The Youth Vote in 2024 and Beyond: Engaging Gen Z Through Social Media and Mobile Voting

Book Signing and Pizza to Follow

By 2028, Gen-Z and Gen-Alpha will be the largest group of eligible voters in the country. But youth voter turnout in recent presidential elections has remained ominously low. Voters under 25 were half as likely to vote in 2020 as voters over the age of 65; and, in 2020, when voter turnout was the highest in a century, young voters participated at roughly the same rate as they did back in 1972, when citizens under the age of 21 first became eligible to vote.

What can be done to make sure young voters make their voices heard and turn out not only in the 2024 election, but in all local and primary elections going forward?

To address this crucial question, please join us for a conversation featuring the youngest member of the New York City Council, Chi Ossé, whose election was powered by the engagement of young voters in Central Brooklyn, and who continues to break down local and national policy issues through social media; and  Bradley Tusk, longtime New York City political strategist whose family foundation is funding and leading the national campaign to make mobile voting an option for elections across the country. The discussion will be moderated by NY1 reporter Kelly Mena.

In Vote With Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot At Saving Democracy, Tusk argues that TikTok and memes now educate and engage young voters about critical policy issues much more than traditional media outlets do; and that mobile voting has the potential to eliminate barriers to the ballot box, make it easier than ever for young people to cast their vote, and significantly increase youth voter turnout.

Hon. Chi Ossé is the Council Member for New York City’s 36^th District, representing Bedford-Stuyvesant and North Crown Heights. He entered politics as an organizer and prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement. At 23 years old, Ossé was elected in 2021 as the youngest member of this Council and its only member hailing from Gen-Z. Co-Chair of the Brooklyn Delegation, his work is focused on implementing innovative and human-centered public safety solutions and investing in solving New York’s housing crisis. More broadly, he recognizes the immense power of municipal spending and is an outspoken advocate for budget justice.

Bradley Tusk is a venture capitalist, political strategist, philanthropist, and author of Vote With Your Phone: Why Mobile Voting Is Our Final Shot At Saving Democracy and The Fixer: My Adventures Saving Startups From Death by Politics. Previously, he served as campaign manager for Mike Bloomberg’s 2009 mayoral race; as Deputy Governor of Illinois, overseeing the state’s budget, operations, legislation, policy and communications; as communications director for Senator Chuck Schumer; and as Uber’s first political advisor. He is currently the managing partner and co-founder of  Tusk Ventures, the first venture capital fund to invest solely in early stage startups in highly regulated industries, and the founder of political consulting firm Tusk Strategies. Host of a podcast called Firewall about the intersection of tech and politics, he recently opened an independent bookstore on the Lower East Side called P&T Knitwear.

Kelly Mena, moderator, is a multimedia journalist at Spectrum News NY1. Previously, she was a reporter and senior editor at Kings County Politics, where she worked on several investigative pieces exposing unfair and discriminatory housing practices; her reporting resulted in a lawsuit ruling in favor of homeowners. In addition, she has been a reporter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and CNN Politics.