As a member of Gen Z who participates actively in Idaho’s civic life, I hear people complaining about voter turnout among young people.
I agree our turnout should be higher. But every time someone complains about the lack of young voters, I want to ask the question that somehow keeps escaping the conversation: Why?
In the 2024 presidential election, Idaho was one of seven states where rural young people voted at higher rates than their urban and suburban peers. Young Idahoans want to shape the future of this state and we’re already in our communities. We volunteer for campaigns, run social media accounts, organize protests, and all the other unglamorous volunteer work that keeps civic life moving.
We are proving our worth, yet political organizations welcome our labor while questioning our judgment. Party leaders trust Gen Z to knock on doors, call voters, and staff events, but when we walk into the spaces where people set priorities and make platform decisions, they don’t want to see us. We’re told we’re young, lack experience, and need to wait our turn.
Across Idaho, too many people treat state and local politics like a private club. They confuse years of allegiance with expertise and occupying a committee chair with putting in the work. Familiar faces rotate through party organization, all seeming more interested in the perceived social capital of calling themselves “involved” than in whether their organizations grow, adapt, or accomplish anything.
I don’t say this as an indictment of older Idahoans. Many of the people I respect most in political life have decades more experience than I do. They have built relationships, fought battles, and learned lessons younger organizers would be foolish to ignore.
But what we need is institutional memory, not institutional inertia. These experiences should strengthen a party, not become a barrier to entry.
Few things drive an ambitious young volunteer away faster than spending
months proving their competence and producing results, only to watch someone who barely knows their work dismiss them as “young and inexperienced.” Those same leaders notice the empty chairs and conclude Gen Z simply doesn’t care. They are trapped in a vicious cycle of their own creation.
If Idaho’s political parties want higher young adult participation, their leaders need to listen. Ask why someone willing to spend hours on end organizing an event or helping a campaign eventually decides those hours are better spent accomplishing more elsewhere.
Listen when our answers make you uncomfortable. Invite young voters into policy discussions. Recruit us for committees and leadership. When we challenge an old assumption, engage with us and collaborate.
My generation has responsibilities too. We have to keep showing up because walking away hands more power to the people who already hold it. I want my generation invested enough in Idaho to fight for what this state becomes rather than accepting defeat. Young Idahoans are starting to show up. Idaho’s party leaders need to decide if they are willing to engage.
Dane Dunker is president of the Bonneville County Young Democrats.