This post was originally published for the 2010 election cycle. I thought it would be valuable for campaigns in 2012 who may have missed it.

INTRODUCTION TO PEER-TO-PEER

Peer-to-peer campaigning is built on three principles:

1. The more personal a contact, the more effective it is in turning out voters.
2. People are most strongly influenced by people they know and people that are similar to them.
3. The most effective way to reach potential voters is to go to the places where they live or hang out.

Most field programs in the past were based on the assumption that young Americans were not receptive to political appeals, however research done over the last decade reveals that young voters are just as affected by political contact as other age demographics.¹ While this research tore down one assumption, it confirmed another: personal contacts are much more effective than impersonal methods. The findings of Green and Gerber showed an 8-10% mobilizing effect from door-to-door (in person) contact and a 3-5% effect from calls made by volunteers. Other less personal contact methods such as calls made from professional phone banks, leafleting, and direct mail all yielded a mobilizing effect of 2% or less at a dramatically higher cost-to-vote ratio. ²

A person is influenced the most by their family, friends, and neighbors. These social bonds increase the pressure to say yes to a request and carry the strength of trust. The eminent social psychologist Dr. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University uses the following example in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion:

Take, for instance, the growing number of charity organizations that recruit volunteers to canvass for donations close to their own homes. They understand perfectly how much more difficult it is for us to turn down a charity request when it comes from a friend or a neighbor.³

This principle applies not only to charity requests but to political requests as well, from registering someone to vote to turning them out on Election Day.

People are also more likely to comply with a request made by someone that is similar to them. For example, you are more likely to do something that is asked of you if the requester is dressed like you, and you probably will not realize that it had any effect on your decision. Cialdini highlights a study from the 1970s where “marchers in an antiwar demonstration were found to be not only more likely to sign the petition of a similarly dressed requester, but also to do so without bothering to read it first.” ⁴

When it comes to electoral participation, young voters “need the authentic encouragement of a peer to become a participant.” ⁵

The greatest challenge in reaching young voters for traditional field programs is finding them. Millennials move more frequently and are more likely to rely solely on a mobile phone than older generations.⁶ The key to reaching this important demographic is to go to the places where young people live and hang out. University campuses, concerts, cultural and community events, parks, sporting events, progressive churches, bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and shopping centers are all places that campaigns can engage peer-to-peer with young voters. As Michael Connery described in Youth to Power, “concert halls and bars became the progressive equivalent of how evangelical churches are used by the conservative movement.”⁷ The key is to contact and engage young voters using the context of their own lives.

PEER-TO-PEER TACTICS

The ideal location for peer-to-peer outreach will have a large concentration of young people and an environment that is conducive to socializing and communicating. A great way to find out where the best opportunities are is to ask your young supporters: nobody knows where young people hang out better than a young person. Here are some examples:

• High traffic areas of college and university campuses – Outside the entrances of the library, student union, residence halls, and large classroom buildings. It is important to not focus solely on a single location but to periodically switch locations so you reach a variety of different people.⁸ A successful tactic that many Young and College Democrats chapters have used is to help students move in to their residence halls during the first week of school and use that opportunity to talk to the students.
• Outside of sporting events – Talk to young people as they enter and exit a stadium for a sporting event. Using the principle of similarity mentioned earlier, have your organizers wear clothing representing the home team.
• Community and cultural events – For example, in Phoenix there is a First Fridays art festival on the first Friday of every month. The Young Democrats of Arizona reserve table space at the festival and have been extremely successful collecting voter registrations, petition signatures, and email list sign-ups.
• County fairs and 4-H events – In rural areas county fairs provide a great opportunity for reaching rural youth, which is one of the hardest demographics to reach. 4-H clubs are also very popular with rural youth.

Tabling is a very popular tactic among campus organizers due to it being particularly effective on college and university campuses. However, tabling can be effective anywhere that allows you to set up space in a high-traffic area as long as it is not so crowded you are completely drowned out.

The most common mistake made while tabling is for organizers to just remain seated at the table waiting for people to come to them. The main purpose of the table is for visibility and to hold campaign materials. While an organizer should always remain at the table, other organizers should only use the table as a home base and spend their time out in the crowds engaging young people.

