索菲亚·夏皮罗(Sophia Shapiro)回忆起她父亲、民主党人乔希·夏皮罗(Josh Shapiro)击败共和党挑战者道格·马斯特里亚诺(Doug Mastriano)竞选宾夕法尼亚州州长的那一刻，这是上周最早的迹象之一共和党获胜的红色浪潮受挫。

“大选之夜，当我们听到结果时，我们说的第一件事是——他转向我，对我说，‘Z世代出现了，’”索菲亚·夏皮罗，一位长期的青年活动家和匹兹堡大学的大三学生，为夏皮罗创立了学生，告诉美国广播公司新闻。

11月8日晚些时候，她的父亲在蒙哥马利县的观看派对上登台时，向年轻选民点了点头:“从Z世代到我们老年人的选民——来自各行各业的人——给了我一生的荣誉。”

他是对的:出口民调显示18至29岁的选民占州长竞选选民的12%，他们投票给他而不是马斯特里亚诺，超过44个百分点。

尽管在2022年中期选举中，年轻选民在宾夕法尼亚州或其他地方的选民中所占比例并没有显著增加，但他们确实比过去的周期更倾向于民主党-有助于挑战历史模式和普遍预测共和党会重新掌权。

在令人惊讶的中期选举结果公布后的一周里，很多注意力都集中在“为什么”和“谁”上。

福克斯新闻频道保守派人士杰西·沃特斯(Jesse Watters)在选举后的广播中说:“这些年轻选民在淡季表现如此强劲，这一事实非常令人担忧。”。

乔·拜登总统有自己的看法，他在选举日之后的早上告诉记者:“我特别想感谢这个国家的年轻人。”

当选州长乔希·夏皮罗(Josh Shapiro)以及其他候选人、青年选民和选举专家都认为Z世代(大约出生于1997年至2012年，被18岁至29岁的选民群体包围，以及一些千禧一代)在中期选举中推动了民主党候选人。

美国广播公司新闻的投票后调查显示年轻选民转向民主党只是众多显著投票率变化中的一个:无党派人士也比共和党人更支持他们。

左翼青年选民的崩溃

根据出口民调，18至29岁的选民占中期选举选民的12%，与其他年龄组相比，这是最低的比例，但他们坚定地倾向于民主党候选人，这一趋势近年来变得更加明显。在全国范围内，这一年龄组在2022年民主党众议院候选人的选举中比共和党挑战者高出28个百分点。这与2020年大致相同，但比2014年等共和党更强大的年份好得多。

根据出口民调，30岁至44岁的人是本次选举中唯一支持民主党的其他年龄组，比共和党高出4个百分点。然而，这与2018年众议院选举相比有所下降，当时这一年龄组支持民主党19个百分点，2016年支持民主党7个百分点。

45岁至64岁的人更喜欢众议院的共和党人，领先10个百分点，65岁及以上的人占选民的28%，他们投票支持共和党候选人，领先民主党人12个百分点。

哈佛民意项目学生主席Alan Zhang指着这些数字告诉ABC新闻:“年轻选民取消了65岁以上的每一张选票。30岁以下和40岁以下是唯一支持民主党的年龄组，他们压倒性地支持民主党。没有年轻人的投票，就没有防火墙阻止红色浪潮接管。”

青年投票的组织者强调，在他们看来，这一轮是不同寻常的，因为有许多青年领袖，包括第一位Z世代当选的国会议员，即将上任民主党众议员麦克斯韦·弗罗斯特他动员同龄人为“亲民主”候选人投票，这些候选人代表了堕胎权、强劲的经济和个人自由等首要问题，这一评估在很大程度上反映了美国广播公司新闻的国家和州级问题和出口民调。

年轻选民在摇摆州的影响力

出口民调数据显示，在亚利桑那、佐治亚、密歇根和威斯康星等摇摆州，年轻选民强烈的民主党倾向对民主党有利。

“如果你看看许多民主党人能够勉强获胜的这些非常接近的竞选，很大程度上是因为Z世代和千禧一代，这真的让我很兴奋，”弗罗斯特上周告诉“GMA3”。

根据出口民调，在亚利桑那州，18至29岁的选民支持现任民主党参议员马克·凯利，比共和党参议员布莱克·马斯特斯高出56个百分点。在佐治亚州，年轻选民投票支持民主党参议员拉斐尔·沃诺克(Raphael Warnock)，领先共和党挑战者赫歇尔·沃克(Herschel Walker)29个百分点。在密歇根州，30岁以下的选民支持民主党州长格雷琴·惠特莫，比共和党挑战者都铎·迪克森高出32个百分点。

