Document Type
Paper
Publication Date
11-2025
Abstract
The recent 2025 New Jersey Gubernatorial and NYC mayoral races captured national attention as this race could potentially project the mood for the upcoming 2026 midterm election to flip the conservative leaning during the 2024 Presidential election. Particularly, Democrats lost a significant number of votes from the younger demographic groups such as Gen Z, a 10-point decline compared to the 2020 Presidential election (Hartig et al., 2025). Gen Z constitutes about one-fifth of the American voting population (CIRCLE, 2025) and voted at record-high rates in the last two presidential elections. Engaging and mobilizing Gen Z seems pivotal for election candidates. State elections such as gubernatorial races have become more impactful for youth and university students (Romano & Kahn, 2025). However, in New Jersey, Kamala Harris only gained 10-point of votes from young voters in 2024 compared to 16-point gained by Biden in 2020 (Stanton, 2025). Such decline made these two elections even more critical to shape the political landscape since the last presidential election and to test the Democratic party’s ability to re-engage and mobilize younger voters who have swung right after 2020.
Publisher
Joetta Di Bella and Fred C. Sautter III Center for Strategic Communication
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Lou, Yi; Choi, Jin-A; and Benton, Bond, "Beyond Turnout: What Gen Z’s Social Media Reactions Reveal about the 2025 Elections in the New Jersey’s Gubernatorial and NYC’s Mayoral Elections" (2025). College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works. 83.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/scom-facpubs/83