Getting Teens to Talk About Politics

Getting teens to talk about politics yields some interesting opinions and the beginning of asking questions and proposing answers.

At the Governor’s Institute on Current Issues and Youth Activism in Vermont, participants were not old enough to vote, but have strong feelings about candidates, issues, and how well they are represented.

Among a group of several dozen Green Mountain teens, 15 year old Brandon Blau was the only one sporting a campaign buttons for Bernie Sanders, but he said that a majority of Vermont youth support the senator in the current presidential election.

“I’m going to estimate that 90 to 95 percent here support Bernie,” he said. “I wear this every day because I feel I have to represent him as much as he represents us.”

16 year old Grace Young, a volunteer from Colchester for gubenatorial Matt Dunne, is committed but surprised by the results of working the campaign’s phone bank.

“People shockingly don’t know the primary is Aug. 9,” she says. “They often don’t even know who the candidates are.”