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JUNE 30, 2008 ELECTIONS 2008
Young voters of faith
Voters between the ages of 18 and 25 have turned out in
record numbers in this year’s presidential primaries and caucuses, and
according to several recent polls, their faith and values are playing a major
role in how they cast their ballots. An April 2008 Harvard University poll
found that 37 percent of young voters said that religion is a very important
part of their lives, and it identified a group called “religious centrists” –
those who say they care deeply about the moral direction of the country – as 25
percent of college-age voters.
But young voters seem to define their faith and values in
significantly different ways than previous generations of religion-driven
voters. While their parents were likely to be more concerned with abortion,
same-sex marriage and stem cell issues, today’s young voters of faith are more
likely to list poverty, the Iraq war and universal health care as key moral
issues. That puts the presidential candidates on a new playing field where
young voters of faith are concerned. How can their concerns be addressed without
alienating older religion-driven voters?
Why it matters
With young voters turning out in higher numbers than they
have since Richard Nixon was in office more than three decades ago, their votes
are likely to play an important role in determining the next president.
Questions for reporters
How do you define and measure the religion and values of an
entire generation of voters? Do young voters of faith break down along party
lines according to their faith backgrounds? How will candidates reach and
mobilize young voters of faith? How do young voters of faith determine which
candidates hold similar values? If the new generation of religion-driven voters
is less concerned with abortion, same-sex marriage and stem cell research, what
will happen to those issues in the campaign and in future legislation?
Organizations
Groups that seek to engage young people in politics and
civic issues
NONPARTISAN
• Black Youth Vote seeks to mobilize African-American youths ages 18-35 to become involved in politics.
It is currently focusing on voter registration drives in Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan and Texas. It is a project of the National
Coalition on Black Civic Participation. Contact Jordan Thierry, Black Youth
Vote coordinator, blackyouthvote@ncbcp.org.
• Joan Mandle is executive director of Democracy Matters, an organization that seeks to involve young people in politics. It is based in Hamilton,
N.Y. Contact 315-824-4306.
• Generation Engage is a nonpartisan group that connects young people with political leaders and
activists. It has chapters in several states, and its national headquarters are in Washington, D.C., and New
York City. Adrian Talbott is executive director. Contact 202-465-4807, Adrian.talbott@generationengage.org,
or Edward Wilcox, communications director, 646-792-8054, Edward.wilcox@generationengage.org.
• Headcount enlists
musicians and hosts musical events to encourage young people to vote. It claims
to have registered more than 50,000 new voters and is based in New York City.
Media contacts are Dave Cirilli, dave@giantnoise.com,
and Colin Wells, wells@giantnoise.com.
• Mobilize.org works to educate and mobilize young people in civic engagement and political
participation. Among its projects is Democracy 2.0, a report based on the input of thousands of members of the “Millennial
Generation” who were asked to describe what the American democracy should look
like. David Beaumont Smith is the group’s founder. Contact via Katelyn Archer, vice president of
grassroots organizing, katelyn@mobilize.org,
or through the organization’s offices in Washington, D.C., at 202-736-5703, or Berkeley,
Calif., at 510-717-3022.
• Rock the Vote tries to engage young voters in politics through music and outreach. It
publishes Winning Young Voters: A Handbook for Campaigns, Candidates,
Political Parties and Organizations. Contact media representative Chrissy
Faessen, 202-719-9941 (office), 703-582-2777 (cell), chrissy@rockthevote.com.
• Smackdown Your Vote is a project of World Wrestling Entertainment to engage young
people in the political process. Contact Gary Davis in media relations,
203-353-5066.
PARTISAN
• Hillblazers is an association of young people who supported Hillary Clinton for president.
Contact via Hillary Clinton for President, 703-469-2008.
• The Joshua Generation Project is the name tentatively given to an outreach effort planned by Barack Obama’s campaign and aimed at young Catholics and evangelicals. (The Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody blogged about the project June 6, 2008; a subsequent post tells of a possible legal challenge over the name.) Contact Joshua Dubois, Obama’s director of religious affairs, via the campaign’s press office, 312-819-2423.
• The League of Young Voters is a progressive organization that organizes and trains young people around
political issues at the local, state and national levels. Robert “Biko” Baker
is executive director. Contact via media@theleague.com.
• The National Jewish Democratic Council operates an internship
program for young Jewish Democrats to work in Washington, D.C. Ira Forman is
executive director. Contact 202-216-9060.
• Punkvoter is an organization of punk musicians and fans organized to oppose the policies
of President George W. Bush. Contact punkvoter@fatwreck.com.
