If you really think you can change things through the government, you’re either an idiot or a liar.
That’s not how I feel. But I can tell you, as a 23-year-old who has spent the last five years organizing youth support around zoning ordinances, local elections, sexual assault prevention laws and everything in between, this is a widespread belief in my generation about anything political.
Young people do not believe in government. On Election Day, Gen Z did not turn out for Democrats, whom they saw as too entrenched in the establishment. Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris vastly underperformed with young voters compared with President Joe Biden in 2020.
According to the latest Harvard Youth Poll, only 11% of those ages 18-29 feel that the United States is “generally headed in the right direction.” Trust in our legal and political institutions are at historic lows. For a generation born into countless wars, financial collapse and political gridlock − and that came of age during a global pandemic — this makes sense. I spent a lot of time talking to other students about local government. The hardest part was trying to convince them that a local election could actually accomplish something meaningful.
Democracy is at risk, but not because of actions by whoever occupies the White House.
A recent survey found that only 27% of Americans ages 18-25 “agree strongly” that democracy is the best system of government, compared with 48% for all ages. This is an overlooked problem that directly endangers our most essential societal institutions. And I don’t think it has any national solution.
But it has a local one: Young people need to get involved and change local government.
I was a 19-year-old political candidate
When I was 19, I ran for local office in my college town of in Hanover, New Hampshire. What started as an exercise in youthful rebellion turned into a multiyear campaign around reforming zoning laws and restoring civic participation.
I saw directly how municipalities could play a crucial role in addressing the issues that young people care about, like housing, climate change, education, transportation and public safety.
I spent a lot of time talking to other students about local government. The hardest part was trying to convince them that a local election could actually accomplish something meaningful. At first, many people told me that their voices did not matter, that I was running a pointless campaign and that town hall couldn’t change anything.
But once I showed them the connection between pressing issues and concrete policy changes, ones that could be impacted directly by youth participation in local politics, engagement skyrocketed.
For instance, I would bring up how only a few hundred votes on this level could help change the burdensome zoning laws that prevented affordable housing in the area.
Even though I lost my first election, we nearly doubled voter turnout for a town race.
