Kansas lives in the Valley and is a registered Democrat but said he considers himself an independent. He cares about housing — an issue he’s worked on personally with Unemployed Workers United — as well as military spending on foreign wars and campaign finance reform.
But national politics have left him disenchanted. “I’m waiting for a politician that actually represents me,” Kansas said. “I’ve never had that.” Party politics, he said, are a “toxic mindset,” getting in the way of real change.
“How are you supposed to move forward?” Kansas asked. “How are you supposed to progress things if you have a bunch of evil money shadow puppets in Congress instead of people who care?”
Kansas is hardly unique among young voters in Arizona. A new study published by The Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy at ASU suggests there are many young adults just like him — those who are genuinely concerned about solving ongoing issues through democratic means but who feel disillusioned by the hollowness of party politics.
The study, titled “Frustrated but Engaged” and led by CISD co-director and ASU professor Thom Reilly, surveyed 1,315 registered Arizona voters between the ages of 20 and 30 via text messages and phone calls. Most come from the state’s urban centers, are white or Latino, and consider themselves “independent or unaffiliated” (40%) or Democrat (30%). Most interestingly, two-thirds of those Gen Z voters said they will vote this November.
But the question is for whom? Eighty percent of respondents said both the Republican and Democratic parties are out of touch with people their age, and the same percentage disagreed with the statement that both parties want what’s best for the country. What they care about most, in order, are the cost of living, affordable housing, protecting the water supply and health care.
They just don’t think the people in power will do anything about it.
“They’re just not buying the partisan divide and the polarization,” Reilly said. “But they’re still concerned about these issues.”
The political disillusionment felt by many Gen Z voters could affect down-ballot races as well as the presidential election.
Benjamin Leatherman
A political bellwether
Getting young people excited about voting has always been a tough nut for politicians to crack.Gen Z voters between the ages of 20 and 30 accounted for 19% of Arizona’s voting age population and 18% of the state’s registered voters in the 2022 midterms. But only 10% of ballots cast in that election came from that age group. According to a U.S Census report on the 2022 election, young voters have been underrepresented in every election on record compared with the voting-age population.
Notably, 2022 was an improvement on that trend. Nationally, that election saw the second-smallest underrepresentation of young voters in history, just behind the 2018 election. According to a report by CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, Gen Z voter turnout in 2022 was higher than Gen X and Millennial turnout when those generations were in the 18-24 age group.
But the trend toward independent affiliation is a bellwether for the future, Reilly said, and one he thinks should concern both Republicans and Democrats. Young people consistently have preferred the Democratic party over the GOP, according to another CIRCLE study. But despite trending more progressive and liberal, Gen Z voters rely increasingly less on parties to tell them how to vote.
That matches what Alberto Olivas has observed. Olivas is the executive director of ASU’s Pastor Center for Politics and Public Service, which works with students to increase civic participation. He’s found that high school and college students view both parties as “equally vitriolic and unproductive.” Never, he said, has he simultaneously seen this level of political interest in young people along with this level of “disaffection from traditional political levers of power.”
Olivas said important local issues can boost young voter participation — such as a likely ballot initiative in Arizona that could enshrine the right to abortion statewide — but said the malaise Gen Z may feel over their choices for president could lead them to ignore other ballot items that will affect their lives.
Though national politics sucks up all the oxygen, local and statewide races decide many of the issues that directly affect voters. By flipping the state Legislature, Arizona voters completely clear the party gridlock that has plagued the first two years of Gov. Katie Hobbs’ administration. The ballot also will include referenda that affect the minimum wage, immigration, the courts and how primaries and citizen initiatives operate.
Those races matter. Kansas hopes his generation knows that — even if they’re planning to sit out the presidential election like he is.
“There’s people out there that share my beliefs, I know that,” Kansas said. “I know that to be true, and one day maybe one of them will be in the position to fight.”