The campaign should also prioritize the actions that they want people to take, whether it is registering to vote, signing a petition, signing up for an email list, or completing a vote pledge. Once a person has taken your priority action, this may be your foot-in-the-door for secondary and tertiary actions. Be careful not to be too aggressive with people, be polite even when someone blows you off, and always thank someone for taking an action. You want to ensure that people leave with a positive impression of the campaign.

In addition to your general campaign materials, the table should also have plenty of voter registration forms as well as any other technical forms depending on your jurisdiction (for example, in Arizona there are forms to request a ballot by mail or to sign up for the permanent early voter list). Your table should be fully equipped as a resource for any election needs, including the ability to give polling place information closer to the election.

Vote pledges are based on the power of commitment and consistency. According to Dr. Cialdini, “once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.”⁹ A vote pledge asks a voter to commit to voting in the next election.

The vote pledge was the primary tool in the Young Democrats of America organizing arsenal during the 2008 election. The YDA vote pledge was not only a pledge to vote, but a pledge to vote for Democrats throughout the ballot. The young people that signed a vote pledge committed to take that action, and they were much more likely to actually do so in order to be consistent: "Once a stand is taken, there is a natural tendency to behave in ways that are stubbornly consistent with the stand." ¹⁰

For this commitment to truly take hold of the signer, the must take ownership of their pledge. This means that campaigns and organizations should not offer external incentives for people to sign:

Social scientists have determined that we accept inner responsibility for a behavior when we think we have chosen to perform it in the absence of strong outside pressures. A large reward is one such external pressure. It may get us to perform a certain action, but it won’t get us to accept inner responsibility for the act. Consequently, we won’t feel committed to it. ¹¹

Using incentives such as raffle tickets or free chum diminishes the sense of inner responsibility, and while it may boost your numbers in the beginning, your results on Election Day will suffer.

An effective vote pledge form must allow you to collect contact information from the signers, specifically their name, address, email, and phone number. Hard copies of vote pledge forms should also include a signature line, since the act of signing a document increases psychological commitment.¹²

Collecting the vote pledge is only the first step. With the information you have collected you can follow up with the people that signed to remind them of their pledge and give them voting information such as the location of their polling place. Following the election you can check the voter file to evaluate how successful you were in getting those people to the polls. Given the difficulty of finding good contact information for young voters due to increased mobility and exclusive use of cell phones, this data is extremely valuable.

David Plouffe’s memoir of the 2008 Obama for America campaign, The Audacity to Win, frequently returns to the importance of expanding the electorate to winning the election.¹³ To expand the electorate a campaign must register and turn out new and unlikely voters.

A campaign or organization’s emphasis on voter registration should depend on the mission and the distance to an election. There are organizations that focus almost entirely on registration, and for them it is a priority up until the registration deadline. A candidate or partisan youth organization will benefit from registration efforts early in a campaign but will be better served focusing on turning out voters as the election draws near. However, organizers should always have registration forms on hand regardless of the timing.

One tactic that has been successful with some youth organizations are Pledge to Reg programs geared towards Millennials that are about to turn 18. Similar to the vote pledge tactic, organizers get 17-year-olds to complete and sign a Pledge to Reg form with their contact information so the organizers can follow up with them once they are eligible to register to vote.

Campaigns should always make photocopies of collected registration forms so the new registrants can be later contacted with election reminders and polling information. Organizers should also be trained to be able to quickly look over a registration form to ensure that everything is complete.

In states and districts with a Republican registration advantage, registering new young voters and following up with them to get them to the polls can be the difference between a celebration on election night and a heartbreaking close call.

