As midterm election results solidify in all corners of the country, analysts and experts are looking at what triggered a "blue tsunami," where Democrats now hold a majority in both houses of Congress and are dominating races at all levels of government in many states nationwide.
For Veronica Terriquez, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center director and professor of urban planning and Chicana/o and Central American studies, it is no surprise that young voters ages 18–29 are a critical demographic in this nationwide vote for change.
Terriquez has dedicated decades to studying how young people, especially those from immigrant backgrounds, actively learn how to organize, lead and drive political change. She can comment on how young people have become empowered politically in states including Texas, Michigan, South Carolina, New Jersey and in California, specifically in the Central Valley and in Los Angeles.
In her latest book, "Learning to Lead: Youth Organizing in Immigrant Communities," Terriquez draws from more than 105,000 voting records, over 5,000 surveys and more than 600 semi-structured interviews to explore how youth organizing groups promote civic and political engagement among young people from immigrant backgrounds.
She writes:
The young people I interviewed were eager to engage and ready to act, but they needed spaces where they could develop their voice, understand the historical context shaping the issues impacting their communities, and learn how to take action.
Youth organizing groups provide that foundation by helping young people build civic awareness, work across differences, and mobilize others. When that happens, even a small group can have a big impact.
Though examples abound of highly visible teenage activism at home and abroad, adolescents are rarely regarded as serious political actors in contemporary U.S. society. This perception stems from the visibility of young adults as frontline participants in social movements and the dominance of middle-aged and older individuals in formal positions of power. Yet adolescents can also become influential change agents who drive policy changes and boost voter turnout, utilizing strategies that engage their contemporaries in collective efforts.
Interactions with agents of political socialization — parents, schools, media (especially social media for today's generation), and civic organizations — can inform whether and how adolescents decide to get involved in politics.
