League of Women Voters of California via Wikimedia Commons
By Lauren Blanton and Sage West
Sep 12, 2024
College students, many of whom will be voting for the first time in November, are trying to make a decision between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. An interesting factor may sway their vote: the opinions of their parents.
“My family is very conservative – my dad is Cuban but he was born and lived in Miami his whole life so that obviously made him identify a lot more with conservative values,” said Alejandro Rodriguez, FAU physics sophomore. “Him being so conservative and very Republican rubbed off on me. So, that influenced my view since the beginning of understanding politics.”
Rodriguez gradually developed his own views on various issues, but he often finds himself thinking about how his dad would see them.
“Breaking away from that and wanting to kind of get an idea of politics for myself, I was able to come to my own conclusion,” Rodriguez said. “But, I will say that my family had a very big impact on my political beliefs from a young age.”
Even while young voters continue to develop their own views, they report that the voice of Mom and Dad looms large. Researchers have found for decades that young voters' political affiliations are heavily influenced by their parents. As early as 1968, researchers M. Kent Jennings and Richard G. Niemi's found that 71% of children shared the same political party as their parents.
More recently, a 2023 Pew Research Center study found that 81% of Republican and 89% of Democratic parents have teens whose political views align with theirs. Both studies confirm the significant role of familial influence in shaping political beliefs across generations.
FAU senior finance major, Aaron Thon, said he grew up a Democrat and still holds his parents' liberal views close when voting. "My mom was very left-leaning, so I feel it was instilled in me. I think of myself more in the middle, but prefer Harris over Trump this year,” said Thon.
University life offers a pivotal period for students to mature politically, shaping their own views influenced by new ideas and experiences. "I went through a couple months where I was kind of torn between candidates. I was thinking I might vote for Trump just based on the people I was hanging out with at that time,” Thon said.
After wrestling with the influence of his friends, Aaron Thon found himself reconsidering his political stance with the nomination of Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate. Despite his initial indecision, the switch from Joe Biden ultimately rekindled his alignment with his mother’s Democratic views.
Kevin Wagner, Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of Research at FAU, highlights new findings from the university's PolCom Lab, indicating the growing influence of media on young voters' political decisions—a trend significantly stronger today than in past years. Yet he determines that family is the root source of the type of media young people consume, emphasizing how large their influence can be.
“Opinion formation is a product of a lot of things as we develop. Certainly a lot of it is our parents, our families, and, and the people that are around us when they talk politics,” said Wagner. “Is your family politically oriented? In other words, do you spend a lot of time at the dinner table talking about politics? Families, especially, early on, are very influential in our political views.”
For Zoey Clarke, a junior marketing major, family discussions about faith and politics play a significant role in shaping her electoral decisions. "Because I'm a Christian, I have a lot of people who are insanely in love with Trump, but I'm not super in love with him,” she said.
Previously, Clarke has tried to avoid engaging in politics. However, after casually watching the Democratic National Convention (DNC) while baking, she said she felt more educated on, “how the Democratic Party perceives humanity and how they believe Americans should thrive.”
"My family, we're Black, so I feel like that affects your outlook and your perspective of Trump because of the words and descriptions that he uses,” Clarke added. “My mom’s beliefs are more Republican, but my family is also empathetic. I think maybe we're more mindful of how he affects human behavior and how he affects the reactions of U.S. citizens.”
Cole Struzzieri, a multimedia journalism major at FAU, said his conservative views align with the Republican Party
“I came to my views on my own, but my parents were like, ‘Oh yeah, we kind of feel the same way,’” said Struzzieri. His family’s business in New York employs many immigrants, and he draws a clear distinction between legal immigrants and those who have entered the US illegally.
“So, I totally support legal immigration,” Struzzieri added. “I think that needs to be reformed to work better actually to get more people in here. But, illegal immigration is causing a lot of dangers in the country.”
For Carly Cuoco, a junior theater design and technology major, the decision to vote Democrat has always been clear, even though their views differ from those of their family. “It’s all personal stuff, not necessarily what I was raised as, but in the last couple years it’s definitely where I've been,” Cuoco said, emphasizing that human rights is their top issue.
Cuoco's views have always differed from their family’s. In the Cuoco household, to keep Thanksgiving “civil,” she explained, “We just don't talk about it to avoid conflict. We all know where everyone stands.”