The most important aspect of a youth GOTV effort is to convey information to contacts about when and where to vote.¹⁴ In The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a study at Yale University that tested methods used to encourage students to visit the student health center and receive a tetanus vaccination. While information packets with fear-inducing information about the disease had virtually no effect, researchers were able to increase the vaccination rate by 28% solely by “including a map of the campus, with the university health building circled and the times that shots were available clearly listed.” The interesting aspect of the study was that the students that responded to the map already knew where the building was. According to Gladwell:

The students needed to know how to fit the tetanus stuff into their lives; the addition of the map and the times when the shots were available shifted the booklet from an abstract lesson in medical risk – a lesson no different from the countless other academic lessons they had received over their academic career – to a practical and personal piece of medical advice. And once the advice became practical and personal, it became memorable.¹⁶

This same principle applies to getting young voters to the polls on Election Day. Your campaign needs to give young voters the information that puts voting in the context of their lives. A GOTV effort on a college campus that has an on-campus polling location could include a handout of a campus map with the polling location circled with the times that the location is open. You can email young voters that were registered or contacted earlier in the campaign a Google Map with the directions from their registration address to their polling site. At a minimum your campaign should be telling voters when and where to vote.

Successful cultural outreach does not happen overnight. In the past the ‘cultural outreach’ efforts of campaigns and organizations were just “campaign rallies and civic drives in cultural drag, exploiting the culture to attain a specific goal.”¹⁷ Using Malcolm Gladwell’s definitions from The Tipping Point, Michael Connery argues that “a real cultural outreach strategy finds the mavens, connectors, and salespeople within each subculture and uses them to change the entire culture itself from the bottom up.”¹⁸

Biko Baker of the League Young Voters Education Fund highlights some of the errors organizations make in organizing non-college youth. First, campaigns have to earn the trust of young people in low-income communities: “you can't just pop up in a neighborhood and get respect. You have to earn it.”¹⁹ Second, the focus must be more on organizing and less on just promoting your campaign or organization: “Low income communities only respond when they see a real commitment to organizing and local leadership development.”²⁰ Cultural outreach is a powerful tool in organizing non-college youth, but to be successful you need to earn the respect of a community’s influencers and develop them into organizers.

Cultural outreach requires active and continuous engagement in order to be effective. Because of this, many campaigns and organizations ignore cultural outreach and instead focus solely on college students – the low-hanging fruit of youth organizing. By neglecting non-college and low-income youth, campaigns waste important opportunities to expand the electorate with new progressive voters and empower these communities.

Notes

¹ See Friedrichs, Ryan. Mobilizing 18-35 Year Old Voters: An Analysis of the Michigan Democratic Party’s 2002 Youth Coordinated Campaign, 2003.; Green, Donald P. and Gerber, Alan S. Getting Out the Youth Vote: Results from Randomized Field Experiments, 2001.; and Nickerson, David W. Hunting the Elusive Young Voter, Journal of Political Marketing, Vol. 5 (3) 2006.
² Analysis of Green and Gerber’s findings in Friedrichs 2003.
³ Cialdini, Robert B. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. New York: Quill, 1993. (169)
⁴ Cialdini (173)
⁵ Nickerson (26)
⁶ Pew Millennials Report (32)
⁷ Connery, Michael. Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority. Brooklyn: Ig Publishing, 2008. (158)
⁸ Student PIRGs Activist Toolkit (6)
⁹ Cialdini (57)
¹⁰ Cialdini (67)
¹¹ Cialdini (93)
¹² Werner, Carol M., Jane Turner, Kristen Shipman, F. Shawn Twitchell, Becky R. Dickson, Gary V. Bruschke and Wolfgang B. von Bismarck. Commitment, behavior, and attitude change: An analysis of voluntary recycling. Journal of Environmental Psychology, Volume 15, Issue 3, September 1995. Pages 197-208.
¹³ Plouffe, David. The Audacity to Win. New York: Viking, 2009.
¹⁴ Gerber and Green 2001 (4)
¹⁵ Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York: Back Bay Books, 2002. (97)
¹⁶ Gladwell (98)
¹⁷ Connery (156)
¹⁸ Connery (157)
¹⁹ Baker, Biko. Doing REAL work with Non-College Youth. FutureMajority.com. March 4, 2010.
²⁰ Baker, 2010.

The College Republican National Committee, Young Republican National Federation, American Crossroads, and the Republican State Leadership Committee have launched an independent expenditure superPAC, Crossroads Generation, to try to shift the Millennial vote from blue to red.

