The number of young people registered to vote is up across several states, but Kentucky is not joining the trend.

According to new data from Tufts University, 25 out of 42 states saw more young people registering to vote in the 2026 midterms than in the 2022 election.

Kentucky was among a handful of states that did not make gains, instead showing double digit decreases in young people registering to vote this year compared to the last midterm.

We spoke to University of Kentucky political science professor Stephen Vos about the decline and whether it means young people in the state are becoming less engaged politically.

When I first saw the wild spikes in youth registration across the states, I knew this has to be about more than youth engagement.

There's two big, two large differences from states that saw big increases and big decreases.

So my first thought seeing the data is other things are driving these numbers besides how engaged young voters are state by state.

And and so I looked and I noticed that the states have had big differences and changes and how many young people they have in their population.

The thing about the data we're discussing is that they're just counts of how many people are on the rolls.

They're not a capture of how engaged young people are, what rate they're getting engaged with the system.

Kentucky has not seen a large increase in its youth population since 2022, where some states have seen very large ones over the last few years.

Texas has seen its youth population increased by a third of a million.

So Kentucky is not going to look very good in the statistics just because we're not seeing those huge population influxes.

One pattern that does stand out about the states that have seen increases in youth voters versus states that have seen decreases, is whether they have a serious statewide competitive election this year, with the exception of Maine, which has seen young voters drop off despite having a closely contested election.

Most of the states that have a really hard fought contest, we're still seeing young people engaged in states that are sleepy.

This year, we're seeing young people drop off, as they generally have in midterm elections.

So there's no presidential ticket on the ballot.

Seeing people drop off the rolls nationwide is actually common at a time like this.

So to me, the real story is the gains that we're seeing in some states, not so much the slight drift downward in a place like Kentucky.

There are reasons why Kentucky lags in youth engagement that people might want to address.

One of them is the lack of political competition.

You know, Kentucky used to have more youth engagement back when compared to other states.

Back when Kentucky was a state that was up for grabs.

You know, when Bill Clinton could win it, one year Republican could win it the next.

But as Kentucky has become more lopsided politically and the elections have become less closely contested, the motivation for voters to get engaged goes down.

Even more important, we tend to think of political engagement as an individual trade.

I'm either engaged or I'm not.

But a lot of what polls young people, a lot of what pulls everybody into politics are what outsiders do to pull us into the system, what the campaigns do to register voters.

What interest groups do to advertise the campaign or get people out knocking on doors?

As Kentucky's become less contested by the two parties because we're lopsided, all those outside groups that used to make it easier for us to get engaged with politics don't spend their money here to the same degree.

I wouldn't say Kentucky's been a typical over the long span in terms of engagement of young voters.

You know, voters especially respond to all the the flurry of campaign activity and the efforts to get them mobilized.

You know, if you go back even half a decade, we would see, was more efforts to get young people registered to vote because the candidates had the money to spend to get young people registered to vote, and they hoped for their support.

We're not seeing as much of that intense activity to get young voters on the rolls by these outside campaigns, by the National Party's politicians.

Do worry a little bit more about people who vote.

So if a trend developed of young Kentuckians just not being involved in the political system, you would expect eventually to see the parties worrying a little bit less about issues that directly impact young people, or the issues that concern young people.

Tomorrow on Kentucky Edition, we'll continue our conversation with Stephen Voss here.

What he believes will lead to more civic engagement among young people in the state.