West Linn, Oregon, U.S.A. – Across the United States, the first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump captured the attention of America’s youngest generations.
More than 67 million viewers watched the September 10 debate between the two candidates, according to data from Nielsen.
Many of those viewers were youth. Newsrooms spanning all of the U.S. showed college students from Ann Arbor, Baltimore, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, and lots of cities in between organizing debate watch parties.
This year, more than 8 million youth will be eligible to vote for the first time, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.
In total, 41 million members of Gen Z can vote in this year’s election.
“The climate crisis, gun violence and racism” are the issues youth newly eligible to vote are most likely to care about, said Jahnavi Rao to an NBC reporter in August.
Rao is the founder of New Voters, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on high school civic engagement. Ahead of Election Day on November 5, New Voters plans 400 drives and 40,000 new registrations in Pennsylvania and Arizona, two closely followed swing states.
In Michigan – another closely-watched swing state – students expressed mixed feelings about the candidates, but came together to watch the debate.
“I can definitely say that students really care about this upcoming election,” said Jimena Garcia, student body president of Oakland University, a public school in the Detroit suburb of Rochester. “They are all talking about it for sure.”
Alberto Medina, spokesperson for Tufts’ nonpartisan research center providing context about youth political engagement ahead of Election Day, said, “Our research shows that most youth care deeply about a wide range of issues.”
But, issues that directly affect K-12 students were largely left out of the Harris-Trump debate.
Neither candidate used the spotlight to trace a clear plan for K-12 and college students during their four years in office.
Neither Harris nor Trump mentioned plans to make schools safer, even as the shooting at Apalachee High School less than two weeks ago continues to affect students’ feelings of safety at school.
They also did not discuss the rising cost of college or ways to ensure education adequately prepares students for a rapidly-changing future.
Though the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement will not research about the debate directly, they are planning a post-election survey to “understand where youth got information about issues” during the election cycle, said Medina.
The center’s work also includes dispelling myths about young people.
“One of the most common is that youth are politically apathetic,” Medina said.
Young viewers newly engaged in the election by the U.S. presidential debate, and students organizing events like watch parties and voter registrations on school campuses are one step toward counteracting that myth of youth disengagement.
The next step will be to exercise their right to vote.
Annamika Konkola is a Senior Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