Crossroads Generation is starting out with $750,000 provided by the CRNC, RSLC, and American Crossroads. According to the AP:

Starting Monday, the PAC is launching a $50,000 social media ad campaign targeting younger voters in eight swing states, including Ohio and Virginia. Their ultimate goal: woo younger Americans to the Republican side, including some who supported Obama in 2008.

While the superPAC is starting out with a large amount of funding (by youth outreach standards), the organization is still embryonic at the grassroots level. For example, their Facebook page at the time of writing (5/14/12 10:00 am Eastern) only has 40 likes. While conservatives and the Republican Party are openly acknowledging this group (as opposed to Generation Opportunity), the Facebook page does not make it all that clear.

While I know that the initial reaction from many from the left is to laugh this effort off, but that would be a mistake. The Right has already been trouncing the Left for years when it comes to grooming their young talent, and if conservatives are serious about investing resources in youth outreach they could certainly do some damage. Democrats, liberals, and progressives need to realize that despite a pretty major head start, the Millennial generation can not be taken for granted. If we want to see large turnout with high Dem advantage from young voters, we need to invest in youth outreach. That funding and outreach can be the difference between election years like 2006/2008 and 2010.

Romney and the GOP have made some motions indicating they want to make a play for the youth vote, but today's block of the Democratic bill to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling is going to make their already tenuous case even tougher.

The Senate voted along party lines 52-45, eight votes shy of the 60 needed to prevent a GOP filibuster, on a procedural motion to move forward on the legislation to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1. Sen. Snowe voted present.

It's obvious that the interest rate increase needs to be prevented. Student loans are driving up consumer debt,"with loans held by the Department of Education surging more than four-fold since 2008." The increase would have a dramatic negative effect in the states, where young Americans are already facing increased tuition and a weak job market. Despite the massive increases in tuition rates since 2000, the levels have yet to peak. In the last week, the University of Kentucky raised tuition an additional 6%, public universities in Washington are facing the second straight year of 16% increases, and the University of California system is considering a 6% increase.

While this should be an easy issue for the two parties to agree on, today there is no such thing as a bipartisan issue. Both parties claim to want to prevent the increase, but Republicans have realized that by holding legislation like this hostage they can force more of their agenda on the country. In this case, their desire to cut funding for preventative health care. The Democrats want to pay for the legislation by closing a corporate tax loophole that allows corporations to avoid the payroll taxes that I have to pay for myself as my own employee as an independent consultant.

Being willing to allow a bill the would prevent the student loan rate increase as long as all of your demands are met is not the same thing as supporting student issues.

Victor Sanchez, the President of the United States Student Association, stated:

Students nationwide are extremely disappointed in Congresses’ failure to put students over partisan gridlock. This only adds to the problem students’ face with high tuition, dwindling aid, and insurmountable debt they struggle to repay. Passing this common sense proposal would mean preventing 7.4 million students from being strapped with an additional $1,000 of debt through a proposal that would have done so in a fiscally sound manner. For students, this is not a political game. Undeterred by today’s vote, we will continue to fight to make education a right, not a privilege.

Leader Pelosi responded to the vote that "Americans don’t have the luxury of taking a break from their bills or facing higher costs while Republicans pursue their ideological agenda. The same goes for America’s students. Republicans must work with Democrats to prevent a disastrous increase in student loans and strengthen the economic security of middle class families, youth, and workers."

While I applaud Rep. Kristi Noem for completing her bachelor's degree in political science from South Dakota State this week, I believe that those students who don't get to earn college internship credit for being a member of Congress and receive a $174,000 taxpayer-funded salary should get the same chance to earn a diploma and not live the rest of their lives in debt.

The Young Democrats of America have announced the dates and location of their 2012 Summer National Conference. It will be held in Philadelphia, PA at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel from June 29 to July 1.

Registration is now open:

• Super Early Bird registration ($25) will be open until 5 PM EST Friday, May 11th
• Early Bird registration ($45) will be open until 5 PM EST Friday, May 18th
• Regular registration ($55) will then be in available until 5 PM EST Friday, June 15th
• After 5 PM EST on Friday, June 15th, only On-Site Registration ($75) will be accepted.

