In this high-stakes election, young Black voters could be the push Dems need to turn Texas blue

Pam Gaskin, 79, remembers a time in Galveston County when her father would be required to pay poll taxes in the ‘60s so he could vote, a payment that wasn’t demanded of many white men in the South.

She witnessed the power of a united Black community at the polls, setting state history for representation and, more recently, the damage that can come when they don’t.

But this year, she said she is witnessing what she’s hoped for for years: a younger generation ready to take the reins.

“I cannot fight this fight much longer. I think it’s time,” said Gaskin, who is a co-founder of Houston Voting Initiative, a nonpartisan voter resource organization.

On the other end of the generational divide, Erika Harrison, 40, an attorney and social media creator who goes by @blackgirlswhobrunch, has spent the past few months taking a break from posting food-related content and using her platform to mobilize her audience to vote.

“I do believe there is a changing of the guard, but I also think we aren’t doing what they used to do,” she said. “There are so many generational differences.”

The nation’s eyes are on Texas, with major polls showing key down-ballot Democratic candidates in statewide races holding razor-thin leads against Republicans. For Democrats to win, they must have an extraordinary turnout by their base, coupled with a share of disaffected Republican and unaffiliated voters. That base, especially in Harris County and East Texas, has been Black voters.

Young Black voters, from high school to college to older millennials, have helped Harris County, home to the state’s largest Black population and one of the largest in the country, set records in the primaries and on the first day of early voting.

Texas has more Black voters than any other state. As of 2022, Pew Research found that Texas had the largest population of Black eligible voters of any state: 2.9 million, or about 14% of all eligible voters. Black voters are a core part of the Democratic base, making up about one-fifth of Texas’ likely Democratic primary voters and 11% to 13% of the general electorate, according to previous reporting.

Unlike older generations, which focused largely on equality and civic rights issues, this younger demographic focuses more on issues that affect their day-to-day lives — for example, affordability, the environment and job security.

“There has been too much foolishness,” said Evan Robinson, a junior at Texas Southern University and vice president of the campus NAACP chapter, who is helping his fellow students vote this year. “For a long time there was a feeling that our voice doesn’t matter, but now we are waking up to the fact that if we don’t do something, it will only get worse. Politics affects you whether you like it or not.”

Voting rights advocates believe this signals that the Black vote will once again determine the fate of state and national elections, but this time, a younger, more energized voter base is joining the effort, potentially recreating the momentum that had once made this demographic a voting powerhouse in the 70s and 80s.

“Every generation needs to determine what freedom means to them. We have to redefine what freedom means in this current climate,” said Annie Benifield, the other co-founder of Houston Voting Initiative.

What is the Black vote and what happened to it?

The Black vote in Texas and across the nation has often been driven by people over 55 years of age, with younger generations often lagging behind since the end of former President Barack Obama’s term. However, voting analysts and advocates say a shift is beginning in Harris County and statewide, as a newer generation is getting involved, not only in voting but also in organizing.

Stephanie Williams, senior state organizing manager for Black Voters Matter, looked across the Texas Southern University campus in Houston earlier this month, relieved to see students asking questions about how to vote and where to go during the midterm elections.

“We’ve been working with students in Texas, especially here in Houston. We’ve registered over 60,000 young people to vote. That is the energy we’re creating, and now that we’ve got all these young people on the voting rolls, the next step is educating them on how to vote, where to vote, and creating a vote plan,” Williams said. “But also turning them into organizers, strategists, to really begin building that infrastructure that we’re envisioning.”

The younger generation is focused on issues like young educated Black women being laid off from federal government jobs due to the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cuts and the end of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs; economic downturn, Flock cameras, data centers, and lack of affordable housing.

“When this country gets a cold, Black Americans get the flu. If there’s an increase in unemployment, you’ll see double that for Black Americans,” she said. “You have Gov. Greg Abbott appointing people to the boards of HBCU’s who we don’t believe will take these schools to the next level. There’s just so much.”

Michael Adams, a political science professor at Texas Southern University and founding director of the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center, said the Black vote in the state is concentrated in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and some areas in East Texas. He said these areas are key for candidates hoping to win an election, which is why the Black vote has mattered so much for decades.

The power of the Black vote and representation in Texas was most consistent between 1965 and 2012, after the Voting Rights Act passed, driven by enthusiasm among Black voters who knew the privilege of going to the polls.

“My parents didn’t get to vote until their 50s when the Voting Rights Act was passed. I remember the marches; I marched in college back in Alabama to prevent a prison being built next to an HBCU,” said Benefield. “I have always known the importance of the vote.”

National Black turnout peaked in 2008 and 2012 after a small dip in the early 2000s, with former President Barack Obama on the ballot. In 2012, Black turnout exceeded white turnout in several Southern states, a first in American history.

Since Obama’s era, Democratic candidates have struggled to bring back the Black vote in Texas and nationwide, and voting analysts say it has been due to a generational shift and a lack of strategies to engage with a younger and fast-growing demographic of Millennials and Gen Z.

For example, former President Joe Biden won Harris County by 13 points in 2020. However, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris won the county by only 5.5 percentage points in the 2024 election cycle.

