When politicians talk about reaching young voters, they typically mean college students: campaign events, voter registration drives and debates on university campuses.

But that leaves out many of the young people eligible to vote this year.

Nearly 50 million Americans age 18 to 29 can vote in the 2026 midterms. And 51% of them have no college experience, according to Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE.

That’s partly because of which young people turn out. In the 2022 midterms, 50% of young people with a bachelor’s degree voted, compared with 20% of those whose highest level of education was a high school diploma, according to Census data compiled by CIRCLE.

Some argue that candidates could turn out more non-college-educated young people if they campaigned at places like job training centers, recreation centers or music festivals in addition to college campuses.

For 25-year-old electrician Brody Rutledge, an apprenticeship — not a university — was the place where he entered adult life. His experience helps explain both the opportunity and the challenge of reaching a large politically consequential group of young Americans whom campaigns too often fail to see.

Rutledge is now a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and runs a TikTok page about the blue-collar labor movement.

In his 2020 class of about 18 to 20 apprentices, only one or two had previously completed college, and most were age 18 to 25.

Throughout his apprenticeship, the only political activity he recalls was from Renew, a local pro-union group.

Austin Keyser, international vice president of the IBEW’s 4th District, which includes Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia, said apprenticeships have grown dramatically. The program Rutledge attended had about 20 apprentices a few years ago; it now has 1,000, with an average age of 24.

Some apprenticeship programs are structured as 501(c)(3) organizations, Keyser said, so instructors cannot use class time to promote particular candidates. But the union encourages nonpartisan voter registration, civic education and time off to vote. Keyser said new apprentices also make a verbal commitment to register.

Unions unusually effective at engaging young workers

That work, he argued, makes unions unusually effective at engaging young workers. “We literally engage every one of our new members, and we run a very aggressive program to make sure they register to vote and participate civically,” Keyser said.

He said many young people do not vote because no one has explained how political decisions affect their lives. “The economy is just a giant set of rules, and whoever writes the rules gets to take advantage,” he said. “They’re not taught that.”

Alberto Medina, CIRCLE’s communications manager, said the education divide is one of the “biggest gaps and inequities in our democracy.” When campaigns use “students” as shorthand for young voters, he said, they risk overlooking people who may already face socioeconomic barriers to participation.

“If they’re not voting and participating in politics, that just kind of contributes to systems that don’t really take their views and their needs into account,” Medina said.

When We All Vote, a nonpartisan civic-participation initiative started by former first lady Michelle Obama, has heard from more than 50,000 Gen Zers through its “Pass the Mic to Gen Z” listening tour.

Its senior adviser, Kalisha Dessources Figures, said Gen Z is not a monolith and that the assumption young people do not care about politics is false.

A recent report found 79% of noncollege young people said they were likely to vote.

A joint April report from When We All Vote and CIRCLE found that 79% of noncollege young people and 93% of college-going young people said they were likely to vote. Self-reported likelihood is not the same as validated turnout, but the results suggest that interest is not confined to campuses.

“They care so much about their communities, about issues, and it’s all about how you engage them,” Dessources Figures said. “They know authentic.”

Civic engagement does not start on college campuses, or even at age 18. Fifteen-year-old Vermont gubernatorial candidate Dean Roy decided to run after learning that his state had no explicit age requirement for the office. His third-party campaign focuses on affordable housing — an issue that, like many of Gen Z’s concerns, matters long before college.

“The youth have a voice and realize that they are going to start speaking up,” Roy said in an April interview with MS NOW.

This is a preview of MS NOW’s Project 47 Newsletter. As President Trump continues implementing his ambitious agenda, get expert analysis on the administration’s latest actions and how others are pushing back sent straight to your inbox every Tuesday. Sign up now.

The post The young voters campaigns keep overlooking appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.