For more information and/or to register, visit the YDA event page.

So much has been written about the youth vote in the last week as the President has been on his college tour talking about more affordable higher education.

Mitt Romney also has tried to keep up by hosting his own youth focused conference call where he apparently spent most of the call bashing the Obama Administration but offering no solutions of his own. The call also seemed to be designed to push out his fancy infographic that outlines how bad things are for young people and implies the Obama Administration is at fault for the plight of youth.

TP reports:

"So, if Obama was so bad, what would a Romney presidency do instead? The septuagenarian Brown, joined on the call by Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) and College Republican National Committee Chairman Alex Schriver, didn’t really have much to offer.

First, Romney’s surrogates downplayed the importance of issues that directly affect young people. Schock criticized Obama for his "focus on student loan and student debt," saying the real issue young people care about is jobs. Brown, meanwhile, attacked Obama for not reforming entitlement programs, saying young people should worry about their solvency in the future."

Of all demographics, young people have supported the President and continue to support the President. They overwhelmingly supported the Affordable Care Act, they supported withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, they celebrated in the streets when Bin Ladan was killed, and they see his attempts at progress on the economy.

What they also see is the overthrow of the Republican Party by the more extremist faction that holds the antithesis of the what Millennial voters believe. Whether its their resistance to use government as a tool for good, the culture wars, complicated examples of racism, Fox News, and so many more, Romney's biggest hurdle with young voters will be his own party. Indeed, his biggest hurdle with most independent and moderate voters will be in running away from his own party.

The fact that young people have suddenly become the demographic de jour, however, is encouraging. Up until this point you haven't seen the GOP do a lot of youth outreach because Millennial voters aren't Republican Primary voters. This was a contrast to the Democratic Primaries in 2008 where the campaign was going on for two years and young voters were made priority number one when the Obama campaign targeted them for the Iowa Caucuses.

I mentioned this all in my interview with Minnesota Public Radio a few weeks ago.

So the GOP commentary that there is something wrong because young voters aren't as enthusiastic isn't including the whole story. If the Obama campaign had been doing the same amount of campaign work starting in 2011 that they did in 2007 - you'd see a different story. But re-election campaigns are different than first elections, especially when there is a competitive primary as there was in the 2008 election. The reason the competitive primary didn't work for the GOP is the candidates only highlighted the fracture within the Republican Party, where with Democrats the candidates were in agreement on most issues - it was more about the history, experience, or specific pet projects each candidate was running on.

This all is to say that the youth vote isn't up for grabs. It's going to go Democrat, but what remains to be seen is if that demographic will come out to the polls with the force and power that they did in 2008. Young voters didn't just vote - they got their parents, grandparents, and friends to vote. They volunteered in large numbers, they knocked doors, they made calls, and their votes extended well beyond the single vote they could give the president.

My good friend Jefferson Smith who is a great youth advocate (and now running for Mayor in Portland) always says that the thing more priceless than cash or votes is time. And young people gave a lot of their time to the President in 2008. They won't do that for Mitt Romney.

So what you're seeing the GOP do is try and put as many barriers in the way of young people. Whether that's the Voter ID laws that disproportionately disenfranchise young voters or if the Romney campaign can successfully convince young people that the President doesn't care about their needs so they aren't enthusiastic enough to help the campaign - that's the only way he'll chip away at the power of the youth vote. In my professional opinion, he'll never win them over enough to vote for him in large enough number to make a difference - all he can do is depress the turnout and the enthusiasm.

The one thing that is raising the interest and enthusiasm of the political process among young voters that are likely Obama supporters is the Colbert Super PAC. Stephen Colbert has tapped into a large contingent of our population that is frustrated with the political process and the power that Super PACs now have on our elections. That enthusiasm will directly benefit the President and give him quote the Colbert Bump. And if the Super PAC's treasure hunt happens to end in a swing state like Ohio, Pennsylvania, or North Carolina then he could have something that really impacts the election. Another "Rally for Sanity/Fear" in Washington DC isn't going to change any minds or influence any votes ... because it's Washington... A swing state or a few swing states, and you've got something.

