The Up and Up goes to Las Vegas 🎰 🎲 🌵
1 in 10 Nevadans is a member of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander community. Last week, I spoke with some of the youngest members of this key voting bloc.
I held four listening sessions with young voters last week: one in Las Vegas, Nevada and three in Arizona (in Tempe, Mesa, and Tucson)… More on Arizona soon!
A bit of a programming roadmap… first, as usual, I’m going to lay out some high-level takeaways from the trip. In the coming weeks, I’ll dive deeper into themes that have come up in listening sessions across the country, so you can hear how young people are talking about key issues across different geographies. For example, the topic of life affordability and housing comes up in every 👏🏻 single 👏🏻 conversation 👏🏻 I have with young people, no matter where I am. I’ll dedicate an edition to that alone. Same goes for topics like abortion, high school and post-secondary education, and Israel’s war in Gaza. I also always ask where the young people get their news and information — so I’m going to do a feature on the information ecosystem too.
But I want to hear from you all! What are your most pressing questions? I’ll be answering these in the chat, and through the newsletter, so please send any thoughts my way.
In the meantime, today’s edition is focused on Las Vegas. In the next few days, I’ll share what I heard in Tempe, Mesa, and Tucson. Stay tuned. And if you’re not already, follow along @racheljanfaza and @the.upandup on Instagram.
The Up and Up goes to Las Vegas 🎰 🎲 🌵
1 in 10 Nevadans is a member of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander community (according to Census figures). So while I was in Las Vegas, Nevada last week, I spoke with some of the youngest members of this key voting bloc. We met at the offices of One APIA Nevada, a grassroots organization working to advocate and build political power for members of this growing demographic. The group of 12 young people ranged from 16 to 29-years-old. Of the dozen, half had previously voted.
Biggest community issues: Life affordability, education inequality, opportunity pipeline
The first half of our conversation centered around the opportunity pipeline in Las Vegas. There was consensus in the room that while education should be the bedrock of future opportunity, disparities in resources between schools and districts have created a local environment that benefits a lucky few rather than whole communities. Members of the group mentioned poor awareness when it comes to local elected positions like school boards, which may contribute to a lack of representation and advocacy for specific communities.
Here’s what some of the young people I spoke with had to say, starting with education:
“We lack a lot of resources compared to other districts,” said Celine, 16. "Because of that lack of investment, we see that children who come out of the Nevada education system have a harder time getting those high paying jobs.”
“A lot of the parents with kids, they don't really know who's on their school board, for the kids who need it the most. Especially with underrepresented minority groups, their parents don't know how to vote for the school board. They don't know who represents them,” said Ethan, 18. “So all the kids who have parents that are more wealthy, more educated… They're the ones who go out and vote for the school board, while everyone else is kind of just like, left behind. They don't really, they don't have any representation.”
“When you're in high school now, you have to start thinking about how you pay for stuff, like how you eventually buy a house,” said Amy, 26. “A lot of us grew up in households where our parents were able to afford housing here without having a corporate job or a tech job, or jobs that are now considered like white collar, desirable jobs. But I think that's where the conflict is coming in, because there's not as many jobs for people to compete for.”
When weighing the cost of college and viable job opportunities against the rising cost of living in the metro area, some aren’t sure it’s worth it. This tracks with Gallup/Walton Family Foundation data published a few months ago showing that Gen Z is less bullish on college than millennials were twenty years ago.
“People thinking about going into college, it’s like, ‘Why am I going into this $40,000, $50,000 debt a year to not get that return and like, just be told, like, ‘Oh, you should be happy with how it's always been. These jobs have always been enough for you to buy a house here,’” Amy said, alluding to skepticism from older community members who expect the jobs of yore to be sufficient for the next generation, because they were for the generation prior.
But in reality, wages for the jobs young Nevadans’ parents had haven’t kept up with the rising cost of living.
As a result: “Livelihoods are being squeezed,” Amy said. “People who are working in casinos, or people who have been the backbone of this economy for decades, are now no longer able to afford to live here, and even people who have good jobs are struggling. That's the basis of why people are so stressed about good education. Because if you're already starting from a disadvantage, and throughout your educational career you're always at a disadvantage, then you're never going to able to catch up in this rat race.”
“I definitely agree with that job prospect issue. I think that it's limited in Nevada to a very, very select amount of professions,” said Miguel, 19. Because there are “lots of employment opportunity for teachers and nurses,” he said there are more post-secondary education opportunities in those fields.
Though he said he recognizes a “burgeoning industry” when it comes to tech in Las Vegas, Ethan feels that, “you really have to go to the tech hubs like Austin, the Bay area or New York,” if you want to succeed in tech or finance.
Asked how many of the young people in the room plan to stay in Las Vegas for the long term, a majority said they want to move elsewhere in pursuit of “upward mobility.”
How the rising cost of living is impacting daily life
We always hear young people lament the rising cost of living — and polls show that the economy is a top concern for young voters. But we rarely hear how these rising costs are tangibly impacting young peoples’ lives. Here’s what some of the young Nevadans said:
Moving in together at early stage of relationship
Despite only having dated for six months at the time, Mia, 23, said she and Nick, 29, bought a house together to circumvent high costs of rent (the couple attended the listening session together).
