Young voters could help shape the midterms. But will they turn out?

Advocates are enthusiastic about the potential for increased youth voter turnout in key races in Tuesday's midterms.

The economy, the Trump administration, AI and data centers have all sparked a fire in young Americans, according to youth voter groups that have knocked on thousands of doors across the country ahead of what is expected to be a good election for Democrats.

A report from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) last month found Generation Z voters' top priority this midterm is rising costs and inflation, along with the increase in housing prices and access to healthcare.

"I do think we're going to see incredibly high levels of youth voter turnout this election, and it's because there is no lack of care amongst young people. There's an abundance of caring about the world and current events, and in the last two years, there have been no shortage of major events happening that directly affect these students," said Jahnavi Rao, president and founder of New Voters.

Polling has shown Democrats are likely to retake the House and potentially the Senate, according to Decision Desk HQ, after two years of a Republican trifecta.

And for young voters, this election may be a referendum on President Trump.

A Harvard Youth Poll from last month found 77 percent of surveyed young people disapproved of Trump's handling of the economy, and 63 percent declared that their congressional vote would be in opposition to the president.

Surveys on expected youth voter participation, however, have been mixed.

The Harvard poll found 33 percent of young people planned to vote, down from 40 percent who said the same in the past two midterms. The decline this Election Day is mostly from young Republicans who aren't as interested in voting.

But in the UCLA study, 74 percent of Gen Z respondents said they were likely to vote in the midterms.

And a New York Times/Siena University poll in October showed enthusiasm on the left is higher than in previous elections, with 70 percent of young voters identifying as Democrats ahead of the midterms, a 15-point jump from before the 2024 election.

"How the presidency is being ran right now is not my cup of tea, with the cost of everything so expensive," Kaylynn Hitchcock, a 21-year-old from Georgia, told The New York Times . "There's not a lot of affordable housing. The price of gas is ridiculous. We are not getting raises with our jobs."

In 2022, the midterms had the second highest youth voter turnout in decades at almost 30 percent participation, but voters this year are facing an entirely different set of issues — with the exception of high prices and inflation.

"Whether [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] gets more funding, whether data centers get built in their communities, whether we have fighters in Congress, will come down to whether we turn out in huge enough numbers to make a difference," said Kidus Girma, campaigns director at the Sunrise Movement.

And youth voter turnout does have the potential to swing races, with 8 million new voters eligible since the 2024 election.

"The youth vote remains incredibly important in tomorrow's midterm elections," said a spokesperson from Turning Point Action, the political advocacy arm of the conservative group Turning Point USA. "We recognize that today's youth are the backbone of America's next generation and future leaders for this country. We are hopeful that young Americans will show up and make history at the polls tomorrow."

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University released a "Youth Electoral Significance Index" over the summer rating which elections could be most affected by the youth vote. Its top three Senate races were the close contests in Maine, Michigan and Ohio, and its top three gubernatorial races were Wisconsin, Georgia and Iowa.

Young people are particularly interested in progressive Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, who has run a campaign focused on the economy with a concerted effort to bring in younger voters.

"The Abdul El-Sayed campaign, right, [is] one that has really made clear that cost of living and a broken deal with young voters has been made, and that they are talking about what it actually means to ensure that you have fair wages, economic mobility, healthcare for all, less money out of politics," said Dakota Hall, executive director at Alliance for Youth Action.

"I think that's a good campaign that young people are really attached to, and they see that this individual, this candidate, is talking about the broken deal in society that we have right now as young people," he added.

Aastha Singh, the president of College Democrats at Michigan State University, told MLive students appreciate that El-Sayed "will say things as they are and not beat around the bush."

"Things like calling out a genocide for what it is, for talking about data centers and AI and Flock cameras and for taking a concrete point on things like that," rather than trying to "cater to both sides," Singh said.

Meanwhile, former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), who is in a close fight against Sen. Jon Husted (R), leads with 66 percent support to Husted's 32 percent among young voters, according to a New York Times/Siena University poll, meaning getting that group to the polls will be essential for his campaign.

And with almost half of states allowing voter registration on Election Day, yyoung people could be poised to show up en masse on Tuesday.

"We've done a report about young people using same-day registration, and it's very popular because so many young people are in transition in the fall, moving to a new place to live and haven't had a chance to get registered. So, we expect a big boost also on Election Day because of same-day registration," said Laura Brill, founder and CEO of the Civics Center.