Here is Stephen talking about the youth vote last night on the Colbert Report:

In an email to supporters following the show, the Colbert Super PAC said

"Both presidential candidates have been making cheap attempts to pander to the youth, which merely comes off as fake, or "whack." They're too little, too late, while Colbert Super PAC is neither little nor late -- we're large and now. And with a thousand unaffiliated Super PAC tentacles stretching to colleges across this land, my power (like your student loan debts) will only grow. "

A new national poll of America’s 18- to 29- year-olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, finds President Barack Obama has widened the gap between likely general election opponent Mitt Romney and himself. Obama now leads Romney by a seventeen point margin, a gain of six percentage points over the eleven-point lead the President held in late November IOP polling.

The IOP’s newest poll results – its 21st major release since 2000 – also show a plurality of Millennials now predict the President will win re-election in November (43%: win; 27%: lose), a reversal from four months ago when a greater proportion of 18- to 29- year-olds believed he would lose than win (36%: lose; 30%: win). A detailed report on the poll’s findings is available on the Institute’s homepage at www.iop.harvard.edu.

"Over the last several months, we have seen more of the Millennial vote begin to solidify around President Obama and Democrats in Congress," said Harvard Institute of Politics Director Trey Grayson. "At the same time, there has been effectively no change in their support for Mitt Romney and Republicans in Congress. We will continue to track this demographic which we know is critical to success at the polls."

"Although this generation is not as supportive of President Obama and Democrats as they may have been in the historic 2008 campaign, this in no way implies that the Republican Party has successfully captured the hearts, minds and votes of Millennials," said Harvard Institute of Politics Polling Director John Della Volpe. "Instead, Millennials have clearly shown that they are a generation that cares deeply about our country, their role in it – and feel that the political system as represented by both parties has not effectively engaged them on the issues that will shape their and our nation’s future."

The web-enabled survey of 3,096 18- to 29- year-old U.S. citizens with a margin of error of +/– 1.7 percentage points (95% confidence level) conducted with research partner Knowledge Networks for the IOP between March 23 and April 9, 2012 finds –

