Young Voter PAC Helps Students Get Back to Caucus
Young Voter PAC Helps Students Get Back to Caucus: Providing Youth Vote Stories for the Press Community
Des Moines, Iowa–The Young Voter PAC, a national group that helps Democrats win with the youth vote, is helping over 150 students get back to caucus and reached over 58k young people ages 18-35 via email and text messages. The youth vote has emerged as a critical bloc of voters for Democrats in recent years. With the caucus falling during winter break this year, youth groups and campaigns are working overtime to help students get back to caucus for Democrats.
“This is the first year the leading Democratic candidates all have a Youth Director and young voter outreach programs. Many students and young voters have been working hard all year to get their peers to the polls,” said Jane Fleming Kleeb, Executive Director of the Young Voter PAC. “It only seemed right to help students get back to caucus when we found out the date would be during winter break.”
Helping over 150 students with gas money and reminding over 58k young people about the caucus, the Young Voter PAC is also connecting youth vote experts and young people to members of the press in order to tell the youth vote story. Conventional wisdom says young people don’t vote. The 2004 elections marked an increase in youth voting, followed by a youth voting increase in 2006. Groups expect the trend to continue in 2008.
In order to download the packet of youth voting experts, volunteers and students coming back to caucus visit: www.youngvoterpac.org (direct link is http://www.youngvoterpac.org/admin/uploadedpics/youth_experts_bios_iowa.pdf). The packet of experts include representatives from the Young Voter PAC, Young Democrats of America, Rock the Vote, PIRGs, College and Young Democrats of Iowa, CIRCLE, Future Majority and young volunteers and caucus goers.
A sample of stats and quotes from the packet are below:
In 2004, the number of 18-29 year old voters (20.1 million) rivaled the number of voters over the age of 65 (23 million).
In 2004, young people ages 17-29 made up 17.14% of the 124,000 Democratic caucus goers. This is an increase of approximately 8% points over 2000.
Young voters’ party identification is strongly Democratic (46% identify as Democrats compared to only 38% of older voters identifying as Democrats), reversing a trend where young people were evenly split among parties.
Running targeted voter registration and field programs matter. In the 10 most competitive 2004 battleground states where youth groups ran programs, turnout was 64.4% among young voters, compared to 48% across all other states.
“I am coming back to caucus because Iowa plays such a huge role in kicking off the election year. My participation in the caucus will be seen by the entire nation, as all eyes will be on Iowa on January 3rd. I feel it is my duty as a young American to participate actively in the future of this country.” - Carla Olszewski, Drake University
“I want to play a role and have an influence on these elections. Being born in Argentina and recently receiving my U.S. citizenship, I want to take advantage of the opportunities I have been given. I don’t want to regret not participating and then feel guilty that my preferred candidate was not elected.” - Julieta Garcia-Vicente, Grinnell College
-END-
