More young Texans are registering to vote. Will they actually turn out?

by Sami Sparber, Texas Tribune


MCALLEN — Less than six weeks out from primary day in Texas, Amanda Edwards, among the leading Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate, made a campaign stop in the Rio Grande Valley, where she stressed at a small forum the importance of elevating new voices.

“We have to bring people to the table so that they’re not on the menu,” the former Houston City Council member said at the January event. “And one of the things that’s critically important is when we bring them to the table, then we have to deliver.”

It was a fitting message, given that the forum was organized not by a seasoned political organization but by a group of local high school students.

Young and Hispanic Texans turned out in record numbers for a midterm in 2018, when voters under 30 nearly doubled their vote share compared with the 2014 midterms and came close to matching participation levels from the 2016 presidential election. Among that age group, Hispanic voters made up 30% of the vote share in 2018 — a 10% increase from 2014, according to TargetSmart, a political data firm.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/02/26/more-young-texans-are-registering-vote-will-they-actually-turn-out/