• Barack Obama has widened the gap over Mitt Romney. With the general election approaching, Barack Obama has grown his lead over likely Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney to seventeen points (43%-26%), a six point larger margin than seen in IOP polling in late November/early December (37%: Obama; 26%: Romney). Obama leads Romney among 18- to 24- year-olds by 12 points (41%-29%) and 25- to 29- year-olds by 23 points (46%-23%).
• Job approval ratings generally beginning to stabilize for President Obama, especially among Hispanics – but still struggling among white Millennials. While November IOP polling showed Millennials’ overall job performance for President Obama hitting all-time lows, the Institute’s April poll shows the President beginning to regain Millennials’ approval. Over the past four months, Obama’s job approval rating among America’s 18- to 29- year-olds has risen six percentage points to 52% (46%: Nov. 2011). Among Hispanics specifically, Obama’s job approval increased by fourteen percentage points from 52% in November to 66% in April, a level consistent with pre-Fall 2011 levels (68%: Feb. 2011; 62%: Oct. 2010; 69%: Feb. 2010). In a potential 2012 general election match-up with Mitt Romney, Obama leads among Hispanics by 39 points (50%-11%). Despite these positive developments for the President, he continues to struggle with white Millennials – maintaining only a 41% job approval rating; according to 2008 exit polls, this demographic was not only the largest cohort of the Millennial segment but one which favored Obama over Senator John McCain in the 2008 presidential race (54%-44%). Approval for Democrats in Congress also rose six percentage points since late November to 39% (33%: Nov. 2011), while approval ratings of Republicans in Congress rose only one percentage point over the same period – currently standing at 25 percent.
• In contrast to four months ago, a plurality of America’s 18- to 29- year-olds now predict Obama will win bid for re-election. Late-November IOP polling showed a greater proportion of 18- to 29- year-olds believed that Barack Obama would lose re-election (36%) than win (30%), with almost a third (32%) not sure. When asked the same question this April, more than four-in-ten (43%) said they believe the President will win-re-election with twenty-seven percent (27%) predicting Obama would lose and three-in-ten (30%) not sure.
• By multiple measurements, the economy remains the top issue of concern for this generation. As has been the case in past IOP surveys, more Millennials cited "jobs and the economy" (58%) in an open-ended question on which national issue concerns them most – far outpacing any other answer. Additionally, the Institute tested the relative importance of 20 issues facing the United States; respondents were shown two issues and asked to choose which was a more important concern for America. "Creating jobs and lowering the unemployment rate" was considered the more important issue winning match-ups 77 percent of the time against the field and winning a majority of match-ups against every single other issue by a statistically significant margin. For example, 66 percent of Millennials felt it was more important than "ensuring affordable access to healthcare;" 75 percent said it was more important than "preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons;" and 65 percent said it was more important than "reducing the federal deficit." When 2012’s undecided voters were isolated – "creating jobs" again remained the number-one priority (75% win percentage). A more robust breakdown of the 20 issues tested and match-up results is available in the IOP’s spring 2012 poll executive summary on the Institute’s homepage.
• Millennials place more trust in the United Nations than in the federal government, Congress or Wall Street. Levels of trust Millennials place in public institutions measured in the IOP’s polling project have remained relatively constant over the last 12 months – however, some comparisons are still worth noting. Overall, 38% of America’s 18- to 29- year olds trust the United Nations to do the right thing all or most of the time – a greater proportion than those saying the same about the federal government (27%), Congress (23%) or Wall Street (13%).
• Although President Obama’s job approval rating on many key issues remains below fifty percent, the perception of Obama’s handling of economic issues has shown improvement since last fall. After receiving job approval ratings of less than one-in-three (32%) on the economy and the federal budget deficit (30%), Obama’s approval increased to forty-one percent (41%) and thirty-six percent (36%) respectively over the past four months. In contrast, Obama’s performance on other key issues appears to be stabilizing as his approval ratings handling Afghanistan (50%: Apr. 2012; 51%: Nov. 2011), Iran (48%: Apr. 2012; 46%: Nov. 2011) and healthcare (45%: Apr. 2012; 43%: Nov. 2011) changed only marginally.
• Still sour, the mood of Millennials has improved since fall 2011. President Obama’s job approval rating has been closely tied with Millennials’ view on the direction of the country. While still a comparatively modest proportion, one in five (20%) of America’s 18- to 29- year-olds now say they believe the country is "headed in the right direction" – an increase of eight percentage points (12%: Nov. 2011) from four months ago; the proportion of Millennials’ saying the country is "off on the wrong track" has also fallen by nine points over the same period (43%: Apr. 2012; 52%: Nov. 2011). In addition, four-in-ten (40%) African Americans say the U.S. is headed in the right direction – a significantly higher proportion than the percentage of white Millennials (16%) and Hispanics (21%) saying the same. Men are also statistically more likely to say they are optimistic about the direction of the country than women (23% to 18%).

Harvard students designed the poll in consultation with IOP Polling Director John Della Volpe, whose firmSocialSphere, Inc.commissioned Knowledge Networks to conduct the survey. Complete results, are available – along with past surveys – online at www.iop.harvard.edu.

Leader Pelosi released the following statement in response:

A college education is the single best investment an individual can make in themselves, a parent can make in their child, and a nation can make in its citizens. Yet if Republicans don't act, interest rates are set to double this July, and more than seven million borrowers will find themselves paying more. In this time of economic hardship, we should be helping make college more affordable, not putting it further out of reach.

Though Republicans have said that they have 'very little tolerance' for those with large student loan burdens, Democrats know that the cost of college is a real challenge facing the middle class. That is why Democrats are proud to have led the way two years ago for the single largest investment in college affordability in our nation's history. And we are ready to work - with Republicans and President Obama - to invest in America's future again by preventing an increase in the cost of student loans.

Instead of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, let's invest in America's future by making college more affordable.

From Resource Generation & Wealth for the Common Good's tax day actions around the country.

They had delicious homemade pie, played trivia games with tax facts, carried signs, and spoke at rallies - all to show that they as 1%ers believe in a more equitable distribution of wealth and that they should pay our fair share in taxes.

