The Next Generation of Voters

Hello everybody and welcome to our today's panel. It is such an honor to be here to talk about the next generation of voters. My name is John Rao and I am the president and founder of New Voters. But I'm going to take you back in time 9 years to start off our [snorts] panel today to when I was 16, the same age as the panelists that you're going to be hearing from. And when I was 16, I felt helpless. I was 16 when the 2016 election happened and obviously too young to vote. And I remember sitting on my couch in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Chester County, famously purple area where they zoom in on the maps and watching colors on the map and numbers on the screen and knowing that I was not a part of them. I remember going into school the next day and seeing my friends on both sides of the aisle across every political spectrum identity you can imagine in the suburbs of Philadelphia and everyone was walking around in a days like zombies. And I remember going up to people who I thought would be happy with the results of the election and the resounding opinion from everybody, Republican, Democrat, anarchist, purple people leaders was, you know, this was the most talked about event of our entire lives. And it felt like we had absolutely no say. And that felt fundamentally unfair. the decisions being made back then in 2016 and still to this day impact my generation Gen Z and Gen Alpha and and you know whatever is below that I don't know um more than anybody else and these decisions are made without our say. So, I started New Voters as a high school club at my high school in Berwin, Pennsylvania to register my senior class to vote. And in 3 days, we registered 85% of our senior class to vote. And that was the first time I ever felt something happen as a result of something that I did. And it is that agency and that belief that the world is not just happening to you, but you're happening to the world that makes young people engage in our democratic system and in civic engagement beyond, you know, voting, registering their peers to vote, and hopefully running for office. I through New Voters Now have been leading it for the past nine years full-time for the last three since graduating from college. And we're in over a thousand high schools across the country in over 42 states. And this year, we piloted our first year-long fellowship called the New Voters 250 fellowship. And through this fellowship, I have met some of the most incredible students I have ever met in my life who each have already had those experiences of doing something that they see change the lives of the people in their community. And the question that's on everybody's mind, the reason we're all here today is why are these decisions, why are these young people who make up one of the largest generations in our country, in fact, 4 million students graduate from high school every year, and almost every single one of them are eligible to vote. And in fact, if 18-year-olds alone voted the same rate as baby boomers, they would be the deciding voice in almost every contested election in the country. Why, if they make up such a huge portion of our potential electorate, do they remain so underrepresented in our politics? And perhaps even more importantly, what would it take to change that? So today, we're going to hear from researchers who spent years studying the structural barriers that shape political participation and representation. And we'll also hear directly, if you remember, I said those incredible New Voters 250 students, three of them are here today on the call. and you will hear from them directly about how they are organizing in their communities every day. We provide them with personal mentors to run nonpartisan voter registration drives, but also address issues in their communities that they identify. We'll talk about what young people want from our political system, where they feel heard, where they don't, and explore ideas for how our democracy could better reflect the people it serves. We'll also have time for questions, so please be thinking about what you'd like to ask as we go. With that, I'd love to have each of our panelists briefly introduce themselves. and I'm going to turn it over to them. Thank you all for being here today and supporting our newest voters and these students who aren't even old enough to vote themselves and creating so much change in their communities. Okay, I'll start. My name is Troy Stevenson House and I'm a New Voters 250 fellow. I go to Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. And so obviously through New Voters I've run a voter registration drive, but my civic engagement project, which is the thing that John was referring to that we all do with a mentor, um is focused on empowering teens to be more to have better media literacy through engaging skits and comedy that people will laugh at and learn from. >> Yeah, I'm happy to go next. Thank you, Troy. Um my name is Sonia. I am a rising senior in Carolton, Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas. Um my project is about encouraging or closing the gap rather in civic literacy through early intervention. So we facilitate these civic education lessons run by high school volunteers in this two-prong strategy at daycarees and ESD programs. So, not only do these high school volunteers develop their leadership skills and their passion for civics, you also have elementary school students find that passion as well from learning from high school mentors. Hi, I am Mayapus. I am the last student. Um, I live in Birmingham, Alabama. And my project is a podcast started by me and my friend Olivia Self. And it's all about addressing voter miseducation in Alabama. So, it's me and Olivia talking directly to candidates running for elections in Alabama. And it started with our local elections, but now we are addressing elections that are covering the US Senate and gubanatorial races in my state. >> Awesome. I'll introduce myself now. My name is Oscar Pocas. I'm a senior uh research analyst at New America where I do research on electoral systems, different ways of voting [clears throat] and how what electoral systems have to do with the representation or under reppresentation of different groups. One of which is young people in American politics and together with Dustin who can introduce himself after me. Uh we've written on the age divide showing how the US is particularly doing a terrible job at getting young people to participate and one of the things we keep arguing about is it's not about the lack of energy. It's not that young people are apathetic. Um but the system sometimes creates huge barriers for the participation of young people. So very excited to talk with the new voters who are here and also talk a bit about our research on alternative electoral systems and what they have to do with young people. And I'm Dustin Wall. I'm the executive director of Fix Our House. um where we advocate