Young voters in Pennsylvania are voting in larger numbers than ever
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Young people in Pennsylvania are showing up to the polls in unusually high numbers.
As political editor Jon Delano reports, it's happening as both political parties realize that young voters can make the difference in close elections.
At age 22, state Representative Alec Ryncavage is the state's youngest lawmaker, and he's already a veteran politician.
"I was a councilman representing the Borough of Plymouth in Luzerne County," Ryncavage (R-Luzerne County) said. "When I was 18 years old, I got elected to that seat."
The young Republican is not surprised that the number of young people voting has grown. In 2014, only 12 percent of Pennsylvanians under 30 bothered to vote. Last November, that jumped to over 32 percent, a Tufts University survey found.
Ryncavage credits the impact of social media.
"With social media now coming up on the scene, there was a time where in order to get elected you had to knock on every door," he said. "Today, you just have to tweet or get a TikTok out there and you can appeal to a market and a demographic that is far beyond what a state House legislative district looks like."
No doubt young people are much more at home with the great varieties of social media that can connect them to candidates, but Ruby Belle Booth at Tufts University says issues are also key to many young people.
"Young voters are definitely really motivated by the issues that matter to them," she said.
Those issues include climate change, gun violence, reproductive rights, gender equality and the economy. In Pittsburgh, both political parties are also reaching out to younger voters to bring them into their organization.
"We're their best volunteers, so they're trying to go out on college campuses," said Corey Barsky, vice chair of the Young Republicans of Allegheny County. "Pitt is doing phenomenal things with recruiting young people to come out to these great events, and they're having all these speakers come out."
Will Allison, president of Pitt's College Democrats, says local students are now part of the Fourth Ward Democratic Committee in Oakland.
"Approximately 25 percent of the committee now is students," Allison said.
While the number of 18- to 29-year-olds now voting in this state has grown dramatically, two-thirds of young people are not voting. As for everyone over 30, in this state nearly 60 percent generally vote, leaving 40 percent who do not.