch 'Protect Our Power' Campaign to Reelect the Squad
House progressives "have shifted the political narrative to center young people's leadership on the most pressing issues of our generation—from climate justice, labor rights, and abortion access, to anti-war foreign policy."
Apr 05, 2024
A coalition of youth organizers this week launched the "Protect Our Power" campaign to help reelect progressives in Congress who are under attack from pro-Israel lobbyists for their criticism of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip.
"We are among the leaders of the most diverse and progressive generation in U.S. history," says a fact sheet from organizers. "We've met each other on Zoom calls, college campuses, campaigns, rallies, and parties. Spanning across a range of organizations and movements, we're united by our generation's common fight for peace, justice, a livable world, and a multiracial democracy."
"Over the past few years, we've experimented with a diverse set of tactics to grow our power—our involvement in elections being one of them," the organizers noted. "Today, we not only occupy the streets but Congress itself. With just a handful of insurgent electeds known as 'The Squad,' we have forced our generation's priorities to the forefront of American politics and reinspired young people to be involved in the political process."
"We're united by our generation's common fight for peace, justice, a livable world, and a multiracial democracy."
The Squad began with Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.)—younger progressive women of color all elected in 2018. The informal group has since expanded to include Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Summer Lee (D-Pa.).
Young progressives in the U.S. House of Representatives recently dubbed "Squad-adjacent" by Slate's Alexander Sammon include Reps. Greg Casar (D-Texas), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
Tlaib—the only Palestinian American in Congress—and Bush led the first Gaza cease-fire resolution effort in Congress, just days after the October 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel, which has retaliated over the past six months by killing more than 33,000 Palestinians, injuring another 75,000, displacing most people in Gaza, and devastating civilian infrastructure.
While global condemnation of Israel grows—a genocide case against the country at the International Court of Justice continues to garner support—the dark money affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) plans to spend $100 million trying to unseat congressional critics of the Israeli government this election cycle.
Reporting on those plans led to the recent creation of Reject AIPAC, a coalition of progressive organizations working to take on the group and its affiliated super political action committees (PACs). Members include Justice Democrats, Jewish Voice for Peace Action, IfNotNow, Working Families Party, Sunrise Movement, Democratic Socialists of America, and Gen-Z for Change.
Youth organizers from some of those same organizations are involved with the new Protect Our Power effort.
"The only thing that beats organized money is organized people," the young organizers argued. "Fortunately, that's what we know how to do best. Over the next few months, we'll build out a cohort of committed young leaders across the country and equip them with the training and tools to bring their own networks into this work."
"We'll work with these leaders to mobilize their networks to engage in a variety of tactics to defend the Squad," the organizers said. "For some groups, that might mean making texts, calls, and knocking on doors. For others, that could mean birddogging, targeted and disruptive demonstrations, oppo research, and much more. Then, once we win, we'll frame our victories as a governing mandate to shape the Democratic platform and agenda in the 2024 general election."
Before November, progressives targeted by pro-Israel groups are working to win their primaries. In Pennsylvania, voters are set to head to the polls on April 23. Lee's primary challenger is Bhavini Patel, who is taking money from rich right-wingers; a previous challenger, Laurie MacDonald, is now running a write-in campaign as a Republican.
The New York primary elections are on June 25. Bowman faces an AIPAC-backed Westchester County Executive George Latimer—who last week was accused of "straight-up genocide denial" for his comments on the mass slaughter in Gaza.
Bush and Omar are both set to face locally prominent primary challengers in August.
Those four incumbents "and the rest of the Squad have shifted the political narrative to center young people's leadership on the most pressing issues of our generation—from climate justice, labor rights, and abortion access, to anti-war foreign policy," the Protect Our Power coalition said on social media Thursday.
"Help us reelect the Squad and guarantee that our allies in Congress can continue to represent young people across this country," the group added. "Join us this Sunday for our
kickoff."
The coalition is made up of "over 100 youth organizers across issues, including students from 30+ universities," according to spokesperson John Paul Mejia. "We're defending the Squad and our generation's political power from right-wing, billionaire-funded organizations that want to silence us."
I am forever indebted to the squad for holding the line & making sure congress pass the biggest federal climate bill \u2600\ufe0f\n\nWe need their moral clarity & conviction in the Congress. I am excited to join 100+ youth organizers to @protectourpwr against the right wing super PACs\u270a\ud83c\udffc— (@)
Among the campaign's supporters is climate activist Magnolia Mead, who
warned this week that "our movements can't afford to lose their critical voices in Congress. Now and in the coming months we have a chance to throw down and protect them."
Kavi Shrestha, an Oregon-based leader with College Democrats of America, similarly
stressed that "our generation cannot stand by as right-wing billionaires and PACs attack the representatives who stand up for our interests—Medicare for All, a habitable planet, and an immediate cease-fire."
"While they have money," said Shrestha, "we have numbers."
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