• Students for Barack Obama is a national organization of students who have pledged to vote for Obama. It
originated with a group of young people on Facebook.com. The Web site lists no
national contact information but maintains a state-by-state list of college and university chapters, some of which have contact information.
• Young America’s Foundation is an organization for young conservatives. It organizes conferences for
students on colleges and university campuses around conservative issues. Ron
Robinson is president. Its offices are in Herndon, Va. Contact 703-318-9608.
• Young Democrats of America is an organization for young people under the age of 36. It has high school and
college chapters and chapters in 46 states. It also has a High School Caucus, of which Erich
Reimer is the executive director. He is a high school senior in Guilderland, N.Y.,
and wrote a statement titled “The Caucus of Faith: Necessary and Desirable,” in which he outlined his
opinion that faith and political involvement are a good match. Contact 518-505-4568, erichreimer11@aim.com
• Young Republicans National Federation is an organization of
registered Republicans between the ages of 18 and 40. It maintains a contact
list of state clubs. Jessica Colón is national chairman. Contact 202-608-1417.
• Young Voter PAC is a political action committee for young Democrats. Jane Fleming Kleeb is executive director. Its offices are in Washington, D.C. Contact
202-445-5263, jane@youngvoterpac.org.
RELIGIOUS
• Redeem the Vote is the Christian music version of Rock the Vote, using Christian music and
musicians to inspire young people to register to vote and engage politically. Randolph
Brinson is its founder. Contact via Don Stillman, media relations, don@ccm1.com.
• The Solomon Project encourages political and civic involvement among
American Jews, especially young Jews. It is based in Washington, D.C. William
B. Dockser is president. Contact 202-216-9060.
Click
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National
sources
POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS
• Joshua Dubois is director of religious affairs for Barack Obama’s campaign. Dubois is 25 years old and joined the senator’s campaign after hearing his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. Contact via the Obama campaign’s press office, 312-819-2423.
• Burns Strider was senior adviser and director of faith-based
operations for Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He has been the director of
religious outreach for the House Democrats and the lead staffer for the
Democrats’ Faith Working Group. He is based in Arlington, Va. Contact 703-469-2008.
• Meghan McCain is John McCain’s daughter and one of the
writers behind McCain Blogette, where she frequently writes about the 2008 campaign. Contact press@mccainbloggettes.com.
• Marlys Popma is director of religious outreach for McCain’s campaign. Contact through McCain’s
press office in Arlington, Va., 703-650-5550, press@mccain08hq.com.
RELIGIOUS
• Bill Devlin is president of Redeem the Vote, a
nonprofit organization that works to engage young people of faith in politics,
especially through a voter registration drive. The group has been called the
evangelical answer to MTV’s Rock the Vote. Contact via Don Stillman in public
relations, don@ccm1.com.
• Mike Hayes is a co-author of Googling God: The Religious
Landscape of People in Their 20s and 30s (2007) and manager of the Web site
Busted Halo. He blogs at Googling God and is based in New York City. Contact 212-265-3209 ext. 205, mike@bustedhalo.com.
• Ethan Nichtern is the author of One
City: A Declaration of Interdependence (2007), a new Buddhist
political treatise about, among other things, youth and political activism in a
post 9-11 world. He is the founder of the Interdependence Project in New York City. Contact ethan@theidproject.com.
• Christian and Amy Piatt are
authors of MySpace to Sacred Space: God for a New Generation (2007).
Christian is a writer and columnist, and Amy is the founding minister of
Milagro Christian Church in Pueblo, Colo. Contact cpiatt@christianpiatt.com.
• Jim Wallis is founder of Sojourners, a grassroots organization of religious progressives, and editor of its
magazine. His latest book is The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith &
Politics in a Post-Religious Right America (2008). Wallis has said that at
Sojourners events across the country, he has been impressed with the political
commitment of young people, much of which he says comes from their religious,
ethical and moral convictions. Contact through press secretary Jack Pannell,
202-745-4614, media@sojo.net.
ACADEMIC
• John Green is a specialist on religion and politics at the
Bliss Institute at the University of Akron and a co-author of The
Diminishing Divide: Religion’s Changing Role in American Politics. Contact
330-972-6295, green@uakron.edu.
• Dean Hoge is a sociology professor at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.,
and editor of Young Adult Catholics: Religion in the Culture of Choice. Contact
202-319-5999.
