Affordability was top of mind for young voters this election

Kyle Schroeder spent the days before the election knocking on doors and making phone calls. The number one issue he heard about as chairman of the Wisconsin Young Republicans: “I think it was grocery prices and gas prices.”

It’s top of his mind too as he starts his own family. “When we’re talking about $1 here, there on gas prices, that can mean a difference between how much baby formula you’re able to buy,” Schroeder said.

It’s the big issue for Jake Williams too: “I mean, I’d agree with him, stuff is too expensive.”

William is chair of the Young Democrats of Wisconsin. “I’m struggling to pay for groceries on a week to week basis as a college student,” he added.

In recent years, young voters have traditionally supported the Democratic presidential candidates. Preliminary exit polling conducted by Edison Research suggests they did again this year, but not by nearly as much as they used to. When you break it down by gender, young male voters were actually slightly more likely to vote for Trump.

We’re talking about Gen Z here — the group that came of age in a pandemic, that just lived through their first spike in inflation, that was raised in the shadow of the recession.

The problem of affordability is especially tough for young voters, according to Corey Seemiller, a professor at Wright State University and an expert who studies Gen Z.

“The middle class person who’s in my generation, Gen X, will not have any conception of what it is like to be 18, 20 and be able to make ends meet,” she said. “It’s just far more overwhelming than it was for older folks.”

A report released this year from ConsumerAffairs says Gen Z pays 57% more for a gallon of gas than Baby Boomers did at their age. Gen Z also has 86% less purchasing power.

Seemiller said that may partly explain her research showing this cohort, which was once most concerned about climate change and gun control, has more recently picked education access, health care and the economy as their top issues.

“So I think what that is creating is a pressing sense of today. If I can’t pay my rent, I can’t worry about whether the planet is going to be around in 200 years,” she said.

Clearly, Gen Zers had different perspectives on which candidate offered the best economic policies. That’s true for Kyle Schroeder and Jake Williams — one voted for Trump; the other for Harris.