As a member of Generation Z, the first presidential election I followed was the 2016 election when I was 13 years old. Filled with hope, I accompanied my parents to the polls, thinking we were about to elect the first female president, only for reality to punch me in the face the next morning.
Over the next four years, I watched a dark cloud of violence and hatred descend over the nation’s political future with which I had not long been acquainted.
As I navigated high school, I felt increasingly discouraged by the political division spreading across the country, only occasionally finding the will to laugh at the absurdity while watching Saturday Night Live. I realized I needed to use my voice to help create a future where people work together instead of against each other.
Since 2016, Gen Z has come of age in an era marked by political division, gun violence, racial violence, climate change and a global pandemic. The news over the past eight years has delivered one discouraging story after another.
In the 2024 presidential election, Gen Z voters have a choice between two paths — one covered by the same dark cloud and the other with sunlight peeking through. 40.8 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote in 2024, including 8.3 million new eligible voters since the 2022 midterm elections. Additionally, nearly half of eligible Gen Z voters are people of color.
Gen Z voters have an opportunity to make their voices heard in the upcoming election and show which future they will create for the U.S. and the world. We can leave behind violence and hate and focus on progress and positivity.
Larry Jacobs, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said Gen Z will likely make a difference in the 2024 election.
“The Gen Z voters and citizens are the difference makers,” Jacobs said. “The country is essentially knotted into two large groups of partisans, and Gen Z is coming in with a dismal view of both parties and wanting to see change in the way we do our politics and the tenure of our politics.”
Jacobs said this is a hopeful generation who can step in and provide leadership for America.
When asked about the violent and hateful rhetoric prevalent in American politics and its impact on young people, Jacobs said Gen Z faces conflicting messages of hope and hate.
“I think it’s one of the reasons Kamala Harris introduced her campaign as one about hope as a way to try to really reach out and connect with younger voters,” Jacobs said.
Using hope and joy to reach young voters, as the Kamala Harris campaign is doing, acknowledges the turbulent political environment Gen Z voters have come of age in since the 2016 election.
Carmen McLaren, a second-year student at the University, is among the Gen Z voters who see the 2024 election as a turning point with two very different paths. McLaren said she feels cautiously optimistic about the upcoming election but remembers the challenges of processing the 2016 election as a child.
“We were quite young to be able to comprehend all of it,” McLaren said. “But I was able to comprehend it and be stressed about it.”
McLaren said observing the political violence and division in the U.S. since the 2016 election can become overwhelming, and it is important for Gen Z to take a step back.
“At some point, you just can’t really hold all of that in you,” McLaren said. “You do have to be kind of stoic about it in a way and not feel such intense empathy toward everything that’s going on.”
Many of the would-be shocking events, such as multiple assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump and his baseless accusations about migrants that inspire violence in others, have become part of the political nature we expect in the U.S., according to a New York Times news analysis.
Riley Hetland, director of civic engagement for the Undergraduate Student Government (USG), works with USG’s non-partisan Row the Vote campaign to register students to vote and get students to the polls. Hetland said the politically divided nature of the 2024 election is motivating students to get involved and vote.
“I’m seeing a lot more attention and a lot more engagement honestly because of how divided everyone is,” Hetland said.
Hetland said it is important to her that young people make their voices heard, regardless of their political beliefs.
“I’ve always felt that I could make a change, despite being young,” Hetland said. “I think it’s really important that youth do know and young voters do know that they can make meaningful change.”
This is a critical moment for Gen Z to find our collective voice as decision-makers and affirm the future we want for this country and our place in the world. We may have grown up with politicians abusing hateful rhetoric and inciting violence, but we don’t have to lose trust in our government.
It is up to us to take action and fix it.
Jacobs said that, in his career studying American history, this moment stands out as crucial.
“There are moments that represent tipping points,” Jacobs said. “This is a tipping point, and the tipping point is going to be over whether America is engaged in the world.”
Jacobs said getting involved with others who share hope and optimism for the future can make people realize they can make a difference and regain their lost hope. If you feel discouraged by what is going on, the best thing you can do is get involved.
This isn’t the first time youth voters have decided they must be the change they want to see, and it cannot be the last. Gen Z can choose hope over hate.
“Get involved, Don’t sit on the sidelines,” Jacobs said. “Grab a pale of water and run toward the fire.”
Eight years ago, I accompanied my parents to the polls in hopes of making history. Now, it is our turn, and I hope you will join me.
Let’s run toward the fire.