for proportional representation as a reform to break uh the US out of its two-party doom loop uh and make Congress better equipped to pass legislation and and uh work for the American people. Um, like Oscar said, uh, we, you know, we at Fixer House, uh, work on a number of different projects, but, uh, one of, uh, one of the things we did recently with, um, with Oscar and the folks at New America is this age divide report that we'll talk a little bit more about, uh, there. All right, so let's get started with the conversation. And first, I think we're all super excited to hear about the young people who are here. uh which I don't know if that includes me anymore now that I'm in my late 30s. Um but yeah, I would love to hear first uh from May, Troy, and Sonia. Just get a sense of how do you feel about pol like when you hear the word politics today? What do you what do you feel? Do you feel despair? Do you feel hope? Um is it frustrating? Or yeah, what comes to mind when when you start hearing about politics? Um, I guess I can go ahead first. I would say the word that comes to mind when I hear about politics, um, I don't know if you guys have heard of this word or not, but it's called rage bait. Um, and yeah, so the idea is that I think a lot of young people when they kind of see politics, they just see something or they see a system that's now designed intentionally to create kind of outreach as the primary motivation behind, you know, voting in elections, right? like irrespective of how where you stand on the political spectrum, it feels like politics is all kind of about you know hating the opposing side or hating this facet of a platform or just this kind of like being driven not out of like curiosity for you know the better future um but for sort of like or you know like positive implications of policy like oh this policy would be really interesting or oh like we should totally do you know this health care system it's more about like oh I don't like you know this thing about you this or I don't like this group of people. And so in consequence, I think that's where you get a lot of that apathy from because I feel like some people like a lot of us aren't inclined to really hate the certain aspects of the other side. And it's hard to kind of find where you stand from if your whole politics is defined by, you know, rage bait and hate when it's an intentionally exhausting system that I think people would rather just choose not to engage with than engage with. So yeah, I would say that's what I think of when I think of politics. As fun as it is for me, I know it's not for others. >> Yeah. May and Troy, do you feel something similar? >> Yeah. I mean, my initial reaction actually is pretty helpful because I think that politics is kind of the one thing that affects everybody's life the most. So, it is um when I think about politics, I kind of think about all the change I could be making and it kind of gets me hopeful. But as I've gotten into politics more and as the more I've realized it has been a very confusing paradox for me cuz I feel often like everybody is agreeing that like whatever side you're on like this is a good idea and like we want to help these people and then the people that are representing me just kind of go around and do the opposite. So it's like it's confusing and it makes me kind of want to get into politics because I'm like well like the solution is so clear like we just do this but like nobody can seem to agree on that. So, I kind of have hope in that way, but it's also very frustrating at the current moment, I would say. >> Um, yeah, I to be honest, when I heard the question, I was like, I should have been a little more angry. But I definitely also had a hopeful vision. Like when I think about politics, I think about like sitting on old people's porches and talking to them about democracy because I recently did like a canvasing event where um that was aimed at not just getting people to vote for somebody, but surveying people's opinions about democracy and the future of our country. And I had an experience where I talked to or I was just walking by somewhere and like this woman like her house isn't on our list so we weren't going to go but I was like I really want to talk to her. And so I talked to her and I sit down on her porch and she's like oh she invites us to sit on her porch and she's like I don't speak English and I'm like pulling up my phone translating the questions into Creole and like trying to like break out my French one skills and it was just a mess. But honestly, like I had a great time. And so, like, when I think about politics, I think about people because I think it's so easy, especially for young people to get so wrapped up in politics. I think it's so sensationalized to us. But at the end of the day, politics is just supposed to be something that makes life politics and government is supposed to be something that makes life life easier and life more enjoyable. And so, [snorts] I I think about just the important conversations that we have with one another and the bridges that we build. when I think about politics. >> Yeah, that's really great to hear because often times we hear of how like politics, you know, it's something for old people, you know, it's something that's dominated by so many older people. Um, and there are very few avenues for younger people to get involved with at least with traditional electoral politics, but are you finding that there are like other than just like voting or like get out the vote activities, what are like other avenues that you find for participating in politics or for making yourself heard? Um, mate, maybe you can tell us a bit about the podcast and how how that like fits in with like asking questions or like making your voice heard out there. >> 100%. So, me and Olivia actually started the podcast so that we could give young people like us the drive and the passion that we have about learning about these things so that these people could um get involved. Uh, a lot of what we've learned through the podcast is that these people are super accessible. The people that are representing us, like we just send them an email and they reach out to us and they want to talk to us. So, it is empowering in that way that we can look these people in the eye and ask them about the promises that they've that they've been giving to voters and are they going to stand on those and what's their plan for addressing this issue. So, it is incredible in that way to see young people holding um their elected officials accountable even if they aren't necessarily the people representing them that we could kind of be the liaison between the community and these elected officials in that way where we can ask the questions that are on everybody's mind and we can put that information out to voters so they can see who they're really voting for. Sonia, what about you with your project uh on civic education? Um have you found that it's is it different like