{"id":578,"date":"2014-10-10T15:07:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T15:07:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/msps\/?p=578"},"modified":"2014-10-10T15:07:50","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T15:07:50","slug":"youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/2014\/10\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018YOUTH OF COLOR\u2019 VOTING STILL CRITICAL IN COMPETITIVE POLITICAL RACES"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"bottom-indent entry-title\" style=\"font-weight: bold;color: #000000\"><\/h3>\n<p><a class=\"main-img\" style=\"font-weight: normal;color: #3d31aa\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/media.namx.org\/images\/editorial\/2014\/10\/1008\/k_abudulla_youth_vote\/k_abudulla_youth_vote_500x279.jpg\" alt=\"  &#8216;Youth of Color&#8217; Voting Still Critical in Competitive Political Races\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"story-tools\" style=\"font-weight: normal;color: #000000\">\n<h2 style=\"font-weight: normal;color: #ffffff\"><strong>Story<\/strong>\u00a0tools<\/h2>\n<div class=\"box\">\n<p style=\"color: #2a3b4b\"><a style=\"color: #2a3b4b\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#comments\">Comments<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #2a3b4b\"><a class=\"large\" style=\"color: #2a3b4b\" title=\"Switch to largest font size.\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#\">A<\/a><a class=\"medium\" style=\"color: #2a3b4b\" title=\"Switch to medium font size.\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#\">A<\/a><a class=\"small\" style=\"color: #2a3b4b\" title=\"Switch to smallest font size.\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#\">A<\/a>Resize<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #2a3b4b\"><a style=\"color: #2a3b4b\" title=\"Print this story.\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#\">Print<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #2a3b4b\"><a style=\"color: #2a3b4b\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/2014\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races.php#\">Share and Email<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"_atssh\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"relax\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"large-indent entry-content\" style=\"font-weight: normal;color: #000000\">\n<p class=\"date byline\" style=\"font-weight: bold;color: #606060\"><span class=\"source-org vcard\"><a class=\"url org fn\" style=\"color: #606060\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newamericamedia.org\/\">New America Media<\/a><\/span>, News Report,\u00a0<span class=\"author vcard\"><a class=\"url fn\" style=\"color: #606060\" href=\"http:\/\/newamericamedia.org\/author\/khalil-abdullah\/\">Khalil Abdullah<\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Posted:\u00a0<span class=\"updated dtstamp\" title=\"\n    2014-10-08T11:20:00-08:00\n\">Oct 08, 2014<\/span><br \/>\nYouth voter turnout in North Carolina, including a sizeable segment of ethnic voters, will play a critical role in determining whether Democratic incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan retains her seat against Republican challenger, state House Speaker Thom Tillis, according to\u00a0<a style=\"color: #3d31aa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.civicyouth.org\/\">data<\/a>\u00a0on the voting patterns of youth of color.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe issue of the youth vote in North Carolina is related to but not identical to issues of race and ethnicity, but North Carolina\u2019s young voters, ages 18 to 30 years old, are more diverse than its older voters. So who votes in this November\u2019s election will be important to the outcome,\u201d said Peter Levine, the director of the Center for Information &amp; Research on Civic and Learning Engagement (CIRCLE), a nonpartisan institute based at Tufts University in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to North Carolina, states where the youth vote could affect the outcome in November\u2019s competitive political races include Alaska, Colorado, and Louisiana, according to an analysis CIRCLE released in August. CIRCLE\u2019s data on African American, Asian American, and Hispanic youth show the complexities at play in ways that may challenge common assumptions about what motivates youth to become civically engaged or affiliate with a political party.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the data show \u201ca significant percentage of African American men more often identify as conservatives, given the choice of \u2018are you a liberal, moderate, or conservative,\u2019\u201d Levine said, as opposed to African American women, who more often tend to self-identify as liberal. Gender differences are not only apparent in choice of political party, but in how they view their personal involvement.<\/p>\n<p>Though young women of color have typically higher rates of civic engagement than men as measured by volunteerism, they are \u201cstill less likely to see themselves as political leaders,\u201d Levine said, adding that this view is fairly consistent with women across all ethnic groups.<\/p>\n<p>The contrasts between different groups of youth can be striking. Data from 2010 shows that nearly 40 percent of young Latinos are \u201ccivically alienated\u201d in terms of voter registration and voter turnout, falling behind African American and white youth. Yet, young Latina women were among the strongest supporters of President Obama in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>Asian American youth were the next largest group to be \u201ccivically alienated\u201d (just over 30 percent), but they led all groups in terms of donations to political causes (17 percent).<\/p>\n<p>The data illuminates the tension between the idealistic goal of broadening youth participation in politics and the need of political parties to win at the ballot box by devising ways to decrease support for their opponents. That is certainly the case in North Carolina where the youth vote surged in the 2008 presidential election but ebbed in the 2010 midterm election, resulting in a Republican-dominated legislature that has sought to impose limits on youth voting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe swing in the electorate from election to election is a fascinating story in North Carolina,\u201d Levine said, &#8220;but it is really a story of youth engagement and participation in voting. North Carolina shows that the youth vote does matter in competitive races.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Levine said the youth vote may be critical in Louisiana as well. African American youth comprise about 40 percent of the state\u2019s approximately 300,000 voting-age citizens overall, though only about one-third of the voters. \u201cThat\u2019s still a significant bloc of voters,\u201d Levine said. Should they vote en masse for embattled Democrat Sen. Mary Landrieu, it could yield the margin of victory to propel her to another six-year term.<\/p>\n<p>Louisiana underscores the stakes for Democrats in this midterm election as to whether their party can retain control of the U.S. Senate when the House of Representatives already has a Republican majority that can impede President Obama\u2019s legislative agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Levine\u2019s observations are that the younger voters tend to be more liberal on social issues, like supporting gay rights or immigration reform, but that political operatives from either party shouldn\u2019t take the youth vote for granted. \u201cYouth of color voters have diverse interests, and as young people, their votes are often unpredictable,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Story\u00a0tools Comments AAAResize Print Share and Email New America Media, News Report,\u00a0Khalil Abdullah,\u00a0Posted:\u00a0Oct 08, 2014 Youth voter turnout in North Carolina, including a sizeable segment of ethnic voters, will play a critical role in determining whether Democratic incumbent Sen. Kay &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/2014\/10\/10\/youth-of-color-voting-still-critical-in-competitive-political-races\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":825,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/825"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":579,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/msps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}