Election turnout strong at Pa. colleges as youth vote showed shift toward Trump

At the University of Pittsburgh on Tuesday, long lines jetted out of Oakland polling centers.

Students knew it would take an hour, or maybe two, to cast their ballots, but they still waited in line to perform their civic duties.

That was a positive sign to Ben Wainwright, a senior political science student at Pitt who serves as the Pennsylvania state director for RISE, a college student and youth-led nonprofit that aims to increase young voter turnout. In Pennsylvania alone, RISE collected over 20,000 signatures of students who pledged to vote in this election.

"People knew there were hour-long lines and got in them anyway because they were that passionate about making their voices heard," Mr. Wainwright said. "People had those plans [to vote] and were committed to them."

Full data on young voter turnout for this election cycle has yet to be released.

But what has been released is exit poll data indicating that college student and young voter trends shifted this election cycle.

Though young voters traditionally lean more liberally, President-elect Donald Trump received more of the youth vote in 2024 than 2020. The future president earned 42% of the young adult vote in 2024, compared to 36% in 2020, according to an NBC News exit poll of 10 states, including Pennsylvania.

In Pennsylvania alone, Trump earned 44% of the 18-29 vote.

His stronger performance comes after many voters, including young ones, said the economy was a top issue for them. Anthony Cacciato, president of the College Republicans at Carnegie Mellon University, believes that made the difference.

"Trump winning the popular vote and doing a clean sweep of the swing states tells us how dissatisfied people were with the economy — especially for young people," Mr. Cacciato said. "A lot of young people I spoke to were concerned about their economic prospects when they graduated college. ... I think in Trump they saw somebody who offered them not only an economy where they could survive, but thrive."

The long lines at Pitt weren't an outlier in Pennsylvania higher education and could indicate that voter turnout was high at many colleges.

At Lehigh University in Bethlehem, students waited more than six hours to cast their ballots . Villanova University students also stood in hours-long lines to vote, and there were long voting lines in Penn State's HUB-Robeson Center.

This could be significant as college students and young people often don't vote at the rates of their older peers. In 2020, half of people aged 18-29 nationwide voted, an 11% uptick from the 2016 election.

Jonathan Groff, Wanda Sykes meet with Lehigh University students at Bethlehem polls

A late October study by the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found that young voter registration was down in 41 states compared to the 2020 election cycle. In Pennsylvania, there was a 6% decrease in young voter registration.

It isn't currently clear whether those declines impacted young voter turnout overall.

But data from Allegheny County indicates that turnout in Oakland — home to Pitt and CMU — appeared to be strong. The Tuesday turnout ranged between 32% and 74%, depending on the precinct. In 2020, it varied from 23% to 75%.

And in State College, where many Penn State University Park students cast their ballots, precinct turnout varied from 39% to 80% this November, according to Centre County data. Four years ago, turnout was 32% to 84%.

From what he observed at Pitt and around the state, Mr. Wainwright said there was a "real excitement" among student voters this election cycle. The importance of Pennsylvania in this election played into that engagement, he said.

"I do think there was an energy there," he said. "I also think [students] recognized their role being in a very pivotal state like Pennsylvania."

At Pitt, the campus seemed to be politically divided this election season, student Nolan DuBois told the Post-Gazette on Tuesday. Resident assistants like Mr. DuBois received training this semester to facilitate safety and respect on campus.

"The campus is a melting pot of opinions," Mr. DuBois said. "There's no way that any two people are going to agree on everything, so they stressed being open and not shutting anyone down for having a different opinion than you."

Trump improved significantly with young men — winning them over by 2 percentage points this cycle. Former President Joe Biden had won that demographic by 11 points in 2020.

Trump also narrowed the Democratic ticket's lead with young women, though Vice President Kamala Harris' lead in that group was still surmounting. The vice president led young women by 24 points, compared to Mr. Biden's 35-point lead.

This year, voters age 18-29 told Harvard University that inflation, health care and housing were the most important issues to them headed into the election.

The economy was a main concern for Pitt student Spencer Brooking, a Republican who voted for Trump because he hopes he will strengthen the economy and boost access to good-paying jobs.

"My biggest issue is where we're going to be in the next four years, and looking at our lives and what's going to be better for us," Mr. Brooking said.

But while Trump made gains among younger voters, Ms. Harris still received a majority of their votes. She earned 55% of the youth vote in 2024 — but a 5-point drop from Mr. Biden's 60%.

On some campuses, the effect of Ms. Harris' defeat was palpable. Pitt was quiet on Wednesday, and some students opted to skip class.

Many students who voted for Ms. Harris named abortion as a top issue to them. A Harvard poll found, among young voters, Ms. Harris outperformed Trump on abortion by 31 points.

"Abortion access and reproductive freedoms have been the biggest issues above all," said Bree Francis, a Pitt student and volunteer for Feminist Majority Foundation, which set up a table for support of Ms. Harris outside of an Oakland polling center on Tuesday.

The Israel-Palestine conflict and the Biden administration's response to the war also shaped students' voting decisions. Some reluctantly voted for Ms. Harris, others voted for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, and still others opted not to vote.

Pitt senior Alpa Sehrawat said she "wasn't that excited" to vote for Ms. Harris, but ultimately cast her ballot for the vice president. She wishes Ms. Harris had run a more progressive campaign.

She believes Trump will be "horrific" in foreign affairs, specifically regarding the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars.

"It feels a little gloomier," Ms. Sehrawat said after Trump's win. "The sky is gray. It just feels like things are a bit more somber."

Madaleine Rubin and King Jemison contributed to this report.

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