The “Resurgent” Youth Voter in the United States

The 2008 U.S. Presidential election was a voting booth landslide for Democratic candidate Barack Obama over Republican candidate John McCain among 18-to-29 year old voters. This research analyzes 2008 National Election Pool exit poll data and seeks to explain why candidate Obama did so well in this election among this category of voters. The author finds that the evaluation of politicians' personalities is a critical part of explaining young voters' choice of candidate Obama as president. This research also found that young voters favored Obama because he was a Democratic Party candidate and liberal on political and social issues. In addition, the author finds some evidence of political parties reaching out to young voters as favorably affecting their voting choice which is important to analyze further given that both parties?in particular the Democratic Party?heavily favored the use of social media to do so. This cross-sectional analysis studies groups by age, party identification, and political ideology, in their general likelihood to support candidates in the 2008 presidential election. Lastly in analyzing young voter behavior from the 1992-2012 presidential elections, this research did not find evidence of a strong turnout of youth voters translating into an advantage for Democratic presidential candidates within that demographic group.