Two of the primary issues driving the news this year – abortion rights and inflation – are also driving young voters’ plans for participating in the midterm elections, according to new survey data.
But those issues are not equally motivating all millennials and members of Generation Z. Rather, 60 percent of Democrats and left-leaning independents in battleground states are motivated by protecting abortion rights while 80 percent of Republicans and right-leaning independents are focused on the economy and inflation.
The survey, conducted by the Alliance for Youth Action and Civiqs, concentrated on people ages 17-39 in 11 battleground states.
While the parties were split on the top motivator to cast a ballot, respondents were united in concerns about inflation when reviewed by race. Fifty-one percent of the total listed inflation and the economy as one of the top three issues driving them to vote, including 50 percent of white people, 46 percent of Black people, 69 percent of Latinos and 43 percent of everyone else. Abortion was second in each group, although “democracy reform and voting rights” was a very close third among Black people and those who did not fall into one of the three primary categories.
Similarly, when the respondents were split into smaller age groups, inflation and economy remained the top motivator in all cohorts, again followed by protecting acces to abortion and then democracy reform.
According to the U.S. Election Project, the turnout rate is increasing among young people faster than in older age groups. If that trend continues, adults under age 40 are going to be an increasingly influential voter bloc.
The survey found that 86 percent of respondents said they intend to vote in 2022.
“Once again, all eyes will be on the youth vote, and this poll shows that young people across the political spectrum in battleground states are extremely motivated to vote in this midterm election,” said Civiqs Director Drew Linzer.
Just more than half (53 percent) said they will vote for the Democratic candidate for Congress, with 42 percent supporting Republican candidates. Majorities among white and Black respondents also back Democrats, but 56 percent of Latino respondents said they will vote for Republicans.
And it appears political campaigns have learned from past turnout data and are doing more outreach to young voters.
“The good news for political campaigns is that, in contrast to the polling we did with the Alliance in the months leading up to the 2020 election, young voters in battleground states say political campaigns are contacting them in various ways,” Linzer said. However, young rural voters and young Black voters are the most likely to say they have not been contacted by a political campaign this cycle.”
Two-third of Americans ages 18 and over voted in the 2020 election, but only 51 percent of those 18-24 and 63 percent of the 25-44 cohort, according to the Census Bureau. Of course that was a hard-fought, divisive presidential election that resulted in record turnout.
In 2018, the last midterm election, just 53 percent of Americans voted, including one-third of those 18-24 and 46 percent of people 25-44.
According to data analyzed by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, voter registration among young people trails the midpoint of 2018 in about half the states.
Of the 11 states included in the Alliance for Youth Action/Civiqs survey, voter registration among the under-40 cohort is up in six states, including the three with the biggest jumps: Michigan (up 35 percent), Nevada (28 percent) and Arizona (24 percent). Registration is down in three states; data was unavailable for two (New Hampshire and Wisconsin).
Civiqs surveyed 2,332 registered voters, all under the age of 40, Aug. 11-15. Those voters live in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Thirty-eight percent identified as Democrats, 24 percent as Republicans and 37 percent as independents.
According to CIRCLE’s Youth Electoral Significance Index, young voters are best positioned to influence Senate races in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada the gubernatorial races in Wisconsin, Arizona and Kansas.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.