The Iowa Caucus this past Monday was an exciting race among the Democrats with Clinton beating Sanders by 0.3% of caucus participants (1). Bernie fans do not distress, even though Clinton won a majority of the delegates, a couple months ago even the idea of Bernie coming close to defeating Hillary was a seemingly unattainable dream. To the disbelief of many, Bernie has been able to hold his own and actually now has a 18.4 point lead over Hillary in New Hampshire (2).
Bernie’s main supporters are the younger generation or the millennials. The millennials, ranging in age from 17-29 support Bernie over Hillary by a 70 point margin (3). Hillary has tried to swing this enormous gap back in her favor, but has done so through awkward and seemingly forced appearances like her dancing on the Ellen show where she attempted to perform some “hip” dance moves like the “whip”. As a millennial watching this cringe worthy attempts at dance made me feel uncomfortable to be honest.
Bernie’s main issue to win the election is to get the millennials to actually vote. While he does hold this massive lead over Clinton in this one demographic, younger generations are notoriously bad at voting. In the 2012 election, only 38% of voters aged 18-24 voted (4) while as an entire population, 62.3% voted (5). This is a substantial gap that could mean the difference in who becomes the Democratic Presidential nominee. Regardless of who you plan to vote for (if you are of age), I encourage you to go and exercise this Constitutional right and make your voice heard.
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