Keeping Young Voters in the Democratic Column

Published November 25, 2008 2:57pm ET



Eighteen to twenty-nine-year-old turnout did not live up to all the pre-election hype. According to CNN exit polls, the proportion of voters under 30 increased by about 1 percent nationally–from 17 percent of the electorate in 2004 to 18 percent this year. Yet even if their share of the electorate was relatively flat, their propensity to choose Barack Obama was not. The Democratic share from this subgroup surged in 2008. Barack Obama’s 34-point (66 percent-32 percent) victory among 18-29-year-olds was the largest winning margin in that age group since Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater in 1964. By way of comparison, George W. Bush lost the under-30 vote by 9 points to John Kerry (54 percent-45 percent) four years ago. Even though younger voters are hard to turnout and often inattentive to politics, they provided a huge number of votes to Barack Obama. Not surprisingly, Democrats are already working hard to maintain their edge with this cohort. This recent Los Angles Times piece discusses some of the efforts already under way. Reporter Laura Olson writes:

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