They are now the largest single generation, the most diverse generation, the most highly educated generation and most are eligible to vote, Sen. Eric Lesser said, so political candidates ignore millennial voters at their own peril.
Though it may seem to some as though millennials — defined as those Americans born between 1982 and 2000 — are not paying attention and involving themselves in the political process, Lesser said it may just be that younger voters have a different view of that process.
“The first inklings of us starting to pay attention was the Clinton impeachment, then the 2000 recount, then 9/11, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, then came the 2008 financial crisis,” Lesser, a millennial from Longmeadow, said. “So it shouldn’t be a surprise to people that our generation feels a little jaundiced about the political process.”
Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell, a millennial who won her first race for public office last November, said running for political office as a young person can carry an additional set of challenges.
“It was not uncommon to meet someone at their door and they would say, ‘I think you’re a little young,’ or ‘I don’t know that you’ll understand the issues,'” Campbell said of her time campaigning last year.
Lesser and Campbell were joined Monday morning by Dan Koh, the millennial chief of staff to Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, to discuss how millennials fit into the political sphere and how this generation of voters might shift the civic landscape.
Lesser, Campbell and Koh agreed that the handful of major issues most important to millennials are student debt, housing costs, the new “gig” economy and access to good-paying jobs with upward mobility.
In June 2015, the US Census Bureau reported that millennials number 83.1 million and represent one quarter of the nation’s population, eclipsing the total of 75.4 million Baby Boomers.