when you go to like like a space that's not about like winning an election or the campaign? How does that feel like? >> Yes, 100%. I think like you know I think Troy and May touched on why politics can be enjoyable and how like there's an ideal version of politics. Um and so that reminded me specifically of this time I went to this daycare. It was run by a military veteran and it was about to be closed soon. And so a lot of the kids there were more of like, you know, quiet, older. It was kind of like a smaller daycare. Um, and so me and my friends gave her a lesson and then one of the activities that we have is to have the kids do a kind of like mock bill. So they wrote their own little legislative proposals and then they kind of pull them out of a hat and then vote to pass or fail them and then they come up and like say their thoughts on it. And so one of the proposals was um if you litter, you get beheaded. And it sounds like pretty crazy, right? But surprisingly, I see that there's like a genuine passion for these topics and that they're able to come up with kind of actual arguments and engage in kind of like a policy debate. Obviously, we had to change the bill so that you don't get beheaded or it was like you get to you have to pay like $10 or pay your candy or something. But I think that what's cool about policy specifically and what I've seen like whenever I teach these civic education lessons is that kids learn how to engage with it through the things that they're actually interested. So you'll see kids who are interested in like art, they'll be, you know, drawing out their congressional maps and they'll be like, "Oh, we should set up a new museum here." You'll see kids that are, you know, interested in like technology be like, "We should develop this like cool new AI system." I think that that kind of passion is a way that I've learned to engage with it. So really through legislative advocacy is kind of like what I've picked up from these kids and what I do in my own time. And I'd say that is one way that I find a way to engage in politics beyond just you know like voting or even like canvasing and like get out the vote efforts. I think that like at its truest form, politics is about advocating for you know what you care about or trying to get what you care about um you know is that to become reality and so I think that legislative advocacy or you know engaging with politicians on the policy level is one way to do that. >> Yeah. And Troy, I'm curious. Um, in your projects, like do you get that people your age feel that voting is important or where they tell you like, well, but these people don't represent me? Um, yeah. What are some of these conversations you have about whether like voting makes a difference or whether like people you're voting for actually care about you as a young person? Um, yeah, I'm just curious to hear more about that. Yeah. So, my project is more about media literacy, but I've definitely seen this theme of indifference among kids. And I think that a lot of the time it can be it's sort of hard to talk about how media shapes people's participation in politics when people aren't interested in politics altogether. And I think that was really something that I thought was the norm until I went to um we did a we recently had our summit in um June and that was when like I went to work with all the other fellows and we sort of workshopped our projects and we got advice on our voter registration drives. But that's kind of what gave me the inspiration to make um media literacy more skits based and more fun. So what I do is because um me and a lot of my friends like to act is that we like put on like performances that get people really into how media impacts politics and how they want to vote and how and the neuroscience behind it as well. And I think like breaking down those concepts and like doing workshops with kids has been really instrumental to my understanding of where people are at because I think that older people have this idea that it's it's sometimes good, but I think sometimes it can be a little condescending that young people are just these like indifferent people that are so frustrated and we need to come save them. Like we have this like savior complex when it comes to young people. But I really have found that that isn't the case in doing workshops. And so and especially being at the new voter summit, like I think that it's I I do think that there are constructive um discussions that can be had about why young people are disengaged and whatnot, but I also think that sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time. >> Yeah. And this is just for everyone, but so what do you think, you know, there's so much talk about the frustration of young people with politics and how young people are not under represented. Why do you think that is? Uh is it because May you said before that people go and do something different from what they said they would do when they're campaigning? Uh is it the parties that are not representing? like do you not see yourself like represented in a party? Um or is it like hard to see like policy change coming from voting? Um yeah, I'm curious to hear what you think is wrong with American democracy right now and that's a big question. So for anyone >> I guess yeah I can jump in here. So, I will say that I think one of the big factors behind why we don't necessarily see um younger people represented in politics is sort of the it's my turn kind of vibe that you get or like when you're climbing up the political ladder. Um you often times see that young people get dismissed as, you know, not having enough experience. And then another thing that you see is there's a lot of politicians that um will cling on to their, you know, political power. And so they'll stay in office for a really really really really long time. And so this is a two-pronged effect where at first it's like young people who could be taking on those roles just never get the experience. Um and then on the other hand, it's, you know, people who stay in those positions of power increasingly get out of touch with the younger base. And that creates kind of a ripple effect where you're not expressing policies that actually affect the younger base that's going to inherit you know the the you know the effects of the policies. And so that puts off younger people from politics altogether. So I'd say it's sort of that two-pronged effect where you know you see that number one young people aren't being allowed into the spaces anyway and then the consequences of young people not being allowed into the spaces just drives them away further. But I think that's the main problem I'm seeing. But it's through, you know, networks and solitary that I've seen with like, you know, new voters and, you know, even meeting friends like, you know, Troy and May here that I think people find that motivation to, you know, keep going and keep pushing irrespective of those failures. So I feel like