Those are the questions Young Democrats of America is asking as they do the final round of door knocking and bar hopping in 7 states, all with the goals of getting more young people to the polls to vote for Democrats on November 7th and building a solid bloc of young Democratic voters for the long haul.
The Young Democrats of America (YDA) continued their peer-to-peer field program, called the Alliance this year in 7 states (AR, AZ, CA, GA, NC, PA, TN). YDA created the Alliance in 2004 to change business as usual in the youth voting community. For years organizations and campaigns used young people as the door knockers and were skipping the houses where young people lived. They skipped them because of bad information on voter lists and because of the conventional wisdom that young people don't vote.
The 2004 Presidential election and the 2005 Virginia Gubernatorial election proved that young people vote when asked. In the areas that YDA ran an Alliance program, youth voting increased on average 12%.
Two recent polls, one by Harvard University and the other by Young Voter Strategies, confirm what YDA has seen in the streets. More young people are identifying as Democrats than ever before and are saying they will vote for Democrats on November 7th. In fact, young people are voting for Democrats with a 2 to 1 margin and YDA expects a youth turnout of at least 30%, which is significantly up from the last mid-term elections where young people voted at 19%.
The issues that are driving young people to the Democratic Party are the war in Iraq, increasing costs of college and student loans as well as the crippling personal debt that looms over Generation X and the Millennial Generation's heads.
Young people will make it crystal clear on November 7th; they are unhappy with the Republican leadership and are the winning difference for Democrats.
Further Information:
Reporters are welcome to join the YDA Alliance field program in the final week of the election to interview canvassers and voters. YDA has a list of spokespeople from other youth organizations for reporters. YDA also has spokespeople in each of the 7 states where we are running Alliance field programs.
The Young Democrats of America (YDA) is a youth-led political organization that mobilizes young people under the age of 36 to participate in the electoral process, influence the ideals of the Democratic Party and develop the skills of the youth generation to serve as leaders at the local and national level. YDA has 43 chartered states and US territories and over 1,500 local chapters. Our membership—including middle school, high school and college students as well as young workers, young professionals and young families—reflects the broad diversity of our nation and the Democratic Party. YDA has been the official youth arm of the Democratic Party since 1932.
Press: email office@yda.org for more information