Republicans raised $1.2 billion to reach young voters. Democrats must respond.

Democrats are poised to have a good election night in November, but the difference between a blue ripple and a blue wave will be the turnout of young voters. Given the electoral landscape right now, young voter turnout could easily determine control of the Senate and whether Democrats’ House majority is a true governing one.

On the left, there is frightening underinvestment in youth organizing, paid media and online engagement programs. It began with the right’s massive $1.2 billion investment in youth in 2024, outspending the left 10 to 1. This trend has continued, with many efforts from the left’s ecosystem short on money for youth programs at the exact time when Trump’s approval with young voters is cratering.

Of the lessons the swing to the right of youth — especially non-college young men — in 2024 taught us, not one of them was that less investment would yield better results.

Young people across the board are with Democrats — we have seen in how they voted in 2025 and consistently across polling in the last few months. Students and young women have always been a base constituency for Democrats. Young men who supported Trump in 2024 are “swinging away hard from Republicans” and Trump largely based on the Iran War and the economy.

In battleground Senate races like Texas and Michigan, young people prefer the Democratic candidates anywhere from 20 to........

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