Young voters ascendant: How a generational shift won the 2020 election and could remake American politics

In 2019, the 72-million strong Millennial generation (23-to-38-year-olds) quietly surpassed the Baby Boomers as America’s largest living generational cohort. In the 2020 election, they made their voices heard with a roar. Not only did younger voters—and particularly younger voters of color—turn out to vote and organize for candidates in record numbers, they also provided the margin of victory for Democrats Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in key states like Michigan, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. Our guests for this episode are Mark Gearan, director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School and director of the Peace Corps under President Bill Clinton and Marshall Ganz who teaches political organizing and trains young activists and was himself a member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. They talk with our host Thoko Moyo about what is different about the today’s young voters and activists and how they could reshape America’s political landscape going forward.