that's, you know, one solution. But I'd say the main problem is simply kind of the mindset that politics is about, you know, it's my turn or that like you have to climb up this ladder. I say I would totally agree with everything you say and I think you brought up a great point of just trying to like consolidate power like the parties you know I feel like the biggest criticism with younger candidates is that they don't have enough experience yet it's not their turn like you were saying so the parties will kind of choose you know an older institutional candidate and um work their way you know down as those candidate gets older then they get that power and what I'm kind of seeing especially in the new voter summit when I see all of these amazing projects from all of these young people is that even though young people aren't represented in government, they're still working in kind of a grassroots capacity and in their communities to address issues there, even if they're not represented on the national level. So that is kind of hopeful, but is very confusing to me how a generation so in involved could be so under reppresented. >> Yeah, I definitely feel what May is saying as well. Like I think being around people, there are certain like grassroots organizations and things that young people can do, but I do think that like especially as high schoolers, our power is very limited, but I think young people in general are more restricted because of how much money is in politics and campaigns and like the money that it costs to run a campaign. And it's just something that a lot of like young people like coming out of college or coming out of graduate school just like don't have the like don't have the money for. And I also think that like you sort of have to have a reputation before like and I think there's just such a big um there's such a big like presence of like corporate dollars in politics and I think that a lot of older candidates are maybe more willing to take that money and are more like prolific in taking it and I also think that I just think it's it's been made like very it's been made a very like hostile place for emerging young politicians and then I als I also think that there is a complacency that comes with sort of secure districts or just having your position for a long time. It's I personally believe that a public servant should have to work to keep their job. And I think that should just be the nature of public service. And so I'm going to like make a reference because I hope you guys know the like Dallas Cowboys cheerleader show, but it's something that I've been addicted to for a long time. And one of the things that coaches always say is like if this girl doesn't get this like kick right, like if she's too complacent, we're just going to cut her and like somebody new is going to come in. And I think that's like the attitude that we need to have with American politics because I just think if your kicks are are not high enough, you just got to go. and there's a new young person that is just as smart, just as qualified, and maybe just needs the money or the grassroots organizing and support to like get off the ground and like serve the people. >> Yeah, definitely. I think that resonates a lot with the research we've done as well. Um, so I think yeah, Dustin, why don't you tell us a little bit about this? Because I think a lot of the things Troy, May, and Sonia were saying were things we were exploring in our report, like the amount of money that it takes to run for office, the lack of support. You know, if you if you want to run for office, there's very little support, the lack of competition as well, or just like incumbents holding on to their seats for a long time. Uh, so yeah, why don't you give us a bit some of your take on on this? Totally. Yeah. No, I'm feeling a little embarrassed actually that I think Oscar and I took us like a long time to to write that report and I think it took this panel like 20 minutes or something to to come to a lot of the same conclusions. Um, yeah. I mean, I I I guess it's worth starting by by just saying one of the top findings of the report, and we kind of knew we would find this, that's why we set out to write it, but uh it's that America has an enormous age gap between our elected members of Congress and those that they represent. And it's bigger than any other comparable democracy, way bigger than any other comparable country. Um, and it's it's larger. It's a larger gap uh than it's than it's ever been in American history. Uh and that's not even particularly that close either. Um and the gap is growing. Uh so it's not like like others have said, it's not that it's sort of the fault of young people for not being engaged. Um it's not even necessarily the fault of older [snorts] people for being too stubborn. It's structural problems that uh that lead to this. Um and so uh that's what um some of y'all have been identifying. Um you know young people we also found you participate in politics less at sort of every level every higher level of participation. So voting uh but also volunteering uh because they aren't retired and have free time to to volunteer um uh you know donating because they don't have as many financial resources and then of course running for office uh uh they you are are able and empowered to participate even less. Um and one of the core reasons for that is the electoral system that we use in the United States. this winner take all election system for Congress um that cements the two-party system in place and that's behind so many of the uh structural barriers in our politics that keep young people locked out that keep the two party system locked in that make uh that make u most congressional races in this country uncompetitive between the two parties. uh like something like 80 to 90% of congressional districts are safe for one party or the other. They're not competitive. Um so that means I think I I want to say Troy, you were mentioning this earlier that uh districts are secure. And so that means that uh you know if if you're the incumbent in that district, you don't have to worry too much about a challenge um from from young people from young people or from anyone uh because your district is safe and and uh um that's not a good system. Uh it's it's exacerbating all of these problems. Um and uh and and you know we point to proportional representation in the report as uh as an ultimate solution to uh to fixing these problems. Just simply put, a proportional representation system is one where a party's share of uh the vote directly determines its share of seats. Um and so you'd be electing Congress a little bit differently. There's different ways to do it, but um the the uh one of the upshots is it it makes it possible for fracturing within the two-party system. It makes it possible for more parties than just two to compete. Uh it makes it possible for um competition to happen everywhere across the country, for conservatives to have