I fear that young people aren’t as tuned into this election cycle as the campaigns courting their votes want them to be.
There’s less than five weeks until the 2026 midterm elections, and things are heating up in the world of politics. But my generation moves at the speed of the internet, and right now, politics isn’t trending.
According to young people I’ve spoken to in the past few weeks and months, it just feels… exhausting and disappointing.
Last month, I predicted we could see lower youth voter turnout this year than we did in 2018 and 2022, the other two midterms Gen Z’s been eligible to vote. There’s just less electoral energy now than there was back then.
Here’s what I’m hearing.
2018 saw a whole wave of new voters, coming of age amidst a backdrop of urgent social issues like Me Too and March for Our Lives, and it was the first post-Trump election. And 2022 galvanized young voters — especially young women — around reproductive healthcare access post-Dobbs and was a referendum for Republicans after January 6. But the 2026 midterm elections don’t have a hallmark event that young voters are responding to.
Economic anxiety, their primary concern, is more of a constant stress than a specific threat worth an immediate response. Plus, when jobs and inflation are part of the problem, voting can seem like a distraction from one’s daily to-do list — their job, their classes, taking care of their family.
Don’t get me wrong. Young people are absolutely paying attention. They’re hyper plugged in and see alarming headlines all over their feeds, all the time.
But their relationship to politics has changed dramatically in the past couple of years. As AI reshapes the economy, war wages, and inflation rises, their priorities have shifted from social issues to economic concerns. I know this because I’ve been listening to them.
As part of a recent Reality Check with our Gen Z community, we asked respondents to describe their relationship to politics right now, as if it were a person.
In a sign of just how over this all some young people are, one 27-year-old from Washington, D.C. called politics a “toxic all-compassing ex.”
A 19-year-old from Maine, where there’s a crucial Senate race underway, said: “I think I could get to know them better if I had more time.”
And a 20-year-old from Connecticut said it’s “complicated, about to ghost.”
Overwhelmingly, there’s a sense that things are rocky, with little transparency or follow through, and it’s pushing young people away.
