The 2020 electorate will be even younger, better-educated, and more diverse than this year's
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2018 brought widespread victories for Democrats and progressives, but it also yielded some disappointments. While we saw the highest midterm turnout in a century—currently estimated at 49.2 percent—the electorate was still older and whiter than it was twThe 2020 electorate will be even younger, better-educated, and more diverse than this year's
2018 brought widespread victories for Democrats and progressives, but it also yielded some disappointments. While we saw the highest midterm turnout in a century—currently estimated at 49.2 percent—the electorate was still older and whiter than it was two years ago, according to analysis by the Democratic firm Catalist. In fact, 76 percent of the 2018 electorate was white, compared to 74 percent in 2016. Likewise, 63 percent of voters this year were 50 or older, while only 55 percent of those in 2016 fell into that age cohort. But there’s good news in this, too: Because presidential-year electorates have consistently been younger and more diverse than their midterm counterparts, we should at a minimum rebound to 2016 percentages in 2020—and perhaps we’ll do better. What will probably compound this diversification is the blockbuster turnout we’re likely to see in 2020. Given the already incredible 2018 turnout rate, there’s every reason to believe that 2020 will surpass the highest turnout rates of the past 100 years: 2016: 60.1 percent 2008: 61.6 percent 1960: 63.8 percent 1908: 65.7 percent 2016 saw much better relative turnout than 2014, so we will probably not see the same increase we saw from 2014 to 2018 (up by 12.5 percentage points!), but there’s every reason to believe we can surpass 1960. Read more