The long primary season is over and Nebraska’s young voters couldn’t be happier. Many hope this means they will at least get a few months off from thinking about politics, getting Facebook messages about helping registering voters and emails about the good, the bad and the ugly of the Presidential candidates.

Not likely.

This election season is different, especially foryoung voters. Sure, people say that about every election, but looking back at the historic involvement of young people during this primary season, you cannot deny just how different this election season is for the 18-29 voting bloc and their influence on changing the “status quo” electoral map.

Now that Clinton is out of the race and we are at “half-time” in the Presidential campaign season, where do Nebraska young voters stand in their choice for President and where are they trending in the party affiliation category?

Young Voter Trends in Nebraska

As with many trends, Nebraska is taking some cues from the national scene, but young people here are creating their own as well. Nationally, more than 6 million 18-29 year olds turned out for the primary elections doubling turnout from 2004. Democrats have a clear advantage with over 4.9 million voting for Democrats and only 1.1 million voting for Republicans. In other words, 80% of young people voted for Democrats during the primary elections.

 
In Nebraska, there is no age breakdown for the caucus and primary results due to a lack of exit polling and numbers not being released by age yet because it takes the various election offices time to have those files ready for the public. But, we do have the party affiliation breakdown of voter registration. 

While Democrats don’t have the majority of young people registered as Democrats, more and more young people are trending Democratic and Independent than the older voters in Nebraska. Additionally, only about half of all eligible young people are registered to vote, leaving a big room for growth in Nebraska’s youth vote power. 

Party affiliation in Nebraska has not been a good indicator of vote choice in Nebraska. Some say it’s because we have a non-partisan state legislature so that leaves people always voting for the person, not the party. Others say it’s because Nebraska sticks to its independent spirit left over from the days of the pioneer. Whatever it is, it is remarkable.

To give an example, in the same year, 2006, two major elections were on the ballot—both the Governor and a US Senate race. 70% of young people voted for the Democrat in the Senatorial race, but also 70% of young people voted for the Republican in the gubernatorial race. Young people clearly did not stick to party identification. 

Remembering Iowa’s Role in the Youth Vote Spike

Looking back to the cold months of January and February when the caucuses were just under way, young voters played a pivotal role—the first time in my lifetime—in helping propel a candidate to the Democratic nomination for President. 

Hindsight is always one of those things we all wished we had much earlier, and Mark Penn, Hillary Clinton’s Campaign Manager is no different. In the NY Times,Penn now admitsthe campaign should have targeted young voters earlier and more aggressively. This is not what he was saying about young people in the first caucus state right next door to Nebraska.

 
In the weeks leading up to the caucus in Iowa, campaign after campaign dismissed Obama’s campaign team of chasing the “elusive youth vote.” TheClintonseven went so far as to say college students going to school in Iowa should not vote in the caucus if they are not “from” Iowa. Youth groupspushed back hard and got many candidates to retract their naysaying comments about young voters. 

Students, and young people not in school, also decided they were not going to sit the election out. That even if it meant driving back to Iowa since all of the college dorms were closed for Winter Break, they would. And, they did.

 
Caucus night in Iowa broke all records. Young people turned out in higher number than older voters. 

Members of the media frommagazinesto newspapers toblogscommented that this just doesn’t happen with the youth vote—but then again campaigns don’t usually target and turn out young voters like the Obama campaign did, so that just goes to prove what happens when young voters are taken as a serious voting bloc to court.

 
Young people all across the nation, Nebraskans included, took notice of Iowa. They saw that not only their vote mattered, but that they could swing an election. For the first time in a long time, the light bulb went off that young people—with their generational electoral power—could elect the next President.

 
Obama is the Choice, Republicans Hold on to Hope of a Different Kind

As I drove around the state this past week, asking young people who they plan on voting for and why the vast majority said “Obama.” As for the why—change was the number one response, next was gas and food prices, after that health care and a lot of young people mentioned energy even if they had another top issue citing everything from increasing the use of ethanol and other Nebraska-based biofuels, to finding more alternative fuel sources to using the technology America has at its finger tips to make us energy independent. Only a few mentioned the war in Iraq.

One of the voters I talked to was Jason, a young firefighter. Here is what he had to say:

Interestingly, no one mentioned McCain’s or Obama’s age as their reason why they were or were not voting for them. In fact, one young woman said she didn’t care that McCain was old, that alone was not enough reason for her not to vote for him. But she was looking for change in the way America uses energy and the way America treats our educational systems. She sees Obama as being able to deliver those changes.

 
Many young people mentioned McCain’s military service and how much they honor and respect his commitment to our country. But that also wasn’t enough for the vast majority of young people to vote for him. They simply see McCain as politics of the past and that if we want to solve America’s big problems, we need a “big change,” as Jason said in the video.

For the young people that are voting for McCain, their reasons are simple and straightforward, “because I am a Republican” is what they said over and over again. The red flag for Republicans with this response is usually there is about 30% of a political party that votes party line, no matter what. That equation, unfortunately, does not win elections. 

 
So far with the numbers and trends, Republicans only hope is that young people, not only in Nebraska but nationwide, stay home on November 4, 2008. Word on the street here in Nebraska is that’s exactly what it is…a hope.

*Note: data on young voters used in the story was taken from exit polls, Nebraska’s Secretary of State, CIRCLE, Future Majority, Declare Yourself and Rock the Vote.