Young people proved all the naysayers wrong in Iowa by showing up strong for Barack Obama. The Young Voter PAC is proud of the three top Democratic campaigns that employed Youth Vote Directors. Young people are a growing bloc of voters for Democrats and Obama’s win tonight legitimizes their role in Democratic politics.

“After several years of targeting and talking to young people, the hard work of youth vote groups and candidates like Barack Obama who reach out to young people paid off. This is the first year the leading Democratic candidates all have a Youth Director and young voter outreach programs,” said Jane Fleming Kleeb, Executive Director of the Young Voter PAC. “The turnout numbers of young people prove if you target young people they vote.”

The Republicans have a long road to try and make up ground with the youth vote. Young people made up 22% of the Democratic caucus goers up from 17% in 2004. Young people made up only 11% of the Republican caucus goers. Additionally, Democrats of all ages outnumbered Republicans 2 to 1 and young Democrats outnumbered young Republicans 4 to 1 showing a continued trend of the country wanting a change in our national leadership.

Initial statistics* for youth (ages 18-29) turnout in Iowa:

The youth turnout rate tripled in Iowa.

The youth turnout rate rose to 13% in 2008 compared to 4% in 2004 and 3% in 2000.

Out of all of Barack Obama’s support in Iowa, 57% came from young voters (CNN, MSNBC, FOX).

60% of the caucus participants were first time caucus goers and of those 39% of them went for Obama.

22% of the Democratic caucus goers were young people, up from 17% in 2004.

A total of 65,230 young people were caucus-goers in 2008. 52,580 caucused with Democrats and only 12,650 turned out for Republicans. That means of the young people that turned out, 80% were for Democrats!

The totals for both parties are 239,000 Democrats (compared to 125,000 in 2004) and 115,000 Republicans.

More Information: The Young Voter PAC, a national group that helps Democrats win with the youth vote, helped over 150 students get back to caucus and reached over 58k young people ages 18-35 via email and text messages using innovative tools provided by InfoUSA. For more information on the Young Voter PAC visit www.youngvoterpac.org. For more statistics on the youth vote, visit www.civicyouth.org. For an on the ground perspective of the Democratic youth vote in Iowa visit www.futuremajority.com.

*All of the statistics come from CIRCLE, a respected source of young voter data unless otherwise noted.

Posted on January 4th, 2008
Categories: Presidential, New Media, Young Voters