Katy Harriger, professor and chair of politics and international affairs at Wake Forest University, can address young voters and whether or not they are likely to turn out this year.
Research on young people and civic engagement demonstrates that they are very turned off by the extreme partisan polarization that characterizes American politics, says Harriger, who studies political participation and voting among the 18-25 year age group. “Part of Obama’s appeal in 2008 to these voters was that he spoke often of his desire to work to overcome this — young voters have weak partisan identities and this ‘post-partisanship’ in Obama’s rhetoric was very appealing. After four years of fairly brutal partisan battling with a lot of stalemate, it’s difficult for Obama to make this same appeal.” Also, the intensity of the Democratic primary battle in 2008 required mobilization much earlier in the electoral cycle, says Harriger, who closely followed the record turnout for young voters in the 2008 presidential election and conducted a multi-year project to track college student political participation.
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