• David King is a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He has
supervised several polls and surveys on the voting habits of American youth,
including the university’s 14th Biannual Youth Survey on Politics and Public
Service, which found dramatic increases in the number of young people who voted in
several state primaries. He has said that candidates who hope to capture this
voting group must focus not just on issues, but on “fairness and morality.”
Contact 617-495-1665, david_king@harvard.edu.
• Peter Levine is director of the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and
Engagement in
the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland in College Park. One
of the center’s studies is titled “Millennials Talk Politics: A Study of
College Student Civic Engagement,” a 2007 study that found that young voters could make up one-quarter of the
electorate in 2008. He is also the author of The Future of Democracy:
Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens (2007). Contact
301-405-4767, plevine@umd.edu.
• Corwin Smidt is executive director of the Henry Institute at Calvin College in Grand Rapids,
Mich. He oversees the institute’s semester in Washington, D.C., for
undergraduates, which includes a course on integrating religion and politics.
Contact 616-526-6233, smid@calvin.edu.
• Alan Wolfe is a professor of political science at Boston College
and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life there. He
can discuss the political involvement and interest of young voters of different
faiths. Contact 617-552-1862 or 617-552-4160, alan.wolfe.1@bc.edu.
• Robert Wuthnow is director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. He is also the author of After
the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of
American Religion (2007). Contact wuthnow@princeton.edu.
OTHER
• Scott Beale is the founder of Millennial Politics.com, which seeks to involve youth in politics, and the author of Millennial
Manifesto. He splits his time between India and Washington, D.C. Contact
202-669-4497, scott@scottbeale.com.
• Michael Connery is a co-founder of Future Majority, a blog that
covers the involvement of young voters in progressive politics. Connery is the
author of Youth to Power: How Today’s Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow’s
Progressive Majority (2008). Contact 914-498-4361, mike.connery@gmail.com.
• Alexis McGill is executive director of Citizen Change, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit organization created to educate, motivate and
empower young eligible voters. The group was founded by entertainer and
entrepreneur Sean “P. Diddy” Combs. McGill has also worked as political
director for the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, a nonprofit, nonpartisan,
national coalition of hip-hop artists, entertainment industry leaders,
education advocates, civil rights proponents and youth leaders who believe that
hip-hop music can be a force for changing poverty and injustice. Contact 212-381-2066.
• Erich Reimer is executive director of the Young Democrats of
America’s High School Caucus. He is a high school senior in Guilderland, N.Y., and wrote a statement titled
“The Caucus of Faith: Necessary and Desirable,” in which he outlined his
opinion that faith and political involvement are a good match. Contact 518-505-4568, erichreimer11@aim.com
Studies and polls of young voters
• Harvard University’s Institute of Politics 14th Biannual Youth
Survey on Politics and Public Service, released in April 2008, found that young people turned out in record numbers
for primaries and caucuses. The poll found that 37 percent of young voters
reported that religion is a very important part of their lives and 45 percent
expected it to become more important as they grew older. The religious
demographics of the young voters polled showed: 21
percent are Catholic, 15 percent are Protestant, 11 percent are fundamental/evangelical
Christians, 3 percent are Jewish, 2 percent are Mormon, 1 percent are Muslim,
12 percent are from “another religion” and 25 percent report no religious
preference. The survey found that of those who planned to vote for a Democrat
in November, 70 percent preferred Obama over Clinton.
• The National Study of Youth and Religion is
a long-term study of the religious attitudes and practices of American youth.
The project is directed by Christian Smith, sociology professor at the
University of Notre Dame, and Lisa Pearce, assistant professor of sociology at
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
• The Pew Research Center released a study in February 2008 on the habits of young voters. It showed that voters between
the ages of 18 and 29 trend strongly toward the Democratic Party and that the
majority cast a ballot for Obama in primaries and caucuses. Comparing the data
to that of older voters, the study showed that young voters were more likely to
say they had no religious affiliation – 23 percent compared with 18 percent of voters
ages 30 to 44.
Background
• Explore National Public Radio’s ongoing coverage of young voters.
• Visit the Web site of Generation Next, a PBS documentary about the challenges facing 16- to 25-year-old Americans.
Part three, which is available for viewing online, deals with political
engagement and involvement.
• Read a May 19, 2008, article by Ben Adler posted on Politico.com about McCain’s appeal – or lack thereof –
to young voters.
• Read an Aug. 27, 2007, San Francisco Chronicle article about the challenge the Republican Party faces in attracting young voters. The
article appears on the Web site of Common Dreams.
• Read an April 12, 2006, Christian Science Monitor story
about young voters and the roles faith and values plays in
their politics.
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