Politics are everywhere, especially with the upcoming midterm elections. From simply scrolling on your FYP to seeing peaceful protests on your college campus, watching your friends post on their Instagram stories to showing up in conversations with friends, it seems like everyone has an opinion about something. We repost political videos, argue in comment sections and complain about the state of the country. But when it comes time to actually vote, especially when there is no presidential election on the ballot, that enthusiasm can feel a lot less visible.
So What Are The Midterm General Elections?
The 2026 Midterm elections are approaching fast, taking place on November 4, 2026, but what are the Midterm General Elections? The midterms take place at the midway point of every 4-year election cycle. The elections are specifically all about Congress, where voters get an opportunity to decide which party will control Congress. From the last time we had a midterm election, which was in 2022, the voter turnout from eligible voters was below 50% of all Americans headed to vote. This is much different than a presidential election, whose voter turnout was well above half. Facts like this raise an important question for college students: Do we actually care about politics, or do we just care about talking about it?
Do College Students Vote? Should They?
Yes, college students do vote, but not in great numbers. I would personally say that I am unsure of how politically apathetic college students are, especially when it comes to an election like the midterms. But, according to a 2026 survey from Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, 66% of college students said they will be casting a ballot in the midterm election. This information suggests young people do have an interest in participating in the upcoming election, especially if it directly affects them. One of the biggest concerns college students have is the cost of living, so it may be a reason they decide to vote.
However, saying you are going to vote and actually making it to the polls are two different things. Here in West Virginia, the 2026 primary election is a good example. Only in May did we watch the primary unfold, with only 21% of registered voters participating in the process. This overall turnout still shows how difficult it can be to get voters to participate in elections that do not receive the same attention as presidential races. And that is where college students come in.
We Live In A Very Political Environment.
We are constantly surrounded by political information. Social media has made it easier than ever to know what politicians are saying, what issues are trending and what everyone else seems to think about them. For Gen Z, politics does not necessarily require turning on the news or reading a newspaper. It can show up between videos on TikTok or while scrolling through X. But being politically online is not necessarily the same thing as being politically involved.
I think a discrepancy we have is that we have confused being politically informed with being politically entertained. It is easy to watch a 30-second TikTok about a political issue and feel like we have participated in the conversation. It is much harder to research candidates, understand what is actually on the ballot and make a plan to vote. We see this in criminal cases as well, especially in recent weeks. We will watch a series of videos about a case and think we know all of this information, but in reality we are missing out on a lot of the facts. And I am by no means saying that it doesn’t mean college students do not care; I think they do. I simply think they are not taking the time to make decisions that will affect them directly unless they. This isn’t a bad thing that they only seem to care about things that affect them, but in reality they are affected by a lot more than they think. Everyone is affected, and yet not everyone turns out to vote at the polls.
In fact, the Tufts research suggests the opposite. Young people are paying attention, and many say they intend to vote. The bigger challenge may be turning that interest into action.
For college students, there are plenty of reasons voting can fall down the priority list. Between classes, studying, work, clubs, Greek life, sports and trying to maintain some sort of social life, voting can easily become something we tell ourselves we will worry about later. But there are ways, such as mail-in voting, voting before the actual election, or simply taking 10 minutes out of your day to go to one of the many voting areas.
What Are You Voting For?
Then there is also the question of whether students even know what they are voting for. Presidential elections are difficult to ignore. Candidates dominate social media, television, and conversations for months. Midterm elections, meanwhile, can feel much less obvious. Students may know who is running for president, but do they know which congressional, state or local offices are on their ballot? If we do not know who is running or what the position actually does, it becomes much easier to convince ourselves that voting does not matter.
Then there is the classic argument: why does my one vote matter? It is a fair question, especially when elections involve millions of people. But if everyone decides their vote does not matter, then no one votes. Midterm and local elections can have a direct impact on issues that affect people’s everyday lives, including education, healthcare, taxes, public safety and other policies that college students will eventually face as young adults. You are quite literally voting for who you want to represent you in a government in consideration of your state. Who you vote for should follow your beliefs and morals, because then it will benefit you. If you don’t vote, then you raise your chances of not getting as many benefits or seeing positive changes in government.
To a fault, I think the problem may be that we have made politics feel like something that happens in Washington, on cable news, or on our phones instead of something that affects our everyday lives. For college students, politics is not some distant issue that we will suddenly care about after graduation. The decisions being made now affect the world we are entering as young adults. And maybe that is why the conversation around young voters needs to change.
Instead of asking whether college students care about politics, we should be asking what is preventing students who care from participating. Maybe it is a lack of information. Maybe it is convenient. Maybe it is feeling like one vote cannot make a difference. Maybe it is simply the fact that presidential elections receive so much attention that everything else feels secondary. But, whatever the reason, the 2026 midterms give college students another opportunity to turn political interest into political participation.
Having a political opinion is easy. Posting about an issue is easy. Arguing with your roommate about an election is easy. Actually voting requires a little more effort. But if young people want politicians to listen to us, we have to show them that we are willing to show up. Maybe college students do care about politics. Maybe we just need to care enough to participate.
Works Cited
Pew Research Center. “Voter Turnout, 2018-2022.” Pew Research Center, 12 July 2023
Ren, Yanlin, and Alberto Medina. “The Views and Needs of College Students Ahead of the 2026 Election.” CIRCLE, Tufts University, 27 Aug. 2026
WBOY 12 News. “21% of Registered Voters Participated in West Virginia’s 2026 Primary Election: Warner.” YouTube, 2026dri