Admittedly, it is early, especially for the day after Saturday evening, but still: there are barely 2,000 on campus to listen to the rising star of the Democratic Party, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (“AOC”), Sunday, October 23 , at the University of Irvine, 60 kilometers from Los Angeles. A maximum of two thousand people for an establishment with more than 30,000 students. ” It’s true. There is still a lot of work to do”recognizes Shinjini Das, 20, responsible for promoting voter registration within the group of student democrats.
Two weeks before the midterm elections, the students do not seem as mobilized as the Democrats would like. Traditionally, young people do not jostle for this election. In 2018, the participation of 18-29 year olds did not exceed 36% – a clear improvement, however, compared to 2014 (20%). In 2020, for the presidential election, it reached 50%, a record since the majority was lowered to 18, in 1971. Since 2020, 8.3 million young people have reached voting age, including 3.8 million from minorities, according to Tufts University’s Civic Participation Research and Information Center.
The November 8 elections bring into play several subjects that concern them closely, from the right to abortion to the fate of the “Dreamers”, young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States by their parents in their childhood. Yet progressives are “worried”, according to the expression of Bernie Sanders, the elected independent of Vermont. A youth icon in 2016 and 2020, the 81-year-old senator embarked on a series of meetings across eight states to remobilize young people. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is guaranteed to be re-elected in New York, mainly campaigns on social networks (with 13.5 million subscribers on Twitter, she is the most followed of American parliamentarians). Exceptionally, she came to motivate students in Orange County, south of Los Angeles, on the eve of the closing of voter registration. A difficult terrain: the Democrats had overturned this bastion of the Republican bourgeoisie in 2018. The Grand Old Party is on the reconquest.
“We only live in uncertainty”
Among the students, gathered at the foot of the American flag that marks the center of campus, none mention inflation, among their main concerns, or safety, except gun control. “Women’s rights are the major topic at the moment”, attests Diana, 20, a public health student who prefers to keep her name quiet. The girls are still reeling from the realization that what seemed normal and taken for granted was actually likely to be taken away from them. “Republicans are attacking our rights. »
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