“事情是这样的:Z世代——我们中有一半人还没到投票的年龄——最年轻的Z世代现在才13岁。这向我展示了这个国家充满了希望和承诺，因为年轻人开始站起来，真正步入他们的政治权力。

保守派也谈到了Z世代选民对一些竞选中倾向民主党的结果的影响。来自新罕布什尔州的25岁共和党候选人卡罗琳·莱维特(Karoline Leavitt)在以25，000票输给现任众议员克里斯·帕帕斯(Chris Pappas)后发推文称，共和党在中期选举中“惨败”，这是“对Z世代选举影响力的第一次重大考验。”

“#GenZ每天都在成长，并越来越左倾——如果我们不改变年轻的心，这将继续是我们党的一个巨大挑战莱维特上周在一条推特上写道。

组织者动员年轻选民

福斯特已经被国家民主党人选中，下周在佐治亚州为沃诺克竞选12月6日决选这可能是Z世代在党内日益重要的一个信号。

“很多人低估了一个团结、愤怒、有组织、受过教育的一代人的力量，”明日选民组织(Voters of Tomorrow)的杰克·罗贝尔(Jack Lobel)说，这是一个由Z世代领导的组织，专注于吸引和动员年轻选民。

罗贝尔说:“对于那些以很大差距落败的竞选团队来说，我认为在青年选民外联方面的更多投资会让他们保持竞争力。”“对于以微弱劣势落败的竞选团队来说，这可能会扭转局势。对于获胜的竞选团队来说，这无疑是因为他们自己的工作，因为他们中的一些人做了，而他们中的一些人没有在年轻选民身上投资。”

索菲亚·夏皮罗说，当她父亲去年开始竞选州长时，她向他提出了由年轻人领导的青年拓展活动的想法，这导致了夏皮罗集团的学生。

夏皮罗竞选团队表示，该组织拥有50多个学校分会和近1000名成员。

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro embraces his family after giving a victory speech to supporters at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center on Nov. 8, 2022 in Oaks, Penn.

马克·马科拉/盖蒂图片社

该团体通过Instagram、抖音和BeReal等最受Z世代欢迎的社交媒体平台，在当地与年轻人见面，与他们的基础建立联系;但他们也使用传统的竞选策略，如短信、电话银行和敲门。

索菲娅·夏皮罗在谈到她的父亲时说:“你已经看到他如何更多地参与抖音和贝雷以及竞选过程中所有有趣的以Z世代为中心的活动，但也真正使我们能够灵活地以真正影响Z世代的方式做这件事。”

她说:“我认为，被赋予向前迈进、接触他人和与同龄人交谈的权力和主动性，是一件非常强大和特别的事情。”

罗贝尔说，在选举日之前的几个星期，“明日选民”通过电话、短信或当面联系了全国各地的年轻人，重点是加利福尼亚、佐治亚、密歇根、宾夕法尼亚和弗吉尼亚，联系次数超过600万次。在同一时期，他们的社交媒体覆盖面超过1亿，包括数字广告业务，该业务针对关键竞选中的年轻选民，提供关于LGTBQ权利和堕胎途径的信息。

“在多布斯事件后，我们看到参与度有所上升，”罗贝尔说，他指的是今年夏天最高法院否决全国堕胎权的裁决。“这对我们来说非常可怕。这也让我们意识到我们面前的战斗，也让我们意识到让我们的声音被听到并参与进来的重要性。”

像其他人一样，年轻选民关心经济和堕胎

哈佛民意研究项目的张表示，在他今年秋天对18至29岁年轻人的研究中，通货膨胀和堕胎权经常被提及，堕胎尤其受到年轻女性的重视。

“我认为对Z世代重要的问题对其他人也同样重要，对吗?”弗罗斯特今年早些时候说，并补充道，“然而，不同之处在于我们看待问题的角度。...这是不同的视角，也是不同的紧迫感。”

