The Obama Generation A Year Later: How Obama Has Affected Youth Political Participation

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, the voices of a generation spoke. Two-thirds of 18-29-year-olds voted for Barack Obama, and record numbers of youth actively participated in the campaign, calling for change. But now it’s a year later, and the election enthusiasm is over—the politics world has switched to policy mode. So do college students still care about what’s going on?

“Lobbying for issues is not as exciting as elections and campaigns,” says Hayley Ballerini, a former Obama intern and secretary of the Brown Democrats. “It’s just as important but not as exciting.” She’s observed an increase in political engagement from before the election, but says it’s definitely fallen from the election season itself.

Lisa Geraci, president of the Wellesley Democrats, saw a similar trend. “Last year we were taking 40 people Saturday morning to New Hampshire, but then in the spring we saw a decline in membership,” she says. This year, they’ve been working to keep membership high by increasing the amount of events, which, playing off the enthusiasm from last fall, has worked to some degree. Attendance was high at both a talk on Afghanistan (about 70 people) and a town hall-style event on health care (about 60 people).

“Just being that involved in the political process has just made people more aware,” says Lisa. “People seem to ask more questions…but obviously we haven’t seen as much enthusiasm [post-election].”

Students invested in specific policy issues, however, are staying involved. “I’ve definitely been active, especially with health care issues,” says Amy Nichols, who was co-president of Carnegie Mellon’s Students for Obama and interned on the campaign. “Everyone has a personal issue that makes them part of a campaign. [After the election], we kind of individualize our interests in our own way to make us more active.”

But for those without a particular policy passion, interest in politics seems to be waning. So what will happen in future major elections? Will this generation continue to stay active, or was the enthusiasm just a temporary spike?

There’s no clear answer. To understand why, let’s look at the three things that caused youth engagement in the Obama campaign—the campaign structure, the use of the Internet, and the candidate’s charisma and personality.

To draw in new voters, the campaign used an entirely new organizational structure. “They invested in their volunteers by giving them autonomy and responsibility,” explains Hahrie Han, a political science professor at Wellesley. “They developed teams of local leaders that could draw on their local knowledge. People are smart. They know when the work they do matters and when it doesn’t matter.” So by modeling future campaigns after the Obama campaign, future candidates could keep higher levels of participation among all age groups—including youth.

Another key tool used in the Obama campaign was the Internet. But its role in engaging youth, and how it could be used in future campaigns, is less certain. “Both ‘political’ and ‘non-political’ young people participated at really high levels through social networks like Facebook,” explains Jane Booth-Tobin, whose senior thesis discussed the role of the Internet in youth activism in the Obama campaign. “Yet many people who got their first taste of politics through social networks … never moved beyond social networking during the campaign.” So don’t count on them to remain politically active in elections to come.

And even if future campaigns could perfectly replicate or improve on Obama’s campaign structure, and effectively use the Internet, there’s still the personality aspect. Many college students partially support Obama because he is, well, Obama.

“I definitely think there’s something about Obama,” says Amy. “I think there was something about his personality…people felt they could relate to him. ”

So, short of cloning him, what could a candidate do to capture the support of our generation?

“I guess just being new,” says Hayley. “Obviously it’s going to be harder after Obama. He is incredibly charismatic. He made me want to be a better person. Honestly at this point in time not sure how you could top that campaign, other than be another Obama.”

Sources:

Hayley Ballerini, Brown ’12, Brown Democrats secretary and Obama campaign intern

Amy Nichols, Carnegie Mellon ’10, Co-president, Students for Obama and Obama campaign intern

Lisa Geraci, Wellesley ’10, Co-president, Wellesley College Democrats

Hahrie Han, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Wellesley College

Jane Booth-Tobin, Wellesley ’09, author “Youth Political Participation: The Motivations and Organizing Techniques that Engaged Youth During the 2008 Presidential Campaign”

Photo: By Alison Piper, student, Carnegie Mellon University