By Paul Leroux
July 2, 2012

Harvard Institute of Politics Director Trey Grayson provided the Conference of Mayors with a report on the political attitudes of young people on June 13. Grayson drew conclusions from the Institute's 21st biannual survey of over 3,000 "Millennials," Americans aged 18-29. The survey included participants from around the country and was notably diverse.

Overall, Grayson said, Millenials are dissatisfied, but their outlook is improving. "The right-track/wrong-track, which we ask in every survey, is still negative—it's still underwater—but it's only two to one underwater instead of four to one underwater, as it was in the fall."

Despite dissatisfaction, Millennials still had faith in local government. In terms of trustworthiness, Grayson said, "Local government fared better—significantly better, actually—than both state government and federal government…so give yourselves a round of applause."

For Millennials, the economy is still the top political issue, but its importance is declining, Grayson said. "When we asked an open-ended question about what's the biggest issue, the economy got 75 percent of all responses in the fall." In the spring, "It was down to only 58 percent."

The survey found that President Obama leads this generation by 17 points over Mitt Romney. But, Grayson cautioned, in terms of engagement, "We're not seeing the kind of ramp-up you would expect as you lead up to a presidential election."

The Institute of Politics is a longtime partner of the Conference of Mayors, co-hosting a seminar for new mayors every two years. Grayson lauded this partnership, saying, "Many people that I've seen since we got here yesterday have either been participants in the seminar or have helped instruct us at our seminar."