America’s Youth and the 2026 Midterms
The biannual Harvard Youth Poll results are back. And, in the Spring 2026 edition, they broadly indicate that America’s youth, aged 18-29, is dissatisfied with their representation in government and political priorities. With 35% of respondents indicating that they are “likely” to vote come November, that dissatisfaction could translate into substantial change in the makeup of Congress.
As one of the most comprehensive youth-centered polls conducted biannually, the spring 2026 results provide a unique glimpse into how the youth vote may shape this year’s November midterm elections and the subsequent demographic breakdown of the 120th Congress, which will be inaugurated on Jan. 3, 2027. According to the results, Generation Z is indicating that Congress should be out with the old and in with the new. Specifically, young Americans desire a new vanguard of younger, non-corporate-backed politicians this midterm cycle. The youngest generation of American adults are broadly dissatisfied with politicians who are seen as detached from everyday realities and beholden to special interest groups.
As they evaluate national political leadership, young Americans are prioritizing candidates with shared values, independence from special interests, and strength as political leaders. Here, this suggests a dislike of politicians who promote policies that favor special interests, those with priorities that conflict with the public’s indicated desires, and those that fail to materialize their campaign promises into action. Furthermore, the most concerning issues for poll respondents consisted of the economy and foreign policy. Unfortunately, current government actions contradict these priorities — in fact, U.S. agitation of ongoing conflicts abroad in many ways exacerbates the concerns expressed by Generation Z.
The first two items in the list of respondents’ top concerns track with the manifestation of a growing youth appetite for economic and foreign policy populism in American politics. A flagship example of this movement is the grassroots victory of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani last June against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic primary, followed by a decisive win in the November general election. Mamdani succeeded over Cuomo due to his affordability-centered messaging, grassroots-led mobilization, and energetic communications strategy — a stark contrast to Cuomo’s reputation as an ousted establishment politician with substantial baggage surrounding past conduct.
Even with more corporate PAC campaign donations, Cuomo’s war-chest was an inadequate remedy to Mamdani’s 95,000-person volunteer super-base. Cuomo’s unwavering support for Israel, contrasted with Mamdani’s outspokenness for Palestine, was another misstep that cost Cuomo his attempted political comeback — per The Washington Post, younger Americans are notably more pro-Palestine than older generations.
The results of the 2025 New York City mayoral primary represented a stark contrast from nationally-spectated elections the previous year. Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a candidate in the Democratic primary for Arizona’s Third Congressional District who was backed by Democratic Majority for Israel, prevailed over progressive former Arizona State Sen. Raquel Terán. In Missouri’s First Congressional District the following month, outspokenly pro-Palestine former Rep. Cori Bush lost re-election to Rep. Wesley Bell in the Democratic primary. Bell was the recipient of $8.5 million in donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee by the conclusion of his primary campaign.
Mamdani’s victory and broad popularity, however, combined with the Spring 2026 results, suggests that young Americans are uniquely mobilized to act against political establishment candidates like Ansari and Bell. Although older, traditional candidates continue to enjoy far stronger financial backing, young Americans in the modern political climate are looking for candidate commitment to moral causes. These changing sentiments among America’s youth are to some extent catalyzed by President Donald Trump’s irate, polarizing political maneuverings.
Party Line Breakdowns in the 2026 Congress
Of the surveyed 2,000+ young Americans in the Spring 2026 survey, a vast majority — around 77% — positioned themselves as non-members of the Make America Great Again (MAGA) brigade, while only 10% confidently identified as such. Furthermore, the majority (59%) of young Republican respondents identified themselves as non-MAGA Republicans. The reluctance of a majority of young Republicans to align themselves with the MAGA movement suggests that the decade-long right-wing populist firestorm is losing its appeal with young voters.
This shift is reflected across the Atlantic Ocean with MAGA-backed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s election loss after a 16-year-long presidency. In a recent PBS article analyzing Orbán’s loss, his involvement in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was deemed an electoral liability by voters. As Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, explained in the same article: “the people of Hungary were saying, ‘We’re having a difficult time with inflation, the economy, and the war.’” His summary also explicates why young Americans writ large are likely rejecting MAGA’s military escapades per the HPOP poll’s results.
However, the rejection of MAGA is paired with a broader trend of youth disillusionment with the two-party system in the United States. When asked about which party was more effective at enacting change in Congress, a plurality of respondents (around 24%) selected “neither party.” Both the Democratic and Republican parties received around 20% in the final response breakdown, and 18% of respondents placed Democratic- and Republican-led congresses as equally effective.
Despite broad dissatisfaction with the two-party system, survey responses still indicated a clear youth preference for a Democrat-controlled Congress. Respondents favored Democratic control by nearly 16 percentage points. Similarly, when youth respondents were posed a question about which party prioritized them over elite interests, perceived Republican allegiance to elite interests was 19 percentage points higher than the figure for Democrats. Even with this difference, youth voters broadly considered both parties to favor the American elite over “people like [them].”
A National Public Radio feature published in March highlighted how “more than 80 Gen Z and millennial candidates are challenging or running to succeed House Democrats 65 and older” — an age marker that aligns with respondents’ median ideal age for a congressional candidate of 40 years old. Many of these Generation Z and millennial challengers are the same candidates that are declining the corporate PAC donations that candidates such as Ansari and Bell welcomed. While anti-establishment fervor has healthily mounted among Generation Z, the real question remains: How will this translate into voter turnout this fall?
Potential Implications for the 2026 Midterms
In the Spring 2018 Harvard Youth Poll, around 37% of respondents indicated that they would “definitely be voting that fall” — a figure two percentage points higher that of the Spring 2026 poll results for the same question. The 2018 electoral cycle is a particular bellwether ahead of 2026 given that both cycles are positioned at the midpoints of Trump’s respective presidential terms. However, 2026 differs from 2018 because of the downstream impacts of watershed events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, and a re-escalation of American intervention throughout the Middle East. The young voters of 2026 find themselves in a radically different period than 2018, regardless of existing parallels.
If the results of the 2018 election indicate anything, it is that restoring trust through actionable promises is a key mechanism for making inroads with young voters — a foundation of electoral blue waves in recent memory. As this year’s pivotal midterms approach, the parties’ success will hinge on their ability to elevate the younger, grassroots-oriented candidates that the newest generation of American voters is eagerly awaiting.
Associate U.S. Editor
