Power

Editor’s Note: Rewire News Group Goes Back to School

Natasha Roy

Democrats and Republicans alike are vying for the youth vote—but are they asking what Gen Z actually wants?

Illustration of a school building. A hand in the foreground holds a phone that shows the building turning into a government building.
As politicians look for the Gen Z vote, they need to ask what policies young people want to see. Cage Rivera/Rewire News Group illustration

This story is part of our back to school issue. Check out the rest of our Campus Dispatch stories here.

Kamala Harris is brat. Tim Walz has infinite aura points. And Democrats have declared that Donald Trump is in his flop era.

Politicians want the Gen Z buy-in. They’re memeifying the 2024 presidential campaign and creating (admittedly very funny) targeted TikToks, all in an effort to tap the more than 8 million young people who have become eligible to vote since the 2022 midterms.

Brazen attempts to secure the youth vote are nothing new, and both of the country’s major political parties are working overtime for it. But votes are earned, and so far, none of these folks seem to be asking what change Gen Zers want to see in our day-to-day lives. Fancam edits of Harris and Walz might earn the Kamala HQ TikTok account a 20-year-old’s follow, but that doesn’t mean it’ll convince them that the adults in charge will help them access on-campus health care or figure out how to cast an absentee vote.

As Pratika Katiyar wrote for Nieman Reports, student journalists are the best route to understanding the issues that matter most to our youngest voting bloc. So, we at Rewire News Group asked a bunch of them to report on what they care about most: accessible voting, on-campus reproductive care, their school’s history of gentrification, and more.

To gear up for the election, we’re extending our monthly Campus Dispatch series over the course of two weeks. This week and next, you can read five pieces by Gen Z writers covering the range of issues they face on their campuses and beyond, from how fewer OB-GYN medical residents in states that ban abortion are creating a health-care desert to what LGBTQ+ students at HBCUs need to feel more included on their campuses. Plus, one woman tells us why the overturn of Roe v. Wade compelled her to return to nursing school in her 40s.

I hope you’ll close out your summer reading with these stories, some of them reported over the course of several months, and check back next week for the second installment of our special issue.