To Gen Z: As election season kicks off, we can't afford to look away

In November 2016, Barack Obama visited my campus to make one final appeal for Hillary Clinton as president. My sophomore year roommates and I woke up early to hear him speak on the soccer field at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After hearing from some local Democrats running for office – and the bonus of James Taylor performing “Carolina in My Mind” – the then-president took the podium. Since that day, I’ve had a quote from his speech saved in my Notes app.

“Stand up and reject cynicism,” Obama said at the time. “Stand up and reject fear. Choose hope.”

Gen Z witnessed and survived a string of trauma

This was days before Donald Trump was elected and the rifts in our country were laid bare. What followed was a series of events that would define a generation before the majority of us could even vote, and shape our political activism heading toward this new presidential election.

It was before the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. It was before the #MeToo movement really took off, and before the mass shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School sparked the creation of March For Our Lives.

It was before COVID-19 led to a global shutdown, and before the murder of George Floyd led to nationwide protests to declare that Black Lives Matter. It was before the Jan. 6 insurrection and the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Each of these events brought its own wave of national outcry and collective pain. Combined, they make 2016 feel lifetimes away.

As a 1997 baby, I’m the oldest of the zoomers, the Generation Z spanning 1997 to 2012. I understand why many people within the generation (as well as millennials, Generation X and some baby boomers) may feel incapable of finding hope. The reality we’re staring down – one of war, of the loss of bodily autonomy, the corruption within the Republican Party and the complacency of many Democrats – can feel hopeless. We have all experienced the mass tragedy of the past few years, and it’s easy to burn out and tune out.

Ignore the polling panic: Why I'm confident Gen Z will elect Joe Biden again.

The 2020 election of Joe Biden was a triumph for those of us exhausted by the hard-line conservatism Trump ushered in, and the president owes some of his success to our generation: 65% of Gen Z voted for him, according to one exit poll. His administration has made strides in certain areas, but they have been met with the decisions of a conservative Supreme Court and the ineffectiveness of Congress.

The Biden administration has also reneged on campaign promises related to immigration, criminal justice reform and education, and he has not called for a cease-fire in Gaza. These are things that have lost him favor with younger voters, and make it harder to get people excited for another four years.

Choosing hope, as Obama implored my classmates and me to do, is part of the reason I pursued a journalism career. Finding hope in the pain of our political reality is a daily practice for me. There are days when I don't feel any. I have had to face the reality that change is incremental, and will not happen in one four-year term.

Gen Z is the nation's future and the real electoral power

Now is not the time to look away. We are not the “future” of the country. We are the present, and we have to coalesce our power in 2024.

We have witnessed this power in the election years since 2016. Half of the 18- to 29-year-old population (yes, I know this includes young millennials) showed up in 2020. It was an 11-point increase over Trump vs. Clinton.

Although 2022 saw a slight decrease in turnout compared with 2018, young people are still voting more than they did in every other midterm elections this century. For those of us in Gen Z, the power is only growing as more of us age into voting.

Our generation is also facing harsh realities. At the final Republican debate in Iowa, Nikki Haley mentioned that voters in their 20s will likely be in the workforce longer than previous generations. Those of us out of school are facing student loan payments for the first time. The influx of “Don’t Say Gay” bills around the country has been a direct response to the number of LGBTQ+ youth. We are, on average, more isolated than previous generations. We are bombarded with information thanks to the proliferation of the internet.

Republicans aren't talking to Gen Z. If they were, they’d be tackling these issues.

We can't choose to disengage now. This election is too important.

It has been a rough few years, but now is not the time to check out. It’s important to remember how powerful people can be when they band together, and that the current objective should be to keep democracy intact. This can apply across the political spectrum.

I’m not fully satisfied with Biden’s time in the White House, but I am also aware of what a second Trump presidency would do to the nation. I fear the new wave of white supremacy, Christian nationalism and political corruption it would usher in. I recognize that, as someone with privilege, it is also my civic duty to vote with the most marginalized in mind.

One USA TODAY poll has indicated that Trump is leading with voters under 35; I think the truth is more complicated than that. We're disappointed in the government as a whole, and are coming to the understanding that some of our realities are going to take much, much longer to repair after the past few years.

Change in our government is possible – it never happens as fast as we would like it to, but it is possible. We must take control of our political power, and continue engaging with one another and with our elected officials. Don’t let fear win.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Sara Pequeño on X, formerly Twitter, @sara__pequeno and Facebook facebook.com/PequenoWrites

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Trump really leading with Gen Z voters? Truth is more complicated