张辩解道今年民主党在国会的立法成就从春季到秋季，对堕胎权利的威胁“戏剧性地”将民调转向民主党，特别是对妇女和大学生而言。

“我们发现，在中期选举之前，许多年轻选民首先想到的是经济和通货膨胀，但除此之外，还有堕胎、保护民主和保护他们的权利等问题，”张说。

这与美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)在中期选举前后的出口民调和问题民调发现的情况类似:选民对高通胀感到担忧，不赞成民主党人对经济的看法，但也支持他们对堕胎(另一个主要话题)的看法，同时拒绝共和党人对选举的否认，并提到对极端主义的担忧。

“你必须带着尊重接近选民。我不认为这是我们从共和党人身上看到的，我认为选民们认识到了这一点。“几年来，共和党在美国年轻人中的支持率一直停留在30%左右。2018年，这一比例约为30%，今年也在30%左右。我看不出这个数字会上升的任何理由。”

Young voters 'canceled out' midterm voters over 65, blocking GOP gains: Experts

Sophia Shapiro recalls the moment the Pennsylvania governor's race was called for her dad, Democrat Josh Shapiro, over Doug Mastriano, his Republican challenger, in one of the earliest indications last weekof a thwarted red wave of Republican wins.

"The first thing we said election night when we heard the results -- he turned to me and said, 'Gen Z showed up,'" Sophia Shapiro, a longtime youth activist and University of Pittsburgh junior who founded Students for Shapiro, told ABC News.

Her father nodded to youth voters as he took the stage at his watch party in Montgomery County late on Nov. 8: "Voters from Gen Z to our seniors -- people from all different walks of life -- have given me the honor of a lifetime."

He was right:Exit polling showedthat voters 18-to-29 years old -- who made up 12% of voters in the gubernatorial race -- voted for him instead of Mastriano by more than 44 points.

And while younger voters didn't make up a significantly larger share of the electorate in the 2022 midterms, in Pennsylvania or elsewhere, they did skew more Democratic than past cycles --helping defy historic patterns and widespread predictionsthat the GOP would sweep back to power.

In the week since the surprising midterm results, much attention has focused on the why -- and the who.

"The fact that these youth voters are coming in so strong in an off year is very concerning," Fox News conservative personality Jesse Watters said on the air after the election.

President Joe Biden had his own take, telling reporters the morning after Election Day: "I especially want to thank the young people of this nation."

Governor-elect Josh Shapiro, along with other candidates, youth voters and elections experts, have credited Gen Z -- those born from roughly 1997 to 2012 and enveloped in the wider 18- to-29-year-old voting bloc, along with some millennials -- for boosting Democratic candidates in the midterms.

ABC News' exit pollingshows that younger voters' shift toward Democratswas just one of multiple notable turnout changes: Independents also narrowly favored them over Republicans.

The breakdown of youth voters shifting left

According to the exit polling, 18-to 29-year-olds accounted for 12% of voters in the midterms -- the lowest share of the electorate compared to other age groups -- but they skewed firmly for Democratic candidates, a trend that has only grown more pronounced in recent years. Nationally, this age category voted in the 2022 election for Democratic House candidates by 28 points over Republican challengers. That's about the same as in 2020 but considerably better than in stronger Republican years like 2014.

Thirty-to-44-year olds were the only other age group who favored Democrats in the House this election, by four points over the Republicans, according to exit polling. This is a decrease, however, from the 2018 House races when this age group favored Democrats by 19 points and in 2016 by seven points.

Forty-five-to-64 year olds preferred Republicans in the House by 10 points and those 65 and up -- who made up 28% of the electorate -- voted for GOP candidates 12 points over Democrats.

Pointing to these numbers, Harvard Public Opinion Project student chair Alan Zhang told ABC News: "Young voters cancel out every single vote of those over 65. Under 30 and under 40 were the only age group to go to the Democrats and they went overwhelmingly to the Democrats. Without the youth vote, there was no firewall that stopped the red wave from taking over."

Youth voting organizers emphasized that in their view, this cycle was remarkable because of its number of young leaders, including the first Gen Z elected member of Congress, incomingDemocratic Rep. Maxwell Frostof Florida -- who mobilized peers to cast ballots for "pro-democracy" candidates who stood for top-of-mind issues like abortion access, a robust economy and personal freedoms, an assessment that largely echoes national and state-level issue and exit polling by ABC News.

Youth voters' sway in swing states

Exit polling data underlines that in swing states like Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, the youth vote's strong Democratic slant benefitted the party.

"If you look at a lot of these very close races where Democrats were able to eke out a win, a lot of it was because of Gen Z and millennials, which is really exciting to me," Frost told "GMA3" last week.

