Growing up, Waverly Zhao went to the Iowa caucus every four years with her mother and watched as politically engaged Iowans wrote their desired presidential candidate on paper.

Both then as a little girl and now at 19 years old, Zhao feels like the presence of the everyday voter and worker is missing across caucuses and within policies.

Almost three years ago, Zhao and young Iowans across the state started IowaWTF, a progressive youth activism group, to fight discriminatory legislation.

“IowaWTF is more than the name of an organization, it’s a movement for young people — giving us permission to be upset and channel that anger into taking action and using our voices to change things,” Zhao told Reckon.

With the Iowa Republican Presidential caucus amidst today, IowaWTF has worked to engage and inform some of the youngest voters in the state by building a coalition of high school and college students and mobilizing them through informative Instagram and TikTok content on crucial issues as well as political leaders to watch.

This election year, Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) will make up over 40 million potential voters. Many young people – one-fifth of the American electorate –  from this generation will be first-time voters in the presidential election, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).

While it will be the first time that many young voters like Zhao cast their ballot for president, IowaWTF recognizes that not every youth will have that opportunity at the polls, like the activism group’s 19-year-old director, Nicko Dacre.

“I am an immigrant, so I can’t vote,” Dacre said.

“But as a constituent, my perspective matters and I plan to support a candidate that aligns with my views and is going to most directly impact me and the people closely around me.”

Issues the young Iowan cares about most

According to CIRCLE, issues like climate change, abortion rights and gun violence are top concerns and play a large role in how young people vote.

“I think that a lot of youth are trying to find somebody who will actually get work done, pass common sense gun laws and respect basic human rights,” Zhao said.

With more than 630 mass shootings across the country in 2023 and a recent shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, young people are irate and demanding action on gun laws immediately. One student was killed and five others were injured in the Jan. 4 shooting.

On Jan. 8, IowaWTF, March For Our Lives — an organization in support of gun control legislation — and several other student-led groups joined at the state capitol in Des Moines to rally and protest an end to gun violence. 

With the recent shooting in Iowa and a lack of gun laws across the country, Dacre feels, “as a young person and something I see a lot of other young people saying is that we are tired of seeing no action taken on the issues we care about.”

While the Iowa Democratic Presidential caucus isn’t until March 5, Zhao and Dacre believe that progressive young people across Iowa will lean toward President Biden and that conservative youth will likely vote for Donald Trump today at the caucus.

Similar to the presidential election four years ago, many Americans share the same sentiment that they must pick the “lesser of two evils.” IowaWTF agrees and also offers another way to get politically engaged in 2024.

“I sort of agree that people have to go with the ‘lesser of two evils’ [President Biden], but more importantly we have to think about what will affect our day-to-day lives, which is less of the president and more of state legislatures, school boards and city councilors,” Dacre told Reckon.

“I want to tell people and young voters to look more closely at their local elections and candidates than anyone else.”

Read more: Can the Iowa Caucus be a testing ground for LGBTQ+ equality within the GOP?

For IowaWTF, they want to do more than educate young people on the issues but also the candidates by showing them the relevance of the caucuses.

Modernize caucuses = engaging young voters

Historically, caucuses are less of a multigenerational event and more of a space for Baby Boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) with regular and active political engagement, not leaving much room for the presence of young people.

According to CIRCLE, 57 percent of youth ages 18-34 say they’re “extremely likely” to vote in 2024. IowaWTF believes young people want to be involved in more political processes but things need to change.

“This system [caucuses] needs to be updated and modernized so young people can feel connected,” Dacre said.

Dacre points to 2020, when the Iowa Democratic Party used an app by Shadow Inc., a for-profit technology company, to gather votes for the Democratic presidential caucus. He appreciated that the app was built to meet voters and everyday Americans where they were even though there were inconsistencies and delays in votes due to inadequate app testing.

While the process and method of conducting the Iowa Democratic presidential caucus wasn’t seamless in 2020, Zhao and Dacre felt it was a good attempt at reaching younger voters.

Today, the Iowa Republican Presidential caucus will collect votes at different precincts across the state by paper, where only Iowa residents who are registered Republicans may participate.

In 2020, Iowa overwhelmingly voted for Trump in their Republican presidential caucus and the Presidential election, this vote was expected by many political experts. Though youth across the country overall prefer a Democratic candidate, according to CIRCLE, not all Iowan youth share the same sentiment.

Regardless of who Iowans ultimately vote for in November, on Monday all eyes are on the first-in-the-nation caucus. The country often looks at the state as the start of the campaign trail and so does IowaWTF.

“The caucuses are important because they put us on the map as a relevant state; while they might not be as popular as they once were, I believe they can one day be a place where every voice is heard,” Zhao told Reckon.