Forbes notes that CNN exit polls categorized Millennials voting as “19% of all voters.” Furthermore, Obama was favored 60% of the time, according to the CNN polling.
“I was a third party voter in this election and I wasn’t as concerned with how either major party candidate communicated with our generation. I think that Obama is very liberal with social issues such as same sex marriage and women’s health and that is important to our generation,” said Colleen Fisher, senior chemistry and secondary education major at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, PA.
According to Jessica Hessom, a Seton Hill University (SHU) sophomore and physician assistant student, Obama’s re-election is due to his support “for abortion and gay marriage.” Furthermore, Hessom stated that many “young people are not true Christians and that has something to do with how they vote.”
Economic factors played a role in Millennials’ voting decisions, as well. Many college students worry that they will be unable to find a job upon graduation. According to Fisher, the current college student is often promised job opportunities and job growth, but nothing has happened thus far. “My classmates and I, as well as recent graduates, are still concerned about whether or not we will be able to find jobs,” said Fisher.
SHU junior and political science major Mary Calligan believes that Obama’s votes might have stemmed from his policy allowing children to stay on parents’ insurance until the age of twenty-six. “Personally I only see bad things about his policies,” said Calligan.
According to SHU alumnus Lauren Peightel, Romney and Republican counterparts focused “too heavily on ‘majority’ individuals (white upper class families, or rural areas who traditionally vote Republican) and polarized complete demographics away from voting for them, even if they agreed on their stance with other issues.”
Social issues in relation to the Millennial generation define reasoning for Obama’s re-election, said Peightel. “Standing against same sex marriage, deciding women’s healthcare and wage gap, and radical immigration policies turned away the LGBT community, most of the women populace and the ever growing Latino population.”