'One bad break away': The economic anxiety underlying Gen Z’s politics
DSA candidates’ success is not about socialism. It’s about the economy.
I held two focus groups with more than a dozen Gen Z voters this week, ages 18-25, from seven states: Florida, Pennsylvania, Arizona, New York, Nevada, Indianna, and Illinois.
They were the latest in our Gen Z politics series, where we’re asking about the key themes and issues they’re focused on ahead of the 2026 midterms. Earlier this week, I wrote about what young voters are looking for from politicians — character, hope, accountability, transparency.
When it comes to the political issues young people are focused on, we talk a lot about economic anxiety. But I’m not sure many people really understand what this actually feels like for those going through it.
Here’s what you need to know — and how young voters’ economic anxiety is impacting their politics.
I asked the participants in our focus groups to share what their financial concerns look like.
From balancing school, retail jobs, and work study programs to using student loan refunds to pay for basic necessities, opening up new credit cards to pay for additional expenses, and supporting their parents — here’s some of what we heard.
(TL;DR? I highlighted some especially noteworthy points)
“This summer, I do research at school, which is paid. I work at Athleta. I work at Ulta. And then, if I can find babysitting or anything like that, I’ll do that,” said a 20-year-old student in Pennsylvania. “Because I was in a pinch last summer with some family stuff going on, I decided to take out another credit card. And that was helpful like at the time to pay for stuff. It wasn’t like a crazy amount that I was approved for, but paying that back when you have to potentially pay for school or potentially pay for books or paying just to get back and forth from work, it can kind of feel stressful to feel like, okay, ‘When am I actually saving money?’”
“I also kind of rely on my refund during the semester, but recently I’ve been considering whether I should just cap my loans at my tuition amount and not get a refund. That way I will have to pay less once I get out of school,” she said.
“I’m currently renting an apartment. I’m sharing the rent across two other people. We each pay a third… $550 a month. I also work at Target part-time, and I also am paying for college. Usually during the school year I am relying on my refunds from school to pay my rent, to pay my car payment and car insurance, phone bill, internet, stuff like that. So through getting those refunds, even though they’re through the loans that I will have to pay off eventually, that gets me through the semesters, and then I catch up on winter and summer breaks,” said another 21-year-old college student in Pennsylvania.
“I’m paying for rent, but it’s not rent for myself. I’m paying for it for my mom. I feel like one of the things that stresses me out the most financially is not necessarily about my own personal finances because I’m lucky enough to have help, I guess. But when it comes to my mom who’s super old, an immigrant, [and] she got laid off like two years ago and it’s just been very difficult for her to find work. So the housing that I’m receiving from the government, which is not that bad compared to a lot of the housing in New York, but basically I’m letting her stay there,” said a 20-year-old from New York.
“I work part-time and if it wasn’t for the generosity of my best friend’s mother, I would not have a place to stay because I don’t really make enough to afford rent around here and also go to school, which I’m doing. I’m not currently under a lot of financial stress, but I’m very aware that I can’t move out or even saving for big purchases in the future is is very slow going because I only work part-time,” said a 22-year-old in Arizona.
“I work full-time as a teacher. Make a solid salary… it would be enough to live on my own, but like it’d be paycheck to paycheck. [If] you have a bad car bill or you have something wrong with your car, [it would] probably send me back behind. If I was to live my own, I’d be one bad break away from not being able to. And I feel like that’s [how the] majority of Americans feel. Where they’re either underwater or just barely treading water,” said a 25-year-old in Illinois.
When young voters talk about economic anxiety, it’s these experiences that they’re thinking about. And our focus group participants aren’t alone. In fact, this is how most young people across the country are feeling — 65% of young people said the cost of living and inflation are a top concern in a recent CIRCLE/When We All Vote survey, just ahead of healthcare and housing costs.
So what?
In the past few weeks, we’ve seen outsider candidates (including those who call themselves democratic socialists) win by running on a message that the system is broken, failing everyday Americans.
The takeaway here is not that young people are now all Democratic Socialists. It is that addressing economic anxiety is vital to winning young voters, and therefore, elections. And right now, for some young people, it feels like they’re the only candidates doing that.
“I feel like that’s the only avenue through which those things are actually being addressed,” a 21-year-old from New York who does not consider herself a democratic socialist (mainly because she hates labels) said about democratic socialism.
After all, how could anyone expect a candidate who ignores the everyday experience of young people to resonate with them?