Hundreds of thousands of Gen Z Michiganders will be old enough to vote for president for the first time this Election Day.
They were as young as middle schoolers during the COVID shutdown. They sat in classrooms while the country mourned dozens of victims of school shootings, including four killed at Oxford High School in Michigan in 2021.
They came of age during an era of protests, mostly notably the Black Lives Matter marches after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
They’re even too young to have known Donald Trump as anything other than a politician.
Now it’s their turn to have their say at the ballot box.
In September and October, MLive sat down for video interviews with three young college students voting for president for the first time in Michigan.
They discussed how world events shaped them, and what issues, from climate change to the economy, are most important to them this election year.
Joey Fogt, 20, is a junior at Hope College in Holland. When he spoke to MLive in September, he said he wasn’t happy with either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. He was frustrated with negative attack ads and in-fighting. He said, “I really wish that we could have a party that was founded on getting the government working for people again.”
Fogt says he has since turned in his absentee ballot and voted for Harris.
Chris White is a freshman at Jackson Community College. He was 17 when we sat for an interview in September and has since turned 18. He said he‘ll be voting for Kamala Harris. After President Biden dropped out of the race, White said Harris restored a bit of his faith that “democracy will win.”
We first met Elyse Jerome, 18, from North Branch at Donald Trump’s rally in Flint on Sept. 17, which she attended with two friends. She said her fellow Trump supporters in the crowd were “super pumped” to see them.
“There were so many people that had commented, it’s so good to see you here. It’s so good to see young women, especially,” she said.
Watch our video for more.
While these three Gen Zers certainly aren’t representative of every young person across the state, their thoughtful, nuanced and diverse political views offer a window into what motivates the next generation of voters.
Lori Chapman is a senior producer on MLive’s video team
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