The youth vote was not a monolith in Tuesday’s election, despite its broad concern for the environment and disillusionment with politics and government.

Excerpt from Inside Climate News: 

For 19-year-old Carson Carpenter, voting for Donald Trump was a “no-brainer.”

Carpenter, who grew up in Prescott, Arizona, and was president of Arizona State University’s College Republicans until this week, said he was mainly influenced by concerns about the economy, particularly affordability. He also strongly believes in environmental protection, and he feels that progress on the environment will continue under Trump.

“I think that people that say Trump is bad for the environment, they would be totally mistaken,” Carpenter said.

As early exit polling comes out, it appears that young voters—often expected to reliably support Democratic candidates—did not vote as a monolith. Although Kamala Harris still took the majority of the youth vote, her margin of support from young voters, 6 points, was much smaller than Biden’s 25 point lead in 2020, and young men—unlike in 2020—broke in favor of Trump.

According to data from AP VoteCast analyzed by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, young women aged 18-29 chose Harris over Trump by an 18-point-margin, but young men chose Trump by 14 points. For comparison, in 2020, young women chose Joe Biden by 32-point-margin and young men also preferred Biden, by 15 points. Results also varied by race, with young white voters preferring Trump, while young Black, Latino and Asian voters strongly favored Harris.

Although Harris’ campaign spurred some initial enthusiasm amongst young voters, disillusionment with the Democratic party persisted. Early exit polling found that national turnout among young voters this year was lower than in 2020, although in the key battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, turnout was somewhat stronger, close to 2020 levels. CIRCLE also found that youth voter registration trailed 2020 levels in most states.

Alice Siu, associate director of the Deliberative Democracy Lab at Stanford University, said that young voters’ opinions were more diverse than may have been expected. The lab brought together a nationally representative sample of first-time voters this summer to discuss key election issues, including the environment,

“I think sometimes we talk about the youth vote as one bloc, when it’s not really the case,” she said.

Climate Didn’t Necessarily Move Young Voters to Harris

Researchers have suggested that climate voters helped Joe Biden get elected in 2020, and that climate change was a top factor motivating voters under 45 for Biden who previously voted third-party or not at all. Young voters also consistently rank climate change as an important issue, and in the lead up to the election some experts suggested that young climate voters could tip the race in favor of Harris.

Jasmine Gil, associate senior director for Hip Hop Caucus’ Think 100%, said the organization, a nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to mobilize young BIPOC voters on issues like racial and climate justice, conducted outreach to thousands of young voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas, and Ohio. Gil said that she saw strong enthusiasm from young voters on climate and environmental justice, and the connections of the devastation from Hurricanes Helene and Milton to the broader climate crisis resonated with young voters.

Climate change was the issue where Harrishad the biggest leadon trustfrom voters over Trump, and 82 percent of young voters who reported climate change was their top issue voted for Harris.

But some young voters who expressed interest in climate or the environment came to a different conclusion about the best path forward.

“I think for true environmental sustainability, we saw a huge advancement under the Trump administration,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter felt that electric vehicle infrastructure blossomed during the first Trump administration, and that the Democratic agenda sacrificed economic stability for environmental progress.

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