“We stopped engaging and participating,” Benefield said. “We thought we had overcome, but we hadn’t.”

Voting experts also cite a litany of challenges, including the end of party-line voting in 2020, consistent redistricting and a lack of young candidates, which have led to confusion and burnout among younger voters.

“Sometimes as Black people we don’t craft or have a succession plan, and I think that is very important,” Adams said.

However, younger Black voters seemingly returned in large numbers this year.

During this year’s primary, Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth reported record turnout for a non-presidential primary, with more than 565,000 voters in 12 days. The Houston Defender reports that, based on demographic estimates, roughly 118,650 of those votes came from Black voters.

“The message we found that has resonated with young people is not being candidate-specific but speaking about healthcare and then folding in candidates,” said Brianna Brown, executive director of the Texas Organizing Project.

Williams credits this new enthusiasm to different strategies to engage younger voters, but also to a generational shift in which younger Black voters seem ready to take the reins from older organizers.

“Black women will always do our thing, especially to save democracy, so you can count on that,” Williams said. “But we also understand the assignment too. It can’t just be us. We got to get our brothers. We got to bring our kids. We are still on the front lines doing the organizing, but this is inclusive of us, because at the end of the day, it’s about all of us.”

A change in strategy

Svante Myrick, president of the People For the American Way Foundation, stood outside The Breakfast Klub in Houston’s historic Black neighborhood of Midtown, where he told an audience gathered for a community event about the importance of voting in this year’s election.

“The entire world hinges on what happens here in Houston and Texas,” he said, pointing to the murals his organization commissioned that encourage voting.

The block party and mural unveiling, supported by Harris County officials, including County Commissioner Rodney Ellis, is one example of how voting organizations, advocates, and candidates are encouraging civic participation among a younger generation beyond voting stickers and campaign events.

“Given the current state of the world, we got to do our part, whatever that might be,” said Preston Gaines, a 36-year-old architect, artist and founder of Inanimate Nature, who, along with other artists, helped paint the murals in Houston.

Voting-participation organizations across the state are reaching younger Black voters by working with social media creators and influencers, creating voter guides, hosting community parties, and more, and younger generations are responding positively to these efforts.

“We are seeing Gen-Zers across the world changing the way our future looks,” said Marshall Bradley, a 25-year-old architectural assistant at Inanimate Nature, who has been voting since 2020. “I think these recent events have shown us, ‘Oh, this is why voting is important,’ and living through these events has motivated us to vote.”

Bradley said many Black people in his generation are particularly interested in this election because current decisions directly affect their future.

“It has become almost irresponsible for us to not vote,” he said. “We have to vote to keep the rights our founding fathers established.”

The shift to a younger demographic doesn’t mean the older generation is forgotten, said U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D- Dallas, who stood outside a voting booth in Houston, where lines stretched around the block, but more of a need for multiple Black generations to come together at an important point in time.

“No matter where I meet some of our seniors, I know they were active,” she said. “The fight for the ballot box right now is there, but I think that the fight looks a little different. I think right now that we have to emphasize the things that our younger generation is most concerned about.”

For many years, politicians catered to the Black vote by showing up at churches and telling congregations to vote, expecting the message to echo throughout the community. However, times have changed, and older advocates and organizers have struggled until recently to catch up.

“How the Democratic Party engages with Black voters, especially when Millennials become the largest voting bloc, is going to require a lot more work,” Harrison said.

Candidates seem to have noticed this campaign cycle. For example, state Rep. James Talarico has appeared on popular national Black podcasts like The Breakfast Club, attended Sunday Funday in Houston and gave a commencement address at Paul Quinn College in Dallas. Gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa joined an interview discussion with Black Girls Politickin and campaigned in Houston’s historic Black community of Acres Homes, and state Rep. Vikki Goodwin appeared at Prairie View A&M’s homecoming.

“You see now that elected officials are going to these Black restaurants, Black bars, and sometimes feel like it’s performative, but where else are you gonna find your core audience,” Harrison said.

The main difference between younger and older Black generations is that Millennials and Gen-Zers feel the need for candidates to court their vote, rather than going to the polls out of a sense of duty passed down from the Civil Rights movement.

Some younger Black voters are focused on class issues over racial progress that dominated voting discussions in the past, while others are more focused on getting younger candidates instead of supporting those who look like them.

This year, young Black voters’ enthusiasm seems driven more by desperation and anger than by genuine support for candidates, and if the Democratic Party wants to carry this forward to the presidential election, it must offer hope.

“It’s not like the optimism you felt with Obama, or even the kind of excitement I felt when Kamala Harris was running. It feels like okay, we gotta go save this country again,” Harrison, a content creator, said. “It feels more out of duty and obligation and an understanding of what’s at stake.”

It’s still unclear whether the Black vote will change the political landscape in Texas this year, but Crockett said that to see this year’s momentum continue into the 2028 presidential election, candidates must stop taking their community’s vote for granted.

“I do think there will be conversations that the Democratic Party is going to have to have right now, because I think there is frustration that is taking place with Black communities, specifically with the Democratic Party, the lack of investments that are made into Black people when we know that Black people have held this party down,” she said.