{"id":50159,"date":"2019-11-19T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T20:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=50159"},"modified":"2024-11-14T15:16:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-14T20:16:24","slug":"texas-gen-z-millennial-voters-could-play-critical-role-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/11\/19\/texas-gen-z-millennial-voters-could-play-critical-role-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Gen Z, Millennial Voters Could Play Critical Role in 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/tx\/austin\/news\/2019\/11\/19\/gen-z--millennial-voters-talk-front-runners--issues-\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Spectrum News: Texas Gen Z, Millennial Voters Could Play Critical Role in 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/spectrumlocalnews.com\/tx\/san-antonio\/news\/2017\/09\/22\/kathryn-gisi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kathryn Gisi&nbsp;<\/a>Austin<br \/>PUBLISHED 6:42 PM CT Nov. 18, 2019<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AUSTIN, Texas &#8212;&nbsp;Texas has one of the youngest populations in the country, and&nbsp;despite typically dire turnout,&nbsp;young voters came out in droves during the 2018 election.&nbsp;Now,&nbsp;as the 2020 cycle is rapidly coming into focus,&nbsp;so is the electorate that will determine its outcome. That electorate&nbsp;includes an increasingly diverse and growing Generation Z and Millennials.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Texas has among youngest populations in U.S.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Youngest Americans to make up 37% of 2020 electorate<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Voters surveyed focused on issues but not set on candidates<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group of four students at Austin Community College&nbsp;agreed to sit down with Spectrum News on Monday. The group included three Generation Z voters, and one Millenial voter.&nbsp;Of the four, only one, the Millennial voter, James Choi, had landed on a candidate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cElizabeth Warren, I think it\u2019s time for a woman president,&#8221; said Choi.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The other three Gen Z&#8217;ers remain undecided, but Ella Stankiewics was quick to share her priority issue.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDefinitely women\u2019s reproductive rights. I think that would be my top one because it relates directly to me,\u201d said Stankiewics.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While all four of the students consider themselves to be left-leaning, Choi said he&#8217;s open to learning from the right.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;I\u2019m not, like, totally opposed to listening to the other side and even looking at candidates on the other side,\u201d&nbsp;said Choi.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s a sentiment among these young voters that both political parties are trying to hone in on&nbsp;because the youngest Americans, Millennials and Generation Z,&nbsp;&nbsp;are set to make up 37 percent of the electorate in 2020, according to Pew Research.&nbsp;But these younger generations are by far more racially and ethnically diverse and are more likely to be Democrats.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Another Gen Z&#8217;er,&nbsp;Danni Williams,&nbsp;said&nbsp;she&#8217;ll be looking to see where&nbsp;the candidates stand on the issue of gun reform.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI have nieces and nephews who I love more than anything, so I can\u2019t imagine being a parent and thinking something is more important than my child\u2019s life,\u201d said Williams.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Three of the four students we spoke with are&nbsp;already seemingly very engaged, but Stefan Bardwell Rueda was&nbsp;not afraid to admit he&#8217;s not paying attention yet.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou guys have everything figured out, I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know what y\u2019all are talking about!\u201d said Bardwell Rueda.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still,&nbsp;there are issues that get him interested, like climate change.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou know, not just reducing emissions, but stopping emissions is really important,\u201d said Bardwell Rueda.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And he said&nbsp;he&#8217;s been inspired to engage more politically, which is the&nbsp;outlook of a growing electorate that has the attention of all candidates.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While younger generations differ notably from older generations in their views on key social and political issues,&nbsp;Baby boomers remain the generation with the largest share of the voting-eligible population,&nbsp;older generations have historically been more likely to turn out and vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spectrum News: Texas Gen Z, Millennial Voters Could Play Critical Role in 2020 By&nbsp;Kathryn Gisi&nbsp;AustinPUBLISHED 6:42 PM CT Nov. 18, 2019 AUSTIN, Texas &#8212;&nbsp;Texas has one of the youngest populations in the country, and&nbsp;despite typically &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/2019\/11\/19\/texas-gen-z-millennial-voters-could-play-critical-role-in-2020\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3930,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12,13,15],"tags":[600,90,1397,599],"class_list":["post-50159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acc-in-the-news","category-business-and-community","category-current-students","category-facstaff-news","tag-election","tag-politics","tag-spectrum-news","tag-voting"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.austincc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}