{"id":321141,"date":"2026-11-04T17:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T17:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/321141\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T17:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T17:52:09","slug":"what-young-pennsylvania-voters-want-from-midterms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/321141\/","title":{"rendered":"What young Pennsylvania voters want from midterms"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young voters headed to the polls Tuesday<\/a> with a variety of priorities and political frustrations. Across Pennsylvania\u2019s college campuses, students weighed in on foreign policy, abortion and the future of Congress<\/a> while some struggled to make their voices heard.\n<\/p>\n

At the University of Pennsylvania, student groups including Penn Leads the Vote and Penn Dems set up tables outside the two polling places on campus. Signs endorsing Josh Shapiro<\/a> and Chris Rabb<\/a> lined the campus, and on the ground messages in chalk encouraged students to vote.
\n\"CampaignCampaign signs supporting Josh Shapiro, Chris Rabb and Pa. Democrats line the street at the University of Pennsylvania campus on Election Day 2026. (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Winny Zhang, a freshman at Penn, voted for her first time this year in between classes. She said voting makes her feel proud of herself and her community at large.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cSince I was a kid, I always wanted to be involved in what our country is doing and how my community is running \u2026 I came to vote to make a difference,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

As she left the election booth, Zhang\u2019s main concern was stopping foreign wars. \u201cI don\u2019t like seeing people die for meaningless wars,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

In Central Pennsylvania, young voters at Penn State were also thinking about foreign policy as they cast their ballots. Madeleine MacKenzie, vice president of the on-campus GOP, said that she trusts President Donald Trump\u2019s actions and that she supports \u201cTrump ensuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For MacKenzie, her biggest concern was maintaining a Republican majority in Congress. She said abortion and immigration were two of her main issues for wanting a Republican-controlled Congress.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTrump has really sealed up the border and I think that what ICE is doing is great,\u201d she said. She hoped that a Republican majority in Congress would have allowed Trump to \u201ckeep pushing through [his] policies\u201d such as keeping Roe v. Wade overturned.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that Democrats, if they were to get a majority, would try to reinstate that,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n

But her wishes didn\u2019t come to fruition as Democrats swept back into power<\/a> with control of both chambers of Congress.\n<\/p>\n

Long Jiang, also a first-time voter and freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, said he wants to challenge the idea that young people do not vote as much. \u201cWhen young people do vote, we are the deciding factor in many elections,\u201d he said.
\n\"LongLong Jiang said young voters can play a decisive role in elections and that local elections and ballot questions are just as important as presidential elections. (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Across the nation, voter turnout tends to drop for midterm elections compared to presidential elections. Data from Census Bureau<\/a> estimates shows that young voters, in particular, vote at far lower rates in midterms, with a 51% drop compared to presidential elections.\n<\/p>\n

For Jiang, voting in the midterms matters because of the impact on local communities and policy. \u201cWe\u2019re not only voting for the big name roles but also ballot questions that [impact] small businesses and arts funding,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

According to Gallup data<\/a>, 56% of Generation Z voters identify as political independents, a steady increase from previous generations. Alex Georgiev, a junior at Penn, voted for the Democratic ticket Tuesday, but said he believes in some Republican policies and some Democratic policies. He described his vote as \u201calmost an opposition vote\u201d against Trump.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI really dislike Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like I had high hopes but it\u2019s always been kind of let down after let down, and I just don\u2019t like the way that his team is managing everything.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

In terms of policies from each party, Georgiev said that abortion access is important to him and that he is strongly pro-choice. He also said he believes that capitalism as an economic structure is \u201cfundamental to the U.S.\u201d He said his parents are immigrants who \u201cattribute America and its opportunities to their success.\u201d
\n\"AlexAlex Georgiev, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, said his vote was largely motivated by opposition to President Donald Trump. (Rana Rastegari\/WHYY)\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young voters headed to the polls Tuesday with a variety of priorities and political frustrations. Across Pennsylvania\u2019s college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[25694,28,30,29,61434],"class_list":["post-321141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-elections-2026","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-youth-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}