The rise of Gen Z could foretell the fall of Trumpism
- Deeply committed to diversity, social justice and combating climate change, the youngest voters could be the engine that drives a new Republican Party
This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Laura Barron-Lopez on politico.com on October 11, 2020.
The evidence all points in one direction: Americans born after 1996, known as Generation Z, could doom not only Trumpism but conservatism as the country currently knows it.
As Republicans espouse “family values” and “religious liberty”, data finds that Generation Z, also known as Zoomers, are less likely than older Americans to be a member of a religious group – 4 in 10 don’t affiliate – and appear to care more about systemic racism and an equitable future than upholding traditional nuclear family structures, based on polling of their policy priorities.
To members of Generation Z, who have come of voting age in the past five years, President Donald Trump and Republicanism are one and the same. And most pollsters and experts on voting behaviour agree that patterns are developed early – how a person votes in their early years, and the impressions they form from high school into young adulthood, stick with them in one form or another for decades.
Generation Z’s leftward tilt is already impacting the presidential race. A Harvard Youth Poll conducted between August 28 and September 9, found Joe Biden’s support at (60 per cent) among those aged 18 to 29 – ahead of Hillary Clinton’s (49 per cent) in 2016 and Barack Obama’s (59 per cent) in 2008.