Generation Z and young voters help redefine US politics after midterms

The outcome of the 2026 US midterm elections has marked a historic shift in American politics, with diverse candidates winning office and the first Generation Z woman elected to Congress. Of the 117 Generation Z candidates who ran for Congress this year, 24 won their primaries and made it to Tuesday’s ballot, according to the organisation Future Caucus. Among them was Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old Ethiopian-born democratic socialist from Colorado, who became the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. Kiros, a lawyer turned doctoral student, won a stunning primary victory earlier this year, with the first-time candidate beating 30-year incumbent Representative Diana DeGette in the Denver-area seat. After winning the primary, she told supporters that she was taking the fight to “Donald Trump and the oligarchy”, abolishing US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE (immigration enforcement agency)), passing Medicare for All and ending the “genocide in Palestine”. She joins Representative Maxwell Frost of Florida, who became the first Gen Z member of the House in 2022. Young people voted overwhelmingly for Democrats, according to an Associated Press news agency voter poll. After relatively high support for Trump in the 2024 election, young voters snapped back towards the Democratic Party in this year’s midterms. The AP Voter Poll showed about seven in 10 voters under 30 nationally said they supported the Democratic candidate in their local US House race, while about three in 10 said they voted for the Republican. Young voters shifted towards the Democrats in each of the Senate races where the Democratic Party picked up a seat, including in Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Ohio and North Carolina.