ANN ARBOR, Mich. – As students banged on desks and stomped their feet inside a packed lecture hall at the University of Michigan, someone decades older stood in the back, quietly taking in the scene.
Debbie Dingell, a longtime Democratic congresswoman, was there to watch progressive U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed campaign with Hasan Piker, a popular yet controversial online streamer.
Dingell has often served as an early warning system for her party, cautioning that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was on track to win Michigan in 2016 and 2024. Now she was once again scoping out the shifting political landscape, and something caught her eye.
“Quite frankly, I haven’t seen that many people outside an event yet this year,” said Dingell, whose district includes Ann Arbor and who said her attendance wasn’t an endorsement.
A line of mostly young people stretched out the door and down the street, hundreds waiting in the cold evening air on Tuesday. Some had backpacks slung over their shoulders after coming from class, while others had traveled from afar.
Although they were there to see a progressive candidate, attendees didn’t fit neatly into any ideological box. Instead, they shared a common dissatisfaction with both major political parties. Their frustration was a reminder of the anger that has coursed through modern American politics and now appears to be simmering within a new generation ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Born into an era of Trump
Liam Koenig was in third grade when Trump was first elected president — a moment that has shaped his generation’s understanding of politics.
“It’s just become increasingly more inflammatory,” he said.
Now a high school senior in Oakland County, a longtime political bellwether in Michigan, Koenig described an era of constant conflict and anxiety. The mood among his peers, he said, is often somber and frustrated.
“I think a lot of us have lost hope in, like, tangible change,” he said.
Younger adults are more likely than older Americans to have an unfavorable view of both the Republican and Democratic parties, according to AP-NORC polling from February.
Still, that frustration hasn’t led to disengagement for Koenig. He waited for hours to see El-Sayed. He described the campaign as different from what he’s used to seeing, something more like Zohran Mamdani’s successful run for mayor in New York City. He wanted that kind of energy in Michigan.
“You’re not going to get people out with business as usual,” Koenig said.
Karol Molina, an artist who recently moved from New York City, said she had been hunting for a candidate in Mamdani’s mold when she arrived in Michigan. She settled on El-Sayed, who is facing U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in the state’s primary.
“We want to be able to live and, like, afford life without constantly scraping by,” she said.
Molina was looking for a clean break with the past.
“I think the Democratic Party is losing because they’re not really listening to what the people really want,” she said. “They’re trying to keep a party that existed before Donald Trump. And that party doesn’t exist anymore.”
Frustration — but not apathy — from young voters
Ethan Schneider, a third-year student at the University of Michigan, described today’s politics as “a little unserious.”
“It’s difficult to remain positive or not be jaded at a young age,” said Schneider.
Schneider said he voted for Democrat Kamala Harris two years ago but, like many in line to see Piker and El-Sayed, was critical of her and her party.
“Hate them,” he said of Democrats. “They feel very complicit, in terms of all the issues going on now. If not complicit, they’re just doing nothing,”
Younger people are rejecting both parties at much higher rates than older generations, according to recent Gallup polling. More than half of Generation Z and Millennials identify as political independents, while a majority of older generations side with a party.
The Gallup polling found that this growing group of independents tends to be motivated by unhappiness with the party in power — a dynamic that could benefit Democrats this year but doesn’t promise lasting loyalty.
Jacob Abbott, an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, said he feels that the Democratic Party has str
