Young Black voters buck Democratic old guard

The nation's old guard of Black leaders is still a key force for Democrats, but this year's primaries have revealed the rising influence of Black Gen Z voters who aren't swayed by their elders' seniority, civil rights credentials or endorsements.

Driving the news: Michigan's Democratic primary for Senate offered a snapshot of the growing generational divide among Black voters in particular.

• U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, 86, a civil rights icon from South Carolina, campaigned for establishment-backed Rep. Haley Stevens. But Abdul El-Sayed, 41, overcame Stevens — and the more than $60 million in outside spending backing her — to win by less than 1 percentage point.
• A Washington Post analysis found Stevens had an eight-point edge in counties with the highest Black populations — a smaller margin than many expected. El-Sayed, meanwhile, dominated counties with the highest numbers of young adults.

Zoom in: The Michigan campaign reflected the different expectations between younger and older Black voters, said Kaya Jones of Voters of Tomorrow, an advocacy group for young voters.

• She told Axios that Black voters in Gen Z are especially willing to back progressives and reject establishment Democrats.
• Jones said some of young Black voters' frustrations stem from older leaders holding onto power instead of making room for a new generation — and that endorsements by revered longtime Black leaders don't move the needle with many in Gen Z.
• "We don't want something that is the same. We want change. We want something new and fresh," she said.

The intrigue: Election data from 2024 analyzed by Axios show that while younger Black voters remain overwhelmingly Democratic and increasingly progressive, many are willing to consider voting Republican.

• Pew also found that 17% of Black voters under 50 identified with or leaned toward the Republican Party, compared with 7% of Black voters 50 and older.

Jones added that the ground campaign in Michigan was telling: Young Black voters didn't just turn out to vote for El-Sayed, many canvassed for him and showed up at his party on election night.

• Jones noted that El-Sayed had support from a younger generation of Black House members such as Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), 52, and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), 29, while Stevens had Clyburn's support.
• "It's like, hmmm, those are two different vibes," Jones said.

Zoom out: New York City's 2025 Democratic mayoral primary showed overlapping age and racial fault lines.

• An Emerson College poll found voters under 50 broke roughly 2 to 1 for Zohran Mamdani over Andrew Cuomo, while Black voters overall favored Cuomo 62%-38%.
• The AP later found Cuomo carried 25 of the city's 33 majority-Black neighborhoods — but that Mamdani had stronger support among young Black progressives.

Between the lines: Part of the story behind young Black voters turning from establishment-backed candidates is their impatience with older Black political leaders.

• Gen Z Black voters see other paths to influence beyond the model that has long led many civil rights and religious leaders to prominent leadership positions in politics.
• "There's a reason there's not a 40-year-old Al Sharpton today," said Theodore Johnson, a senior fellow at the liberal-leaning think tank New America, referring to the 71-year-old civil rights advocate.
• He added that younger Black voters are more focused on housing, health care, education and economic security than on the traditional civil rights fights that remain especially salient to older voters.

In an interview with Axios, Sharpton rejected the idea that elders in the Black community should simply surrender their positions.

• "If somebody got to step aside for you, then you ain't the next one," Sharpton said. "This is not anointing business. This is about your work."
• Sharpton acknowledged that "we need young blood," but argued that traditional organizing rooted in the community's traditional priorities is important, too: "We need both."

Howard University political science professor Marcus Board Jr. warned against overstating the generational break among Black voters.

• He tells Axios that some older organizations aren't listening closely enough to young people — but cautioned against declaring Sharpton or an entire generation as "out of touch."