WASHINGTON (AP) — Mairekk Griffiths, a 26-year-old cook in a Denver suburb, doesn’t think he’ll ever pay a lot of attention to U.S. politics unless radical change happens.
“If another party was likely to win, I’d be interested in that,” said Griffiths, who voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential race but, like many his age, does not see voting as that valuable.
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Young people such as Griffiths are less engaged with U.S. politics than older Americans and less likely to say voting is important, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Young people — even those who follow politics closely — are less likely to say issues such as the economy, government spending and health care are “extremely important” to them than comparable older adults.
The findings point to a broad sense of disillusionment among younger people about the country’s political system — even if, like Griffiths, they still end up casting a ballot. Alberto Medina, who leads the Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement at Tufts University, which studies youth and politics, noted that turnout among young people hit record levels in the 2020 election and was high last year.
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Only about 2 in 10 of adults under age 30 say they follow U.S. politics “extremely” or “very” closely, compared with about one-third of Americans overall. That’s even higher among adults age 60 or older — 45% of this group says they follow U.S. politics at least very closely.
Disengagement is higher among teenagers, with an AP-NORC poll from May finding 44% of teens ages 13 to 17 report following U.S. politics “not very closely” or “not closely at all.”
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Some of these habits could shift as people grow older. Younger people traditionally are less likely to vote than older people, and voter participation tends to go up with age. It’s possible that engagement with politics could follow a similar pattern.
Brittany Diaz, 28, follows politics closely for an unusual reason: Her oldest son, who is 7, is obsessed with the news and watches it every night. Diaz, a Republican who lives in an Albuquerque, New Mexico, suburb, acknowledges that she’s unusual among her age group because she decided to start paying attention to politics when she had her first child at 20.
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Women in her age group are less likely than young men to say they follow U.S. politics, the poll finds. About one-quarter of men under 30 say they follow politics “extremely” or “very” closely, compared with 16% of women in the same age group. And about 4 in 10 young women say they follow U.S. politics “not very closely” or “not closely at all” compared with about a quarter of young men.
On a few issues, such as the economy and health care, the divide between the youngest and oldest Americans isn’t large. About 8 in 10 Americans under age 30 say the economy is “extremely” or “very” important to them personally, compared with about 9 in 10 Americans age 60 or older.
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That’s even true for topics such as the situation in the Middle East, which has become a rallying cry for young activists since the Israel-Hamas war broke out. Only about 4 in 10 adults under 30 say this is highly important to them personally, compared with about 6 in 10 Americans age 60 or older.
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At 18, Blake Marlar is just starting to pay attention to politics. As Trump’s tax cut and spending bill moved through the Republican-controlled Congress, the aspiring geology major at the University of Nebraska emailed his state’s two senators, both Republicans, objecting to its Medicaid cuts and increases in immigration enforcement funding.
* Original Article:
https://nypost.com/2025/08/05/us-news/young-adults-are-less-likely-to-follow-politics-or-say-voting-is-important-new-ap-poll-shows/