representation in liberal areas and progressives and liberals to have representation in conservative areas. Um, and this would allow a fluidity in our politics that's currently really cemented uh in place that would make it more possible for young people to be able to start their own party. Um, young people to be able to uh participate more directly in politics because you wouldn't uh have to face the same kind of threshold and barriers that you do in our current winner take all system. And we see in countries across the world that use proportional system, they have uh by far um younger congresses um that are more reflective of the people they represent. So um that's what our report found and like I said, it's really in alignment with a lot of um what y'all are finding out there. So uh it does make me feel hopeful that um that uh people are not um not getting too discouraged by the system as it exists. And and you know, we think there's some real chance to to change the system, especially as we get u younger people participating more and and growing older and and uh you know getting involved in the process themselves. >> Yeah, definitely. And I think one important thing there is how just having more electoral competition would make parties um healthier and like you know they'd be more interested in actually you know they have to win an election. It's not enough to not be the other party that they actually have to run and be a lot of good candidates and because they can run multiple candidates. They don't have to put all their eggs in, you know, one kind of like generic type of candidate that would appeal to everyone, but they can on the party list have a young candidate, you know, candidates from different groups that can appeal to different voting voting groups within a district. Um, I'm curious, um, May, Troy, and Sonia, like what do you think about some of these like big electoral reforms, um, that some people propose like changing like the way that the elections are held or like having multiple members or in a district instead of only one? Um, is that something that seems like is it like confusing or is it like exciting? I don't know. I mean, I can start because y'all have like got my heart racing because I love talking about this. I'll give you a brief history of Alabama. You'll never guess how Alabama votes every single time. It's not a surprise to anyone. And that's um [clears throat] a lot of the reasons why I started the podcast is because we were a supermajority Democratic state until one election cycle. And after that election cycle, we're super majority Republican. And we've stayed that way since, you know, today. And that's a lot of reason because of straight ticket voting, because of voters not knowing who [clears throat] like the candidates are, but really just knowing like, oh, I'm this party, I'm not that party, I'm I'm going to mark Republican at the top of my ticket. I'm going to vote every single candidate Republican. And I mean, that's who gets the seats because I live in Alabama. And so I started the podcast so that people could know more about these candidates beyond just the party and know actually who they are. But um proportional representation, I mean like we've had lots of um stuff in the news lately about gerrymandering. And I mean at this point the the people that are voting are not being represented in a big way. I mean I live in Birmingham, Alabama. That is a blue city and a red state and we are just not getting the representation that we are voting for because of these congressional districts and because of this winner takes all system. So I think proportional representation is definitely a very exciting idea for me for me to feel represented in my own state. >> Yeah, I'll pipe in cuz I'm from Texas so we had the same problem with the gerrymandering. We kind of started it. So uh sorry guys. Um I think for me especially um I live in a suburb of a very very blue city, right? So this suburb specifically is split to where the Dallas County portion of the city is blue and then the Denton County portion of the suburban city is strictly red. And it's crazy because as soon as you cross this boundary, people who just like live right here, they may vote, you know, Democratic, but they just lose all their representation because of the winner takes all system, right? Like you got like a couple of Republican voters that live all the way like up here in the county. they can just vote straight to get down the ballot and then these people who live down here in the county just get no representation. I think for me specifically, one of the things that I like most is multimember districtricting or multimembers within a district because I do think that it allows not only just for um proportional representation and like you know, hey, at least you know, we have us people like down here in this part of the county have like, you know, more dem democratic representation, but I also think it allows for more diversity in political opinion and political thought, right? like a Democrat from, you know, New Jersey or New York is not going to be the same as a conservative Democrat who's representing probably where I'm from. And I think that's important because it allows for not just that representation of, you know, democratic values, but it allows for more specific representation of what policies that you actually want to see change. So, for example, because you don't just have to be tied to the national party fully. Um, and like they said, you have more freedom in how you want to run your campaigns. you can have more independent candidates propping up. You can have like more Democrats who may represent your values because I know like for us like with James Tarico um who's like there's a lot of criticism of him being like a Austin Democrat which I don't personally see but like the the sentiments there of like we may have these kind of one things but we don't want to be represented by the same kind of person and the same kind of ideologies even if we belong to the same political party. So, I think that's what excites me most about multi-member districtricting. And I'm also in favor of rank choice voting. Um, I know we didn't bring this one up fully, but that one is one that I really like. But yeah. >> Yeah. I was actually just thinking about rank choice voting like but um since everyone I guess gave like a history lesson about their state, I will talk about New Jerseyy's county line system that I like learned about recently. And basically what it was is that like the county leaders were endorsing people that they wanted to win an election and they would be on this side of the ballot and then there would just be like a whole like two row gap and then you have the other people that haven't been endorsed and are maybe newer candidates. And so it just created this what we've been talking about this whole session is just this stagnation of who's actually um being a candidate and who's looking like