In surveys around the 2020 election, CIRCLE, a civic research shop at Tufts University, found that 13% of people ages 18 to 29 marked climate change as their top concern, the most of any issue.

“Youth often have few people talking directly to them about politics, helping them make those connections with the issues they care about," says CIRCLE Deputy Director Abby Kiesa

"Indicators of youth engagement in a midterm election are pretty good, relatively speaking," said CIRCLE Deputy Director Abby Kiesa.

In about half of states where reliable data is available, meanwhile, researchers flagged that the number of 18-to-24-year-olds who were registered to vote in June is lagging behind the 2018 pace, especially for freshly eligible ballot casters.

Our deputy director Abby Kiesa writes that the fight over abortion rights now taking place in states has strong potential to motivate and mobilize young voters on both sides of the issue.

Recent polling has found that 40% of youth, especially women, describe the top court’s decision ending the federally guaranteed right to abortion as making them more likely to vote in this year’s midterms.

Young voters played a huge role in shifting swing states in the 2020 presidential election, helping to lead Biden to victory with a 25-point lead among young voters.

The fight over abortion this year “has the potential to really, really bring young people out to a great degree,” said Abby Kiesa, deputy director of CIRCLE.

High-profile social issues have been a major driver in youth engagement in recent election years, according to a May report from CIRCLE.

A poll by CIRCLE, a research group attached to Tufts University, found that a staggering 78% of Asian-Americans aged between 18 and 29 supported Mr Biden in 2020, 20 points more than young voters nationally.

Twenty seven percent, compared with 5% in 2016, of young adults indicated that they had participated in street protests, and more than half responded that they had actively worked to encourage their peers to vote. Eighty three percent said that they believe young people have the power to change the country.

In the 2018 midterms, 28.2 percent of Americans under 30 voted, according to a CIRCLE analysis. Democrats made broad gains in the House and in governor’s races that fall.