What an Oregon Group, Next Up, is Doing to Turn Out Young Voters

The race for the U.S. House seat in Oregon’s 5th district is expected to be among the closest in the country. Democratic State Rep. Janelle Bynum, who is positioning herself as anathema to both the “extreme right” and “extreme left,” will face off against incumbent Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who won her seat by less than 3 points in a district that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 by a hefty margin. She’s considered one of the most vulnerable members of the House. 

Young people are one demographic group that will be especially important this year in OR-5. According to an analysis by CIRCLE, a research center at Tuft’s University, voters 18 to 29 are set to wield more influence in OR-5 than nearly any other congressional district. Strong youth turnout could make all the difference in a race that could be decided by a few thousand votes. 

No organization in Oregon is more laser-focused on young voters than Next Up, a nonprofit with a long history of working in OR-5 and elsewhere in the state. 

“In our 22 years of youth organizing experience, we see that the most effective strategies are long-term voter engagement and outreach, not just bursts of outreach in major election years,” said Next Up Development Director Em Bookstein. 

How Next Up Engages Young Voters in Oregon

Next Up — which also has a 501(c)(4) arm, Next Up Action — boasts several notable accomplishments across several recent election cycles. To list a few:

In 2015, it was an important part of a coalition that successfully fought to make Oregon the first state to implement automatic voter registration; 800,000 voters have been registered to vote as part of this program. 

In 2019, it championed a victorious effort to provide paid postage to Oregonians, allowing all voters in the state to vote by mail free of charge before the practice became considerably more widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Last year, Next Up allocated $10,000 for an innovative participatory budget through which spending is democratically determined by community members — in this case, by a steering committee of 143 Next Up participants. The committee determined the $10,000 would be spent on a mutual aid fund and music festival. The music festival, notes CIRCLE, “has explicit goals of reaching new community members to support non-electoral, year-round organizing work.”

Using Down-Ballot Races to Catalyze Higher Voter Turnout

Regarding elections, Bookstein stresses that Next Up emphasizes local and statewide campaigns as a gateway to get young voters engaged in federal races (such as for Congress) they may otherwise ignore.

“We know our work to get out the vote for down-ballot issues and races mobilizes voters who might otherwise sit out,” said Bookstein. 

In 2022, Next Up used charter reform in Portland to do this. According to a yearly impact report, the organization made 71,000 phone calls, knocked on 10,000 doors, and participated in 22 canvases in “overlooked neighborhoods” to support the efforts for Portland charter reform, which instituted ranked-choice voting and expanded the city council, among other changes. Next Up attributes efforts like these as key to why Oregon saw one of the highest turnout rates in the country in 2020 and 2022 among voters aged 18-29. 

Exit polls in both elections found that young Oregonians voted Democratic by double-digit margins, a trend mirrored nationally. The historic high youth turnout rates since 2018 is one reason Democrats have performed strongly in recent elections. A lot is riding on whether that trend can be sustained this year, starting with control of the White House and Congress. 

For the 2024 primaries in May, Bookstein says that Next Up made over 61,000 phone calls to 18- to 29-year-olds with a particular focus on Multnomah and Clackamas counties, which intersect with Oregon’s 5th congressional district, as well as Lane county, which contains the University of Oregon, and Washington County, which includes Oregon State University and parts of Portland. But this was hardly the full extent of the work done by the organization so far this year.

“We take a multilayered approach to voter engagement,” said Bookstein. “Including sending texts, knocking doors, collaborating with other organizations on mailers, voter education on social media, and — perhaps most significantly for our work — hiring young people to do peer-to-peer outreach in their schools, neighborhoods and around the state.”

But even that was not all. Next Up also sought to address specific electoral challenges during their 2024 primary efforts.

“Since Oregon has closed primary elections, a significant number of young people are shut out of the political process during the primary election because they are not registered with a political party,” explained Bookstein. “This means that hundreds of thousands of young voters are not able to cast their ballot to express who would best represent their values in elected office. As the main organization dedicated to turning out the youth vote in Oregon, we’ve called attention to how closed primaries [have been] an inequitable and inaccessible issue in our elections for many years and have previously done nonaffiliated voter (NAV) turnout through mailers.”

Bookstein also added, “Through our bi-annual voter registration work in schools, we inform young people of the impacts of not being registered with a political party.”

Connecting with Nonaffiliated Young Voters in Oregon

Next Up plans to continue its NAV outreach during the general election campaign. Bookstein identified Clackamas County, which has 108,030 nonaffiliated voters and is a vital part of OR-5, as one area the organization will focus on this summer and autumn. Ballot measures and endorsed candidates are also pivotal to Next Up’s general election strategy. The organization takes its endorsement process seriously and convenes a committee every year to determine its candidate selections. Bookstein said that prioritized candidates are those who “align with our values, and who are under 35 years old, Black, Indigenous or People of Color, LGBTQ2SIA+, disabled, women, low income, and people from underserved communities regardless of age.”

For the 2024 primaries, Next Up endorsed nine candidates for positions including secretary of state, city councilors, and water and electric board members. The organization’s general election efforts will be built around these and other officially endorsed candidates as well as ballot measures, while continuing, in Bookstein’s words, “to host all ages, political education events, and voter registration drives on high schools and college campuses.”

The dread and gloom of the 2024 presidential race can make it nearly impossible for many young people to feel optimism about the future of the country. Organizations like Next Up Oregon, however, intrinsically reject that resignation. Its eyes are always on the future — whether it's recruiting the next generation of political leadership, enfranchising and educating Oregonians for forthcoming election cycles, influencing critical policy, and more. 

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To donate to Next Up, as well as another group Blue Tent is recommending that works in OR-5 — PCUN — click here.