What do Gen Z voters care about in this election?

More than a half million members of Generation Z are registered to vote in Minnesota — part of a potentially meaningful bloc of young voters that could influence November’s presidential election.

What better place to catch up with them than the Minnesota State Fair?

We pestered Gen Zers on their political views as they ate fried food, downed frozen drink concoctions and navigated the sweaty masses on one of the hottest days of the year.

Gen Zers were born from 1997 to 2012, but only those 18 to 27 years old are eligible to vote. Yet, that amounts to more than 40 million potential voters nationwide. In Minnesota, 504,950 people in this age group are registered to vote, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

But another 190,000 eligible Gen Zers in Minnesota could be eligible to vote if they register between now and Election Day, according to estimates by State Demographer Susan Brower.

This tech-savvy, incredibly diverse generation came into adulthood during the COVID-19 pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, George Floyd’s murder, the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and a rash of school shootings.

But their voting habits are unpredictable.

“Even in 2020 with a record number of turnout among young people, it still was only 50% of all eligible millennial and Gen Z voters,” said Erin Heys, a Stillwater native who is political director and senior researcher at the Berkeley Institute for Young Americans at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Just imagine if another 25% of them turned out, they would have enormous power,” Heys added.

“But one of the core reasons they don’t turn out is this feeling of hopelessness about the political system, that it won’t be responsive to their needs.”

We discovered young voters have a range of concerns in our decidedly unscientific sampling of more than a dozen Gen Zers at the State Fair, in interviews at the University of Minnesota and by phone.

They talked about immigration, grocery prices, housing affordability, safety for LGBTQ people, women’s reproductive rights, climate change and the war in Gaza.

A few said they were undecided; one man at the U said he didn’t plan to vote at all: “I’m not political, and I need to get to work.” He declined to give his name.

Another man at the fair said he was voting for Vice President Kamala Harris mostly because her running mate is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“I’m backing Tim up,” said Tae Davis, 20, of Minneapolis.

Before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, giving rise to Harris’ bid, just over half of Gen Z voters said they would “definitely” vote in a contest of septuagenarian vs. octogenarian, according to the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.

But the political landscape has shifted dramatically since then. In a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center Aug. 5 to 11, half of voters younger than 30 say they are extremely motivated to vote. And the candidates are trying to reach them, largely through social media and campus visits.

Among the young women we interviewed, abortion and reproductive rights were top of mind.

“I’m very big on women’s reproductive choice,” said Eulalia Pina Mondejar, 18, currently a student in Barcelona, Spain, who grew up in Minneapolis. “We’re going to have the possibility of a woman president, and at the same time she’s going to be fighting for our rights.”

Cate Dedon, 19, a Harris-supporting sophomore from Connecticut majoring in chemical engineering at the U, put it a bit more bluntly: “She’s not Trump. She’s pro-abortion and pro-women’s empowerment.”

The economy loomed large for others — like James Caldwell, 27, of Farmington, who plans to vote for former President Donald Trump again.

“Grocery prices, gas prices, war, immigration all were better in the four years of Trump than they are now,” he said.

“There were no new wars under Donald Trump. The prices were better under his administration as well. All those things impact my life, and I’d like to see them go back,” Caldwell said.

Braden Brauer, 20, of Eyota, Minn., said he wasn’t sure if he was going to vote but is leaning toward supporting Trump. “I think the borders are important, and Trump would be on top of that,” he said.

Khanh Tran, 20, a supply chain management major at the U from Brooklyn Park, worries about the national debt crisis and is in favor of student loan forgiveness, a tenet of the Biden administration now under fire in the courts. She’s “probably” supporting Harris.

Two LGBTQ Gen Zers said they would feel safer under a Harris-Walz administration.

“I just want to feel safe every day,” said Ray Wagenaar, 23, of Minnetonka. “I don’t want to feel like I’m in danger when I go out.”

The war in Gaza, which has sparked protests at college campuses nationwide, including the University of Minnesota, is a key issue for Kyle Bagley, 23, of Minneapolis. While he is “ecstatically” backing Harris, he said she “needs to do more” on the war in Gaza.

“She’s working on it,” he said. “If there are human rights violations, the U.S. needs to stop supplying Israel or any other country with weapons.”

Memory Bell-Wagner, 18, of St. Paul said she’s supporting Harris because, among other issues, she’s worried about climate change.

“It’s so hot outside,” she said.