Utah is the youngest state in the nation, but you wouldn’t know that from looking at its voter participation.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 25.5% of Utah’s voting-age population is made up of people between 18-29 years old. Despite such a large base of eligible voters, only 12% of them cast a ballot in the 2022 midterm election.
Former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says that needs to change.
During a PBS Books/Western Governors Association interview, he said unless more young people get engaged with politics “we're not going to get the best and brightest people running for office.”
Although the need is there, Herbert conceded young people are turned off by “what they see as never-ending backbiting, arguing, fighting and divisiveness.”
“They're saying there must be something better for me to do with my life, but they are the rising generation, and we need to get them engaged,” he said.
But that is easier said than done.
Elsie Smith, a 34-year-old mother in Davis County, thinks there’s a disconnect between politicians and the younger generations they represent.
“I think everyone has issues that they care about, but a lot of times they see politics as too messy or too complicated or just so inaccessible,” she said. So, when young people remove themselves from the conversation, politicians are “only paying attention to the people that they hear.”
Smith is not alone.
20-year-old Utah Tech student Natalia Cervantes says she and her friends will occasionally talk about politics but, “it's always in a negative light.”
“They're having a lot of issues with it, just because of how backhanded everything feels, and how they don't feel like the politicians are running for them.”
Adding to the malaise felt by many in the millennial and Gen Z generations is that political discourse has devolved to a point where Cervantes said young voters feel “it doesn't feel like politics” anymore.
“There's so much distaste in politics right now, [young people] want to see something that is professional and that is a more direct to-the-point type of conversation.”
Smith and Cervantes say the best way for politicians to reach them and the rest of Utah’s under-tapped young people is to address the day-to-day issues that affect them the most.
“Why aren't we doing as well as our parents and grandparents did?” Smith said.
“That’s what they have to somehow find a way to address is how this generation can see the American Dream too.”
The issues are not that different for college-age voters like Cervantes, either.
“A lot of students are concerned with financial things, being able to afford a house, being able to afford gas prices and food at the same time, especially in this town that I live in.”
Meaningfully engaging in politics is more than just showing up, but in Cervantes’ experience, her peers are sometimes met with resistance once they try and participate on a deeper level — like running for office themselves.
“People are kind of like, ‘Well, they don't have the knowledge for it. They don't have the experience for that,’” she said.
“I think just hearing us out and actually hearing what youth want to experience and have their voice heard is going to do more of a difference than just saying, ‘I want to see you.’”