Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s stunning election win eight years ago heralded the start of a broader political shift, and the New York Democrat sees that swelling into a transformational movement.
In an interview Sunday on ABC News’ This Week, she acknowledged that her party had lost support from young people in earlier election cycles, especially young men, and said Democrats must engage with them to build a winning coalition.
“When we look at this insurgent wave of what is happening, oftentimes when people are doing that Monday morning quarterbacking and what demographics voted where, the big one that’s being ignored is the generational tidal wave, a tsunami,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
For now, the data indicates a modest bump in recent elections. According to polling tracker Catalist, millennials made up 25% of the electorate in 2024, up from 23% in 2020.
Baby boomers comprised a larger share of voters in 2024, accounting for 32%, but they are trending lower after hitting a peak of 36% in 2016.
Ocasio-Cortez, a millennial herself, expects the younger generation will soon tip the scales in American politics.
“Millennials are not punk kids anymore. We’re grown adults with mortgages and kids,” she said. “And we—that generation is starting to be decisive at the polls. And there is anger at being ignored, sidelined, having our economic futures mortgaged by the generations that came before us on everything from the economy to climate. And we’re taking the reins.”
In fact, off-year elections in 2025 and mid-term primaries this year have seen younger candidates oust older or longtime establishment figures.
Many of them also identify as democratic socialists with more left-wing positions. But Ocasio-Cortez suggested maturity brings some moderation.
Regarding efforts to defund the police that surged in the wake of George Floyd’s murder during the COVID lockdown, she told ABC that “the doors were really open in trying to entertain any and every policy that was going to get us to a better place.”
Then she admitted “rhetoric in that time is not rhetoric that we would use today.”
The influence of millennial voters will be put to the test this November, particularly in races where the candidates represent different generations as well as parties.
The generational tension has been bubbling for years, including in the housing market, where high mortgage rates and home prices have locked out many younger families.
Meanwhile, empty-nest boomers sit on a disproportionate share of the family-size homes that millennial parents need but cannot find or afford.
Boomers are also sitting on immense wealth after benefiting from a historic era of economic growth and financial gains.
Some estimates of their collective fortune put it as high as $124 trillion, raising hopes for a massive transfer of wealth to younger generations. But millennial and Gen X heirs should only expect to receive a fraction of that amount.
Still, there are also signs that boomers are already handing over their wealth before they die, and helping millennials in the housing market.
Among millennial homeowners, about a quarter got help on the down payment from their parents and wouldn’t have been able to buy their current home without it, according to a report last month from Visa Business and Economic Insights.
“Rather than waiting to pass down inheritances later, many boomers are using their wealth to help their children clear major financial hurdles now, when the support will have the greatest impact,” Visa said.
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