they're a candidate on the ballot. And it was really destructive, I think, to democracy in New Jersey. And actually, at the New Voters 250 summit, I met um Yell Bramberg, who was a litigator on that case, and she was like, in her words, she made them eat dirt when it came to the county line. So, that was exciting. And I just think that just to add on to what May and Sonia were saying, it's just that I am totally in favor of rank choice voting and of um proportional representation because I just think that we need to sort of get rid of this comfort that politicians have like I was referencing earlier like I know that was kind of a joke to the DCC's but like I do really believe that when we have complacent politicians it just it just puts us in a place that is not productive. no matter how you look at it from whatever party standpoint. And I think a lot of people I'm like I talked to adults I think it's always frustrating to talk to an adult and hear that they're not going to vote. But so I talked to a lot of adults that weren't going to vote and they I think a lot of people mention the um lesser of two evils and they're like lesser of two evils, lesser of two evils and just it's this whole thing and then you're like so why aren't you at the rank choice voting like meeting? Why aren't you like there? I just feel like we always talk about the lesser of two evils, but then we like who set that system up? Because we keep on coming back to this, we keep on coming back to this system and it's like if you guys don't want the lesser of two evils, then you should support rank choice voting. If you guys don't want the lesser of two evils, then maybe less you should support um proportional representation. I just think that there needs to sort of be not an overhaul, but there needs to be like a a big change when it comes to that if people want to stop having those conversations of who is who is like better but still bad. >> Yeah. Yeah. That's super interesting to hear. And so before we go into the Q&A, we have a lot of really good questions from the audience, but I wanted to ask you guys if if you were to run for office, would you start your own party? Would you run within a party? Um, I'm curious like what would be your your platform as well? And the world's there's no limit to this just like I guess the easier question for like would you want to run for office? I mean, going off of what I said before about politics kind of being the thing that affects everyone's lives, it is um it is super attractive to me to run for office and to become that representation for people, especially when I feel so discouraged about like, hey, whoa, there's a clear answer to this. Like, we could be helping people and we're just like doing the opposite. Um, like obviously for me it feels like, yeah, why don't I just run and, you know, do the things that I think are right. Um, I mean, I would love for a system that allows for me to be more than Democrat or Republican because I think a lot of youth these days are um just kind of disassociating with either of those titles. Just feeling like, oh, both sides are bad, so I'm going to be neither. And that kind of helps no one because like if the moderates are leaving the party, it's just further polarization between the two sides making them, you know, like super extreme either way. And then there's people just like abstaining because they don't want like to be one of the two evils. Um, so I love everything that y'all are saying about um, just kind of party divisions and making space for like variations between what people think. And I hope that's a system that we have when I would be um, at the age to run for office so that I could be more than a Democrat or Republican. >> Wait, Sonia, what about you guys? I also I will say yeah I also feel that inclination to run for office um for especially because I am like a policy junkie and I care a lot about like researching policy and stuff. Um and so I do feel that need to like or that inclination or inkling to like you know run for office yourself and then you know try and lobby for those policies yourself and have the power to actually um try and like affect that change. I will say though I would probably run on the Democratic ticket as the that's where my values do personally align but I would say like like May I do think that there's kind of like I have my a lot of criticisms of the Democratic party as it stands and so I do think that me personally or I would be fine with running on their ticket but I think a lot of people with the kind of ideologies that I have that are generally um more economically progressive or more like socially progressive on certain issues um might find themselves that they'd rather be in kind of like a more independent lane because you don't want to get your aspirations bogged down by kind of a ticket that or people from areas that aren't necessarily representative of your experiences, right? Like I from Texas am not going to have naturally the same political opinions as someone from New York and California. But you do see that those two states dominate whatever like policies that Democrats tend to adopt in their national platform. Um, and so I think I personally, um, to answer your question about where I would be when it comes to like whether I run run on my own party or not, I would personally run on the Democratic ticket and I personally would have a lot of like um, in terms of actual platform, I'd probably run on enforcing accountab accountability and campaign finance reform as that's something I'm really passionate about. I also do enjoy um kind of regulating big tech industries and policies that kind of encourage smart technology innovation um and investing in public education. Yeah, I would say that like Sonia, I would probably run on the Democrat ticket, but I don't think that being part of a party necessarily means that you have to like swear your allegiance to a party and like defend to the death everybody from that party because I just feel like that's kind of where we might be at right now. But I think like even running as a Democrat, I would criticize other Democrat. I definitely criticize other Democrats and I criticize Republicans and criticize everyone that is not sort of representing their constituents. I feel like when you're a politician like your loyalty should be to your constituents or to the people Yeah. to the people you represent. So I feel like in terms of a platform like Sonia was mentioning I definitely agree on sort of reforming big tech and um like the just the threat of sort of AI data centers is something that's very um on my mind right now especially living in New Jersey where it's potentially become a reality for us. And I also think um climate change is something that I would be really strong on. I think that we have the potential to have so much more green infrastructure and so I would probably run on that as well. >> Awesome. Well, now turning to some of the questions from the