Have you ever wanted to publish an op-ed in the NYT, WSJ, or HuffPo?

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"PolicyMic's bootcamp has been a great experience. It provides a chance to fine tune your writing style and engage in a debate of ideas in a medium that is professional and interactive. I highly recommend being involved with PolicyMic!"

-Jason Hensley, Students for Liberty

"PolicyMic's bootcamp is excellent training for anyone who wants to learn about how the internet news cycle works and how to get a piece of the action. The editors are stellar and provide concrete feedback that helps refine your writing in each subsequent round. The training is intense and is well-worth the investment of time and effort."

-Sehreen Noor Ali

As a member of the bootcamp, you will complete a series of challenges over the course of 7 weeks designed to test and train your writing and new media skills. Along the way, there are prizes to win and our editors will give you feedback on everything you write. When you're done, you will have a polished portfolio of writing and an audience of readers.

This writing program will span 7 weeks, and all work can be done remotely, with a flexible time schedule within each week. To apply, please visit this page:

http://www.policymic.com/articles/4521/policymic-journalism-bootcamp

Are you a young person (14-24 years old) who is…

• Passionate about fighting for young people's rights to sexual health information and services
• Interested in connecting with youth leaders from across the country?
• Dedicated to developing skills to make a difference in your community?

Consider applying for one of Advocates for Youth's programs! See all of the available opportunities below.

If selected, you will have opportunities to: develop new organizing and leadership skills; become informed on sexual and reproductive health issues; connect with passionate young people from across the country; and have a lasting impact on your communities. You will also join more than 100 youth activists in Washington, DC for an intense four-day activist training institute free of charge!

Advocates' youth activists have done amazing work this year. You can join them in:

• Increasing HIV testing on your campus
• Providing confidential support and resources to young people who are worried about coming out
• Working with college administrators to make condom distribution more widely available on your campus
• Mobilizing your peers around international family planning issues
• Working to destigmatize abortion and ensure youth access to affordable birth control

If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, check out the program descriptions below and apply today! Application deadlines are coming up fast.

Wait — I'm not a young person…

If you are a parent, teacher, or advocate who knows young people who are passionate about sexual and reproductive health and rights, please encourage them to apply today.

Campus Organizing Team

Advocates for Youth works with campus organizations to provide them with skills, information, and materials to conduct advocacy campaigns on their campuses. Each year, selected campus organizations are chosen to receive intensive assistance, including funding, advocacy and media training, materials for dissemination and on-going assistance to help educate, activate, and empower students on issues such as condom availability, LGBT rights, comprehensive sex education, abortion access, and HIV prevention/treatment among others!

Click here to complete the Campus Organizing Team application. Apps are due May 10, 2012.

Young Women of Color Leadership Council (YWOCLC)

The Young Women of Color Leadership Council is composed of young leaders and activists who come together to promote a message of prevention and empowerment through a reproductive justice lens. All of the Council's work is a collaboration of diversity and power, in the hopes of affecting a million more young women of color. The goals of the Council are to educate, include, and empower.

Click here to complete the Young Women of Color Leadership Council application. Apps are due May 10, 2012.

YouthResource Peer Educators

YouthResource, a website by and for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and questioning (GLBTQ) young people, explores issues of concern to GLBTQ youth. The Online Peer Educators provide affirmation and support to their peers, answer questions posed by visitors, and assist users to find the local resources they need. Peer Educators also write blogs, articles, and issue briefs for the YouthResource website, advocate for GLBTQ rights, and present at conferences on GLBTQ issues.

Click here to complete the YouthResource Peer Educator application. Apps are due May 10, 2012.

Cultural Advocacy and Mobilization Initiative (CAMI): State Activists

Advocates for Youth works with state youth activists in 8 target states (AL, CA, CO, FL, OH, NC, SC, TX) on youth leadership councils, which advocate for comprehensive sex education and other sexual health and rights issues in their communities. Their goal is to mobilize people in their states to fight for honest, responsible sex education and ensure that young people are listened to and have a voice within the debate. Click here to find out more about our state partners. Applications will be available shortly.