FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 4, 2026
Contact: Selasi Tagbor Morales, press@allianceforyouthaction.org
Young voters backed Democratic House candidates 66 to 31, tying the highest youth margin on record; Alliance Network organizing helped flip Senate seats and governorships from Georgia to Kansas to Texas.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Alliance for Youth Action is celebrating young voters for showing up and helping decide the 2026 midterm elections. Young voters backed Democratic House candidates by 35 points, 66 to 31, tying the highest margin CIRCLE has ever measured in a national election and matching the record set in 2018. They also made the difference in Texas’ Senate race, Kansas’ Senate race, and Georgia’s governor race.
The results reflect years of year-round organizing by the Alliance for Youth Action Network, a network of 20 youth-led organizations in 18 states. Since the beginning of the year, the Network knocked on more than 962,000 doors, made more than 2.8 million calls, sent more than 2.7 million texts, and registered more than 21,500 people. Much of that outreach focused on young people traditional campaigns often skip: off-campus voters in Michigan, Native youth in Montana, and rural and first-time voters.
“There’s a reason young people showed up last night: the cost of living is out of control, working people are being squeezed, and they want a future they can actually afford. So young people organized, they led, and they helped decide what comes next. Across our Network, young people knocked on doors, brought their friends to the polls, and made their voices impossible to ignore. And we’re not packing up our clipboards now that polls have closed. The same people who helped shape these results will keep organizing, holding elected officials accountable, and building power long after Election Day. A base is something you keep, not something you rent every October, and this Network isn’t going anywhere,” said Dakota Hall, Executive Director of the Alliance for Youth Action.
Young people also made history on the ballot. Georgia voters made Keisha Lance Bottoms the first Black woman governor in U.S. history, with 78% of voters ages 18–29 supporting her, and Texas elected Gina Hinojosa, its first Latina governor, backed by 76% of the youth vote. Meanwhile, Chris Pappas was elected in New Hampshire, becoming the first gay man to serve in the U.S. Senate, and Kansas elected its first Democratic U.S. senator in 94 years. Gen Z candidates also won across the country, including Melat Kiros, 29, who won Colorado’s 1st District and became the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress.
The work ahead is clear. Democrats won secretary of state offices in four presidential battlegrounds, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada, and those officials will help run the 2028 presidential election. The Alliance Network will keep training poll monitors and keep organizing so that every young person’s vote is cast and counted.
The Network’s work continues past Election Day, with ballot curing underway in Mississippi, where the Senate race is separated by a handful of votes, and organizing for 2027 local elections and the 2028 cycle already in motion.
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The Alliance for Youth Action grows progressive people power across America by empowering local young people’s organizations to strengthen our democracy, fix our economy, and correct injustices through on-the-ground organizing.