Young voters delivered the strongest Democratic support of any age group in the November 2026 midterm elections, with 66% of Americans ages 18 to 29 backing Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and 31% supporting Republicans, according to research from CIRCLE, a nonpartisan research organization focused on youth civic engagement at Tufts University.

Democrats won decisive majorities in both houses of Congress in the midterms. For young voters, whether enrolled in college or not, the economy and jobs ranked as their top concern, followed by healthcare and the war in Iran, CIRCLE's Nov. 5 analysis shows.

Overall, 27% of young people — defined as those ages 18 to 29 — went to the polls during the midterms. That marks the second-highest midterm youth voter turnout in the past 30 years, behind only the 2018 election cycle.

Sara Suzuki, a senior researcher and research assistant professor at CIRCLE who studies young people and their voting behavior, wrote that the findings help explain the factors that motivated so many young people to vote — and to cast their lot with the Democrats.

Education and gender split the youth vote

Whether a young voter was enrolled as a college student made little difference in who they voted for in these midterms. But educational attainment did shape voting trends, particularly in the gap between young people with a high school education or less and those with at least some college experience. Those with only a high school degree or less voted Democratic by a 24-point margin, compared with a 42-point margin among those with at least some college education.

Gender produced an even sharper divide. Young male college students voted Democratic by a 24-point margin, while female college students did so by a 45-point margin. A similar gender gap appears among young voters who are not in college, and the pattern has persisted since at least 2024, when young women were also voting more Democratic than young men.

Strongest Democratic support of any age group

Within the 18-29 group, 70% of young women voted for a Democratic U.S. House candidate in the midterms, as opposed to 59% of young men. CIRCLE's data shows the 66% overall Democratic share was the highest percentage of support for Democratic candidates among all age groups. Paired with a turnout rate that was the second-highest for a midterm in three decades, the 2026 numbers give campaigns and civic-engagement researchers an unusually detailed baseline for how Americans under 30 participate when the presidency is not on the ballot.

Partisan trends among young voters have fluctuated over the past few decades. In 2000, for example, 49% of young people voted Democratic while 48% voted Republican.

In 2026, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Black, and Latino young people gave Democratic candidates their strongest support, at 81%, 79% and 71%, respectively. By comparison, 61% of white young people voted for Democratic House candidates, with 36% voting Republican.

Economy, healthcare and Iran war top youth concerns

Across race, education, income and geographic location, young people overwhelmingly indicated that the economy and jobs was their top issue in the election. Healthcare and the Iran war also ranked as areas of importance, and CIRCLE found all three issues are connected to young people's concerns about the cost of living.

Voting preferences varied according to how young people viewed their own financial circumstances, a pattern that held among college students. Low-income students were more likely than their affluent peers to vote for Democrats.

The issues that matter most to young people have shifted considerably over the past several years. In 2020, different groups of young people prioritized social issues such as racism, climate change and gun control. In 2022, young people began to prioritize the economy, with their concern about inflation ranking as the second-most important issue after abortion.

In the 2026 midterms, healthcare ranked second among young voters' priorities and the war in Iran third. The analysis described the Iran result as striking: in past polling on foreign policy issues such as the war between Israel and the Palestinians and the war between Russia and Ukraine, young people had never really ranked those issues as a top area of concern.

Turnout barriers persist

Youth voter turnout generally tends to be much weaker in midterm elections than in presidential elections. In 2018, turnout among young people reached 28% — considerably higher than 2014, when only 13% of young people turned out to vote.

Campaigns appear to recognize that young voters tend to be less politically engaged. CIRCLE's research shows that during the 2024 presidential election cycle, more than 1 in 3 young people were never contacted about the election, and among those without college experience, 48% were never contacted.

College students still face logistical barriers to voting, the research shows. Young people are frequent movers, which means they may need to re-register whenever they change addresses, and living on campus while registered to vote from a parents' address can create complications.

College students have more voting information than young people who are not in college. But compared with other age groups, young people receive less voting information — making their turnout in the 2026 midterms all the more remarkable, according to CIRCLE.

How young voters' issue priorities evolve by the next election cycle, and whether the contact gaps CIRCLE documented in 2024 narrow, are among the data points to watch as campaigns and civic organizations calibrate their appeals to the youngest segment of the electorate.

Sara Suzuki is a senior researcher and research assistant professor at CIRCLE, Tufts University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. It was originally featured on Fortune.com.