audience. I'll I'll start first with some of the technical ones. Um, and Dustin feel free to jump in here. Uh so there's a question of whether term limits would help that we talked a lot in our report and I think one of the things we found was that not necessarily because it seems like people are starting to run for office quite later in life. So even among the primary candidates like most candidates are in their 50s or 60s. So it seems like a lot of the older politicians would be replaced by soon to be [clears throat] old politicians as well. Um but Dustin, what are other reforms out there that could help for um either young people to run for office or participate more in politics? >> It's it's true. Um it's a it's a really good question first of all, but it's true that um terms of members in Congress are actually getting shorter. Um so it's not that uh politicians are getting elected and staying in office forever. That's sort of like the common narrative about it. And we do have a couple examples of like really old politicians who have been around forever, you know. Um, but that's not as common. Like you said, a lot of them are are getting elected when they're when they're older. Um, and and I think, you know, we certainly don't come down uh uh against experience, per se. That's not that's not what we would argue against that like you you sort of shouldn't have older politicians getting elected and that you shouldn't have people who have even served for a really long time. Uh you just want Congress to look like the people and right now it doesn't. It's it's really heavily skewed towards older people against younger people. Um so a reform like age limits um would would probably make a lot more sense than term limits in tackling this problem. saying that for you know maybe maybe the the age of 76 for you know for 1776 maybe that's the cutoff age for serving in Congress or or or something like that uh to prevent these you know u uh situations where you have someone serving who's maybe uh maybe not fully equipped to do so. Um uh I think that's a that's a serious proposal that you're seeing more people talk about a lot more. Uh but yeah, term limits probably wouldn't be that useful for tackling this problem. Some ways could make it actually worse. Um but you know, we we come down hard on on uh on the side of proportional representation, but reforms to money and politics uh have been mentioned several times here, and that obviously is a is a huge one that would um that if we can if we can do something there to uh to change the incentive structure for running for office, that'll be really positive. you'll never be able to truly get money out of politics. Um because uh money is how people value things and uh uh and politics is very valuable. But uh there's there's certainly reforms that that that we could do uh to um to change the incentive structure in a positive way. >> Right. And part of the question is also asking here whether things like mandatory voting would help. And I think one of the maybe not mandatory voting, but one of the most successful reforms out there for for getting young people to vote is same day voter registration just because young people move for college or move for different jobs. Uh so just being making it easier for young people to vote um and like day of registration could help a lot. Um there's one question here on the role of media and how media influences um your politics. So I'm curious um Troy on in May like what do you think of the role that media plays here? >> Yes, this is actually exactly what my project is about is about media's impact on people's political attitudes. And I could like yap about the psychology behind why like media is so pervasive in our personal views, but I think the gist of it is and people will agree just based on their own experience. It's just that everything that we consume sort of imprints on us. And so when you are on social media and one of the terms that gets thrown around is ideological echo chamber, which is when um your algorithm shows you more of what you like. So you won't be exposed to new viewpoints. And so I think that the way just I mean I guess there's just been this theme of stagnation but like media will really have you believing the same thing because it thinks oh this person will keep watching if they are shown more of what they like and they'll click off if they're shown more of what they don't like because we don't like new things in general people which isn't that's just I guess how the world works. But I do think that um in terms of short form media that's the case. But also um long form media I think has become so polarizing even the news. And I just think we see this like this us versus them narrative where it's like that Sonia was talking about earlier where it's like always me versus you. How can like I get a leg up? How can I um do this and do that and inflict harm onto somebody else or ruin somebody else's agenda? And I think that it's just become sort of media has become such a huge part of politics, especially like as like we're now in a digital age and we see AI and we see like AI generated videos becoming a problem. But I do think that overall if people like it's something that I think takes agency from people. And so that's why I think that like as individuals we should just be really careful with what we believe just because of what we've seen online. Yeah, and I wanted to jump in here because when Troy was talking about um how not just short form media, but long form was impacted, I was reminded a little bit of how his project uses media, but specifically comedy. And that reminded me that I think that although we kind of see media as like this doom and gloom for politics, right? Like oh my gosh, like it's just an echo chamber. Like we're seeing everything is so polarized. I do think that there are avenues of media that have personally kind of shaped the trajectory of my politics by exposing me to things that I would have not heard. And that's what I see with movies and TV and film. Um, and so like for example, right, I don't know why I was watching South Park when I was in 8th grade, but I watched South Park when I was in eighth grade. And I initially was like very like I I didn't have kind of like the political views that I have now in terms of kind of like rejecting sort of what's been told to me by what I should believe or kind of like more typical like establishment viewpoints, right? But I think that the streak of independence that I saw from South Park of kind of being able to freely criticize both parties, right? I kind of like you know picked up on that and I was receptive to those criticisms because you know it made me laugh and it related to me on a personal level. I think likewise I think a lot of people are able to find those experiences with media with you know some of the movies that they've watched or the TV shows that they've watched right like I know with Superman people saw kind of a lot