By Chelsea Castillo/Managing Editor

BENTONVILLE — As the upcoming presidential election reaches its final stretch, the candidates are trying to reach as many people as they can to secure a vote. The most notable group of voters in this upcoming election is known as Gen Z. Gen Z is one of the main groups the campaigns are trying to reach. IIn past elections this demographic was deemed less likely to not cast a vote during election season. Many people of that generation have the ability to participate in this year’s election, and with the right to vote comes the importance of voting for what they believe is important to them and what candidates align with those beliefs.

Matt Evans, a political science professor at NWACC, said, “The demographics and those studying political behavior demonstrate that there are 20 million new Generation Z voters since 2022, with 55 percent of the rookie voters being White.” With such high numbers, many new voters want to be sure of who they are voting for. Campaigns have realized the significance of this specific demographic of voters and try to reach out and gain their vote. Yet the campaigns realize that they have to earn the vote of this specific demographic, and throughout the past months of campaigning they tried to attract younger voters to their side.

The media plays a huge role in the decision these voters might make. Gen Z was raised with the access of the internet, which provides one of the fastest ways to get information, this is the case campaigns used to reach out and inform people of their policies and fundamental issues they want to tackle.

The Harris-Walz campaign has used the application “Tik Tok,” to reach out to many young voters who use the app to spread their policies. The Trump-Vance campaign has also reached out to Gen-Z voters by appearing on popular podcasts such as “This Past Weekend” by Theo Von. Both campaigns have gone on a number of media blitzes in the final couple of weeks, with frequent stops to inform voters what they stand for.

Young people typically vote at lower rates than other generations, so their influence in elections is often smaller relative to their share of the population. Still, that does not stop campaigns from trying to motivate them to get out and vote.”

– Daniel Bennett, political science professor, John Brown University

Another way campaigns have reached out to younger voters is through endorsements from celebrities. Notable examples of the campaign’s endorsements are Beyoncé endorsing Kamala Harris and speaking at rally of Harris in Houston, Texas on Oct. 25. The Trump campaign has been endorsed by Elon Musk and Musk has spoken at a couple campaign rallies throughout his running for reelection. The billionaire entrepreneur has also been promoting voters by recently holding giveaways and giving out $1 million to registered voters in swing states.

Daniel Bennett, a political science professor at John Brown University, says, “Young people typically vote at lower rates than other generations, so their influence in elections is often smaller relative to their share of the population. Still, that does not stop campaigns from trying to motivate them to get out and vote.”

Many would like to see the participation of Gen Z voters rise. The 2020 elections showed record highs of Gen Z voters across the country, and this high stakes election might bring in more. A coalition of partners in Arkansas released a report on civic engagement in 2023, and that report showed some potential movement in college-age voter participation. According to data on student voting patterns at 12 Arkansas colleges and universities from the National Study of Learning, Voting, and Engagement, student voting rates in Arkansas increased by 16 percentage points between 2016 and 2020, with 57% of students voting in 2020. In 2020, 61% of women voted compared to 54% of men. However, the student voting gender gap decreased by one percentage point from 2016.