Social Movements and Governing Power
January 2020
By Veronica Terriquez and Jiayi Xu
Between the 2014 and 2018 midterm elections, voter turnout among Californians aged 18 to 34 increased by 292%. Funded by the James Irvine Foundation, this report examines how Power California (a network of youth organizing and civic engagement groups that implements youth-led campaigns to educate and mobilize eligible young voters of color in low-income and communities of color) helped drive this shift.
Drawing on experiments that tested outreach via telephone calls, texting, and social media in fall 2018, the report finds that deliberate efforts to mobilize young voters of color in low-income communities made a significant difference.