more of like relations to kind of like the immigrant experience with the Superman movie. I know the Odyssey also has like its own undertones. Um, and so I think that in that sense, media can be a good tool like in terms of shaping who you are as in political um, and the political positions that you have and exposing you to new viewpoints. Um, and it's a shame that short form and long form content has been ruined, but I think that political like movies and TVs kind of show the way that we can reform short and long form content. Um, but yeah, that's my two cents. Yeah, I mean I've definitely had a similar experience to both of you. I've definitely experienced the ideological echo chamber. I mean my for you page looks um a certain way. It's like mostly left leaning and then I get like uh like a mega TikTok. I'm like whoa, I'm in the wrong place, you know, like scroll past that. And I kind of it does kind of make me feel more extreme in my views because it's like oh all these other people agree like obviously we're right because all these people are agreeing. I did want to shout out um someone that I met at the New Voters 250 retreat, Nina Harris, and she had this um like this podcast, this listening group that's called Unfortunately Not a Soapbox, or you can correct me if I got that name wrong, but she and um one of her peers, they purposefully listen to um like right-wing MAGA content to kind of understand the um the strategies that they're using to get their viewers um to believe this certain ideology and the kind of things that they're saying. And so that is interesting to me and that's kind of going off what you said Sonia about how media can be used to understand these different perspectives if you're super conscientious about it and um purposefully trying to integrate different perspectives. So I definitely can see how media can be used both ways to kind of polarize and to kind of help us understand each other. Well, we're unfortunately uh running up on time for the questions, but uh I wanted to thank the audience for the questions. this for some really engaging uh it made for a really engaging conversation. And before handing it over to Alex, I just wanted to say you guys are so eloquent and I'm so excited to see uh where your projects go, what you do next, and you've been able to say so many of the things that we say in the report in such a dry language and just like in such an eloquent way. So, um yeah, I'm really excited to see what you guys what you guys do next. and I'll hand it over to Alex who will do the closer remarks for the event. >> Thank you so much Oscar. Um well hello everyone. I like all of you have had the pleasure of being a fly on the wall for this incredible panel conversation. Uh and I know I've had lots of little like light bulb moments um throughout this entire conversation. And I also got my start doing voter engagement work in high school and did not speak eloquently at all [laughter] about any of this. So, so major props to May Troy and Sonia. Um, but my name is Alex Edgar. I am uh 23 years old and the co-founder of a national initiative called Youth 250 uh which has been focused over the past two and a half years on elevating young people's leadership and voices in preparation for the US 250th which we are now already in and really the the goal that kind of launched this initiative was the idea that I think really came out very strongly from this panel conversation. It's that actually the problem fundamentally with our country is not the people. It is the systems and structures that prevent every person, not just young, not just old, every American from accessing our country, our democracy, um, and all of the, you know, incredible opportunities that exist here. Um so UT50 for us we focused primarily on cultural institutions, government agencies, nonprofits and others um to help them understand how do you tell the American story in a way that connects with a younger audience uh and really designed 250th initiatives that would engage young people in the story of our country's founding. Um and I saw so much of that in our conversation today. A couple of the things that like really I think like jumped out at me um in particular was kind of like the conversation about the vibes of our democracy versus like the reality of the political system. I love Sonia you bringing up rage baiting as so much of how our politics is done today. Uh, and the effect of May, I think you pointed out the idea of it's like this confusing paradox of like they're kind of doing things for you and they also are like yelling at you all the time. And then as Troy said, there's a savior complex and it's kind of just like this big mess that as I think all of you pointed out like it our generation decides to disengage from the traditional political structure. That doesn't mean they're not engaging in their communities of course. Um, but they see this as kind of like the, you know, ball of chaos over in DC. And then it's like, well, I love my local community and like I love giving back and engaging with my local community. And I think the New Voters 250 fellows were a great example of that. Young people care a lot about what's going on locally and are trying to get their peers engaged. Um, and I think the the last thing I'll share kind of in closing thoughts on this wonderful panel, um, is the idea of the generational tensions. Uh, and if I could leave everyone who's listening, um, regardless of where you're coming in from, whether you are a family member, community member, you are someone who runs an institution or works at an institution. um to really take this conversation today as an invitation to all of us to think through where there are opportunities to improve, to shift, to change the systems and institutions that we currently are a part of um to be more accessible to all people. I think the uh you know so uh kind of correctly called out by Dustin, the idea of it's not the youngs or the old's faults, it's the structure. Um and I think really to um for all of us in our own communities to think through where where are those kind of norms as I Sonia May and Troy all pointed out so much of our current generational uh distrust and politics is based on on norms uh and the idea of needing to wait your turn the desire to consolidate power um a and to really feel more repres represented. Uh, and I see this as an opportunity both this panel but also the great work that Oscar and Dustin are doing um and their incredible report the age divide and the great work that the new voters team is doing all over the country to invite us all to look at our own organizations and see where change is possible to make it more accessible. So on behalf of the New America team, New Voters uh and myself want to thank you all so much for coming and joining us for this panel conversation. Um, and be on the lookout for a follow-up email with more resources and information uh, and reporting of this panel. Take care, everyone.