Gen Z voters told us the midterms boil down to affording life, as social causes take a back seat

By Venessa Wong

MarketWatch talked to younger voters who said many life goals feel unattainable for their generation

Roughly one-third of Gen Z-ers said inflation was the most important issue facing the U.S., compared to 24% among all respondents, a recent YouGov poll found.

Matthew Blankley has a 40-hour-per-week job in public relations. Recently, he also started working as a theater usher four nights per week.

Blankley, 24, didn't set out to work 60-hour weeks, but the pay from his full-time job was only covering the essentials in New York City: an apartment he shares with a roommate, food and transportation.

He needed to find a way to afford "those extra things that I perceive as pretty normal to have in life: going out for lunch once a week, getting tickets for a show, getting not just bare-necessity groceries but that extra 15% for snacks," he told MarketWatch. "I think it's pretty humble. I want to get, I don't know, Shake Shack for dinner once a week."

For many Gen Z voters like Blankley, affordability issues impacting both daily quality of life and long-term goals have risen to the top of their list of concerns heading into midterm elections.

"I don't think they're voting on social issues anymore," Blankley said. "I think it's more: Can you afford your student loans?" He sees politics being shaped now by an economic "top-versus-bottom," more than left-versus-right, divide - and "most, if not all, of my Gen Z friends are struggling at the bottom," he noted.

In YouGov's latest poll, 1 in 3 Gen Z-ers ages 18 to 29 said inflation was the most important issue to them. Meanwhile, only 6% chose "climate change and the environment."

It marks a shift from 2022, when climate change and the environment was a top concern (16%) among adults ages 18 to 29, occasionally topping inflation (12%) heading into the midterms, according to YouGov's archives.

Other polls are turning out similar results. In a September poll by Ipsos, Gen Z adults were the most likely among all age groups to select the "economy, unemployment, and jobs" as their top concern (27%), compared to 23% of all respondents. Baby boomers were most concerned about "threats to democratic values and norms" (22%).

In the Yale Youth Poll, conducted over the spring, "cost of living/affordability" was a top issue for 81% of surveyed 18- to 34-year-olds.

Matthew Blankley, 24, works 20 hours per week as a theater usher, in addition to his full-time job, to cover nonessential expenses.

"You're thinking about a very young generation - one that is going into the workforce, thinking about housing, how they're going to pay for healthcare," Jack Dozier, a 21-year-old senior at Yale University and director of the Yale Youth Poll, told MarketWatch.

Underpinning younger voters' anxiety is a slowing job market for college grads. "I've heard frustrations over and over again of people not being able to snag that very first job. As a senior, it's definitely something that's on my mind," said Dozier.

Gen Z-ers are now roughly 14 to 29 years old. To cope with high costs, young Americans are moving back in with their parents, renting longer as home prices keep slipping out of reach, giving up on car ownership and working multiple jobs. Yet their average credit-card debt is up, and Gen Z-ers are the most financially stressed age group.

"I definitely would like to be able to work less and devote some more time to myself," said Ethan Carvalho, a 20-year-old full-time student who also works a full-time job and lives at home.

"There are a lot of politicians who don't think that there's an affordability crisis going on," said Ethan Carvalho, a 20-year-old full-time student at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey who also works a full-time job and lives at home.

Before transferring to Rutgers - where his tuition is now fully covered by grants and scholarships, some of which require him to maintain a high GPA - Carvalho attended community college to save money. He uses his earnings from work to cover his car expenses, which are about $1,000 per month, as well as some food, and is saving the rest.

On weekdays, Carvalho works at an Audi dealership from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., attends classes from 6 p.m. to 8:50 p.m. and then does homework until around 11 p.m.

"It's definitely a lot some days," he said. "If affordability wasn't something that I have to think about so much, I definitely would like to be able to work less and devote some more time to myself, even if it means eating lunch," which he doesn't always have time for.

Carvalho's goal is to find an affordable place to rent, and eventually buy a home in New Jersey's Monmouth County, where he grew up. But with the median home price there now exceeding $786,000, it seems "totally out of reach," despite his early start working full-time. "I can't add five hours to the day to work more. I only have 24 hours in one day," Carvalho said. "So, I mean, I don't know what else I should be doing."

He added: "I want a politician that goes after insurance companies overcharging people. I want one that goes after gas prices, and makes sure that food isn't outrageously expensive." Young people see their goals as "so unattainable," Carvalho said, and "I just want them to act on that, and understand that these are real issues and there's just no support for young people."

For Rachel Labi, a 23-year-old Purdue University graduate doing a United Nations internship in West Lafayette, Ind., affordable housing is her top political concern. Many workers in the area "can't afford a two-bedroom unit at the fair market rate. So if you're an average person with kids, and you're in a common job in the state, you can't even really live."

To cope, Labi lives at home now. But she plans to eventually move to a larger city with more work opportunities and higher housing costs. "I'm hoping that through civic engagement and being part of the voting process, I can help try to put in [elected officials] who take that as a priority."

Even voters concerned about a variety of issues can't ignore the urgency of today's cost-of-living problems. Nick Moran, a 27-year-old public-relations manager in Chicago, said "it's really difficult right now to be a voter because there are so many things that I feel are important" - citing economic issues, immigration and the rise of nationalism among them - but he believes Gen Z-ers are "always going to be concerned in some capacity with their finances." Many simply feel "they have to fight harder" to achieve the financial success and freedom that their relatives enjoyed in the past, he said, and that "will always be top of mind" when they vote.

"It makes 100% sense that the economy is a top concern for people," said Lauren Perl, 23, who describes herself as a pro-democracy organizer.

Lauren Perl - a 23-year-old Harvard University graduate who in 2024 co-founded BallotWise, a voter-education tool that showed candidates' legislative voting records - said her top concerns now are ICE's treatment of immigrants, attacks on higher education, the rise of fascism around the world and "the legitimacy of these elections" due to potential voter suppression.

In polls, few Gen Z-ers shared these priorities, but "it makes 100% sense that the economy is a top concern for people," Perl said. "Economic opportunity translates to power. ... At the end of the day, you can't be a political activist if you can't afford food."

See also: The 5 big voting issues in the midterm elections that will impact your wallet

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-Venessa Wong

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10-30-26 0926ET