Mobilizing Millennials

Millennials have been the source of much debate in the US. It only takes a quick google search to find hundreds of articles that list what industries millennials have “killed.” One Business Insider article was actually titled, “Psychologically scarred millennials are killing countless industries from napkins to Applebee's — here are the businesses they like the least.” The article even prefaced their list with the following sentence: “Here are 19 things millennials are killing.” 

(This is an actual google search I did)

While many articles overdramatize and sensationalize the repercussions of millennial behavior on industries, there is some important truth to it. Millennials do operate differently than previous generations and, although bluntly put, the Business Insider article touched on another point that likely has some truth to it. It is very possible that millennials as a generation are “psychologically scarred.” These are the people that were born in 1980-1994 who were young when 9/11 happened and when the 2008 financial crisis hit. As a generation they have had to adapt to many difficult world events and entered the workforce in a time uncertainty. 

Millennials are now between the ages of 25-39 and, according to Pew Research, make up the majority of the work force—beating out Gen Xers in 2016. While Millennials have become the majority in the labor force, there still is a disconnect in the political arena.  In the last few years there has been some progress with millennial voter turnout, but they still have not caught up to older generations yet.

Regarding the 2020 election, Anthony Cilluffo and Richard Fry of Pew Research said, “Differences in turnout rates again matter when talking about generations and should be kept in mind as election season gets underway. Since older adults are more likely to turn out to vote, it’s possible that older generations will form a larger share of actual voters in 2020 than their share in the electorate.”  Even with the progress of millennial turnout, these older generations are still more likely to have higher percentages of voter turnout. It is likely that 2020 will follow the same pattern of the 2016 presidential election where boomers and older generations cast 49% of the ballots while only accounting for 43% of the eligible voters.

Another point made by Cilluffo and Fry is that millennials and younger generations “differ notably from older generations in their views on key social and political issues.” It is not clear the what effect this will have on the 2020 elections but at the end of the day it will depend on voter turnout. Political scholar Joseph Gershtenson in his 2003 research on political mobilization predicted that parties would need to adapt to changes like this in order to win future elections. He said, “More generally, political parties should be expected to adapt to changes in the electoral environment and the findings here suggest that such adaptation occurs. Parties adapt to changes in the electoral environment because they aim to win elections.”

Historically both the democratic and republican parties have put their effort into mobilizing older, educated, and wealthier citizens to vote. While that has been effective in the past, the parties will need to adapt their voter mobilization strategies to grow voter turnout for younger generations. According to Pew Research, when millennials were combined with the younger generations they actually outvoted boomers and the older generations in 2018. It is likely the 2020 election will see similar outcomes. While older generations might vote at higher percentages, there are still more young voters that parties need to take into account.

Works Cited

'Psychologically scarred' millennials are killing countless industries from napkins to Applebee's — here are the businesses they like the least

https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list-2017-8

Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/11/millennials-largest-generation-us-labor-force/

Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X outvoted older generations in 2018 midterms

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/29/gen-z-millennials-and-gen-x-outvoted-older-generations-in-2018-midterms/

Mobilization Strategies of the Democrats and Republicans, 1956-2000

https://learningsuite.byu.edu/plugins/Upload/fileDownload.php?fileId=80d90861-sUu8-RtcA-qdRH-UE4d2847884f 

An early look at the 2020 electorate 

https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/essay/an-early-look-at-the-2020-electorate/