2016 has been a unique election year in many ways. In previous cycles, especially the two most recent presidential elections in 2008 and 2012, the young activists who volunteered on campaigns and participated in political protests and demonstrations were mostly liberal.
This year, young conservatives are much more likely to be volunteering their time and money for political candidates and causes.
The 2016 Millennial Impact Report, which studies cause engagement behaviors during the election year, released its first wave of results on Wednesday.
One of the most surprising trends researchers found after studying 18- to 36-year-olds from March through May was that more millennials lean right than left. 50 percent identified their political beliefs as conservative, compared with 43 percent who identified as liberal.
However, despite the fact that millennials were more likely to identify as conservative, they were still more likely to support Democratic candidates for president.
In the most recent round of surveys, 37 percent of millennials said they supported Clinton, 25 percent were for Sanders, and 20 percent chose Trump.
Millennials identified their most important issues as education, health care, and the economy.
Most millennials who listed education as their number one issue chose to support Clinton or Sanders, while those who listed the economy as their most important issue were more likely to support Trump.
Support for both Clinton and Trump increased significantly from March to May, while support for Sanders decreased slightly.
Researchers will continue to study this demographic for the next six months leading up to Election Day.
The team hypothesized that “millennials’ interests in social causes will change during the political season based on their individual political alignment, the final candidates chosen to represent those ideologies, and the important causes associated with these candidates and ideologies.”
The researchers also predicted that millennials’ cause-related engagement will continue to increase — including both online and social media activism, as well as traditional activism such as volunteering, donating, signing petitions, etc.
