Attendees hold signs during a campaign event with state Rep. Claire Valdez in Brooklyn, New York, on June 22, 2026. | Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesConventional wisdom holds that young voters are idealistic and socially progressive dreamers, while older voters are hard-headed, pragmatic, and much more attuned to pocketbook issues. Conventional wisdom, meet Gen Z. Between 2020 and 2024, voters in this cohort swung right by more than 20 percentage points — but now they’re boomeranging back away from President Donald Trump, mainly over the cost of living and a deep sense of economic anxiety, according to a number of recent surveys of young voters.“Inflation/prices” is the top concern for voters under 30 in YouGov’s “most important issue” tracker, far above civil rights and civil liberties. The cost of living, corruption, and US involvement in foreign conflict were the top three issues for young Americans 18–29 (who say they have at least a 50-50 chance of voting in the midterm elections) in this fall’s Harvard IOP youth poll, with 65 percent of this cohort saying the cost of living is “extremely important” in determining their midterm vote. Similarly, 49 percent of the same young Americans in the poll said their personal finances have gotten worse since Trump took office for a second term and 91 percent said the cost of living will be “important in determining their vote.” The final New York Times/Siena national poll of the midterms reported 0 percent of likely voters under 30 “strongly approve” of Trump’s performance on cost-of-living issues.“It’s the economy, stupid” is not a new observation in politics, but the fact that Gen Z voters are prioritizing the economy above social issues marks a genuine shift from their earlier habits. As recently as 2020, healthcare, the environment and climate change, and racism topped young voters’ priorities, according to Gallup. Back then, 79 percent of youth told pollsters that the pandemic helped them realize how much politicians’ decisions affected their lives, which added a unique society-wide issue that often didn’t fit into traditional economic categories. And in the 2022 midterm cycle, Gen Z voters were the only age group to name abortion as the top concern in deciding their vote, ranking the issue 23 points higher than inflation in a Tufts University CIRCLE analysis of national exit-poll data. Not anymore.What Gen Z wants from electionsCall it the post-culture war. Just two years ago, Trump returned to the White House in part thanks to anti-woke “manosphere” influencers popular with young men, even as young women became more liberal, especially on issues like the environment and abortion. Now, as the top issues are changing, there’s more consensus: Amid an AI revolution, rising inflation, and war in the Middle East, identity politics can feel like a luxury. Young women were actually more likely than young men to say that rising prices and inflation constitute “an urgent crisis requiring immediate action,” in the spring Harvard IOP youth poll.The implications are potentially far-reaching — and not just for the midterms. Both parties will need to reckon with a rising generation consumed by cost-of-living concerns in ways that could challenge the status quo and force new compromises with older generations. Already housing has become a familiar flashpoint: Young voters feel locked out of buying a home, but what might help reduce prices for them could be seen as a plan to reduce property values for older voters sitting on a home they bought long ago. And on healthcare, both parties could face more pressure to help younger voters grappling with surging costs in employer and individual insurance plans, which could compete for federal dollars and attention with programs for seniors like Medicare. Lately, I’m hearing young people describe frustration with candidates for a focus on policies that feel tailored to boomers or Gen X, such as raising taxes to fund Social Security or slashing property taxes for existing homeowners, without much attention on remedies for young Americans in the short term, such as bringing down the cost of rent, making higher education more affordable, or increasing healthcare options for younger Americans unable to get a job.In my focus groups with young voters, the economic anxiety is palpable.“I feel like over the last year things definitely have changed,” a 21-year-old man from Miami said. “You see it generally even with gas prices…a lot of it has to do with the fact that our country has involved itself in a lot of different conflicts around the world at this point.”Meanwhile, asked about the top political or social issue impacting her right now, a 23-year-old woman from Tucson, Arizona, said the price of everything felt too high: “The rising cost of living. Everything just feels more expensive like groceries, rent, gas…even as a college student last year. And healthcare is a big concern.”And a 21-year-old student in Pennsylvania said he uses student loan refunds to finance daily necessities. “During the school year, I am relying on my refunds from school to pay my rent, to pay my car payment and car insurance, phone bill, internet, stuff like that,” he told me, adding, “right now, my focus is on economic issues because I feel that I need to continue working simply just to live, that I don’t have much room to focus on cultural issues, since what is on my mind is how I will be getting my next meal. Which then ties in cultural issues, but the main forefront is the economic issues.”What changed for young voters? One interpretation for why younger Gen Z voters are putting economics ahead of cultural issues is simple: The economic outlook for young people is frightening, with constant talk of new technology transforming — or eliminating — the careers they hoped to pursue. One study found that employment among workers ages 22–25 in AI-exposed occupations was 19 percent lower than it would have been had it kept pace with their less-exposed peers — a gap that has widened since researchers first reported it in August 2025. Another found that only 30 percent of 2025 college graduates got a full-time job related to their degree (an 11-point drop from 2024). So it’s no shock that today, the majority of adults under 30 are more concerned than excited about AI, according to the Pew Research Center.Meanwhile, just 63 percent of adults 18–29 said they are “doing okay” or “living comfortably,” which is notably lower than the 83 percent of adults 60 and over who say the same. Anecdotally, I often hear young people say that they feel like they’re worse off economically than their parents were at the same age. These are difficult claims to check, both individually and in aggregate. But a lot of it comes down to homeownership and the sense of financial stability that comes along with it, which feels like an impossible dream for many in Gen Z.“Obviously cultural and those other issues are important, but at the end of the day the most important thing is putting food on the table, gas in the car, and the roof over your head,” a 26-year-old teacher from Illinois told me. “And it feels right now like that’s kinda impossible to do all three. You can put gas in the car and food in your stomach but it’s hard to find a house or apartment to rent or buy. It’s kinda like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs where if your core issues aren’t satisfied you can’t look higher up the pyramid.”Millennials who came of age during the Great Recession might find this all familiar. And in fact, in 2008, the Harvard IOP youth poll found that the economy was the top issue for young Americans ages 18–24.Of course, worrying about the economy and voting on the economy are two separate things, and young voters — who turned out in 2008 at much higher rates than prior presidential years — will need to be convinced by politicians that it’s worth putting their trust in elections to help, let alone either party. The post-2024 CIRCLE poll of young people offers one interesting wrinkle in this regard. Those who didn’t vote were more likely than those who did to name inflation and the cost of living, as well as jobs and unemployment, among their top three priorities. (The 2024 election also saw lower youth turnout compared to 2020 — about 47 percent versus 50 percent, respectively.) We’ll see if that dynamic changes this midterm cycle.When voters transition from voting on social and cultural issues to voting based on economic ones, it’s often said condescendingly that they’re voting with their “heads” rather than their “hearts” or that they’re “growing up” and learning that running a household takes more money and responsibility than they expected. I don’t think these young adults are growing up; I think they’re freaking out.