In Arizona, 18-to-29-year-old voters favored incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly by 56 points over Republican Blake Masters, according to the exit polls. In Georgia, youth voters turned out for Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock by 29 points over his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker. And in Michigan, voters under 30 went for Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by 32 points over Republican challenger Tudor Dixon.

"Here's the thing: Gen Z -- half of us are not even old enough to vote yet -- the youngest Gen Z-ers are 13 right now. And so what that shows me is that there's a lot of hope and promise in this nation as young people are starting to rise up and really step into their political power," Frost said.

Conservatives, too, have talked about the effect that Gen Z voters had on the Democratic-leaning outcome of a number of races. Karoline Leavitt, a 25-year-old Republican candidate from New Hampshire, tweeted after her 25,000-vote loss to incumbent Rep. Chris Pappas that the GOP "failed miserably" during the midterm elections -- the "first major test on Gen Z's electoral impact."

"#GenZ is growing daily AND moving further Left - this will continue to be a colossal challenge for our party if we don't change young hearts& minds," Leavitt wrote in a tweet last week.

Organizers on mobilizing young voters

Frost is already being tapped by national Democrats to campaign in Georgia next week for Warnock ahead of hisDec. 6 runoffelection in what could be a signal of Gen Z's growing importance within the party.

"A lot of people underestimated the power of a unified, angry, organized, educated generation," said Jack Lobel of Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-led organization focused on engaging and mobilizing young voters.

"For the campaigns who lost by a big margin, I think more investment in youth voter outreach would have kept them competitive," Lobel said. "For campaigns who lost by a small margin, it might have tipped the scale. And for campaigns who won, it was undoubtedly either because of their own work, because some of them did [and] some of them didn't invest in young voters."

Sophia Shapiro said that when her dad launched his bid for governor last year, she pitched him the idea of youth outreach, led by young people, which led to her Students for Shapiro group.

The Shapiro campaign said the group has more than 50 school chapters and nearly 1,000 members.

The group met young people where they were, through social media platforms most popular among Gen Z like Instagram, TikTok and BeReal, to connect with their base; but they also used traditional campaign strategy tactics like text messages, phone-banking and door-knocking.

"You've seen kind of how he's engaged more in TikTok and BeReal and all of that fun Gen Z campaign-centric things over the course of the campaign but also really enabled us to have the flexibility to do it in a way that really reached Gen Z," Sophia Shapiro said of her father.

"I think there's something really powerful and special about being given the power and the initiative to go forth and reach other people and talk to your peers," she said.

Lobel said that in the weeks leading up to Election Day, Voters of Tomorrow contacted young people nationwide -- and focused on California, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- over six million times by phone, by text or in person. They had a social media reach of more than 100 million in that same period, including with a digital advertising operation, which targeted young voters in key races with information on LGTBQ rights and abortion access.

"We saw an uptick in involvement after Dobbs," Lobel said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling this summer that overruled national abortion rights. "That was pretty terrifying for us. It also made us realize the fight that we have ahead of us, and it made us realize the importance of making our voices heard and getting involved."

Like others, youth voters care about economy -- and abortion

Zhang, from the Harvard Public Opinion Project, said that in his research with 18-to-29-year-olds this fall, inflation and abortion rights were often cited, with abortion mentioned as important particularly by young women.

"I think the issues that are important to Gen Z are the same ones that are important to everybody else, right?" Frost said earlier this year, adding, "The difference, though, is the lens in which we see the issues through. ... It's the different perspective, and it's a different sense of urgency."

Zhang argued that thelegislative accomplishments of Democrats in Congress this yearand the threats to abortion rights "dramatically" shifted the polls more toward Democrats from the spring to the fall, particularly for women and college students.

"What we found heading into the midterms was that at the top of mind for a lot of young voters was the economy and inflation, but in addition to that [were] also issues like abortion and protecting democracy and protecting their rights," Zhang said.

That parallels what ABC News' exit polling and issue polling before and after the midterms found: Voters had major concerns about high inflation and disapproved of Democrats on the economy but also favored them on abortion -- another major topic -- while rejecting Republicans' election deniers and citing concerns about extremism.

"You have to approach voters with respect. And I don't think that's something we've seen from Republicans, and I think voters recognize that," Zhang said. "Republicans have been stuck at around 30% support among young Americans for a few years now. They were around 30% in 2018 and they're around 30% this year as well. I don't see any reason that number would rise."