In the 2008 election, 52% of young people voted. Despite its appearance as an uneventful number, that half-ish percentage represents the largest turn out of the youth vote in my lifetime. What is pretty darn thrilling is that our strong showing at the polls was not some fluke caused by the unique political mood of 2008. Young people’s involvement in elections has trended upwards in every national election since 1996. This is a major source of pride for us Millennials!
Today, the youth vote is sought after by any candidate with a smart campaign. If a candidate wins over the youth vote, they may very well win. So I was absolutely thrilled when a group of candidates running in contests all over Florida also recognized this and asked Rock the Vote to participate in a candidate forum for young voters. First, I gathered questions from young voters in the Sunshine State. Then, we asked the candidates your questions! Many of you asked candidates to specify how they planned to strengthen Florida’s job market for young people. You wanted to hear about strategies that would bring businesses to our state. In addition, we collected many questions about rebuilding communities on Florida’s gulf coast so that young people can continue to live and work in the towns in which they grew up. Finally, lots of you asked about the recent tuition hike of Florida universities, wanting to know how candidates planned to control the cost of higher education in our state. You all asked questions on topics that impacted you, creating a dialogue between Florida’s youth and our political candidates.
Keep it up, young people: require that candidates speak to issues that impact us, demand that candidates engage their youth constituency, and make the crew of candidates earn your vote. For this year’s midterm elections, Rock the Vote will host a score of candidate forums and to prepare for that, we’ll be sending out questionnaires to those running for office. Have a question for your future elected officials? Submit your input here.Share and Enjoy:
Tags: Candidates, Florida
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 10:32 pm and is filed under 2010 elections, Candidate Forum, Florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
7/22/2010
Pride for us Millennials! « Rock the Vote Blog
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