“We were like, ‘Ok, should we rent a house?,’ But renting a house is actually more expensive than buying a house and paying for that,” Mia said. Though the decision drew skepticism, “even from the realtor [who] was like, ‘no one’s ever done that before,’” Mia said: “At the end of the day, that's what saves money, is buying a house together.”
Later, she said, “Everyone was like ‘Oh, you guys are actually really smart for doing that.’ Maybe if they had a partner they would do that too.”
Amy said she’s heard the same from platonic friends.
“There’s a lot of conversations about buying a home with friends. I have friends who bought property together and they rent it out… they both live separately, but [they] get extra income,” she said. “That's also a big part of the economy here, there’s a lot of short-term rentals.”
Not being able to afford gas after just getting your license
“It’s all of our first times driving. We have to pay for our own gas. And as the cost of gas continues to rise, it becomes very expensive for us to be able to afford gas to pump our cars, and it makes it difficult to get to workplaces as a result,” said Celine.
What’s motivating them to vote? For some, issues like abortion.
Nevada is one of the states where abortion could be on the ballot in November, after activists in the state said they collected enough signatures required to secure a measure that would enshrine abortion access into the state’s constitution. Though the signatures must be confirmed by state officials before the issue actually reaches the ballot, reproductive healthcare advocates (including some who I spoke with last week) said they’re optimistic that the issue will motivate voters (and young voters in particular).
For Jennifer, reproductive healthcare access was the watershed issue that sparked her interest in policy and politics. Before the Dobbs decision struck down Roe v. Wade, Jennifer was “apathetic about voting” because she didn’t feel the issues impacting her directly, she said. Now, she described a “fire under her seat” unearthed by “groups of very passionate people working actively to change these rules” when it comes to reproductive freedom in Nevada.
She’s worked to get abortion on the ballot and is excited by the possibility of voting for it in November, but regardless of how the ballot measure shakes out, she said she’ll vote for other offices and measures she wouldn’t necessarily have other wise after being turned onto politics by the issue of abortion.
A lack of information could deter young voters
But Nick issued a stark warning about the prospect of youth voter turnout in 2024:
“Something that deters me from wanting to vote is the lack of knowledge around the candidates, unless you’re politically involved and read up before on all the candidates, you’re not going to walk in and know who to vote for, so you kind of just end up choosing a random person,” he said.
While members of the group laid out key differences between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, they said they don’t just want to vote on party lines when it comes to the rest of the ballot.
“I don’t just want to vote randomly or on party line literally because I’m a democrat and vote for all the Democratic candidates in every single election. Doing my own research is important,” Miguel said.
‘It’s beyond registering them to vote, it’s like actually educating them on policies’: How to combat political exhaustion
At the end of our discussion, I asked if there was anything else I had missed.
“I think people don’t care anymore,” said Mia, who stressed that the folks in this room opted into the conversation. “I know other people who are not in this space and they don’t care. They don’t care about policy, they don’t care about who they vote for. They don’t even know anyone except for Trump or Biden’s name. It’s beyond registering them to vote, it’s like actually educating them on policies.”
I asked if there was a time when the people Mia referred to did care. She compared 2024 to 2020, arguing that 2020 was more climactic. Here’s what she said:
“It's just so much information. So it's like, ‘Oh, the election's coming up. Who cares?’ Right? They don't care. Like, I feel like even their parents probably don't care anymore, either.”
“It was so ‘Oh my god, Trump or Biden,’ But now, it’s the same thing. I feel like no one cares as much in 2024.”
I usually reject the trope that young people are apathetic. Historically speaking, it’s never been true, and youth voter turnout data from recent cycles pushes back against the narrative.
But it’s worth paying attention to recent polling and headlines about young people’s deep dissatisfaction with our current system, for example, this Semafor write up of a recent Blueprint poll with the title: ‘A dying empire led by bad people’: Poll finds young voters despairing over US politics.
This sentiment is surely reflected in a majority of the conversations I have with potential young voters. And yet, for the most part, that despair is not apathy. As Mia put it, it’s more like a frustrated exhaustion.
Mia’s analysis and Nick’s warning signal that while there are surely young people in key states (like those I spoke to in Las Vegas) who are tuning in because of specific issues or key policy concerns, there are also a lot of young people feeling information overload or like they don’t want a repeat of 2020.
For those trying to court their votes, the challenge over the next five months will be combating that fatigue and educating them about various candidates’ records on the issues they care most about. From what I’m hearing, that could be the difference maker.
A note to readers
This conversation at One APIA Nevada was part of The Up and Up’s series of listening sessions with young Americans (mostly) in battleground states. These listening sessions are separate from The Up and Up’s traditional reporting and are treated like focus groups. Participants are offered $25 in compensation for their time. These listening sessions and the travel required for them are made possible thanks to a grant from the Walton Family Foundation.
If you’re interested in convening a group, or have suggestions of where I should visit next, please reach out. I’d love to hear from you.