Out of all the registered voters in Utah  47% are republican, 10% democrat, and 30% independent. And out of the 29 of the Utah house of representatives only 5 of them are democrats. Where do Davis High Students Align on the political spectrum? And do they believe the same way as their parents do?  

9% of davis high students are independent, 45% repuublican, and 27% are democrats.

Approximately 9%  of davis high students identify as independents.  Steven Clift a senior says he identifies that way because “That way i can vote on the person from either side of the isle just in case, and that i can vote based off of a person’s ideals and not just their parties ideals”  Ethan adler a junior said “I hate the radicalisation of people which is perpetuated by the two party system. In fact I’d say the greatest plague upon true political discourse is the ignorance which pushes people to vote solely on party lines thats why im and independent.”

 and Levi Clark said “ because i dont feel like any political parties today have it right.”

The number of independents at davis high is disproportionatly lower when compared to the entire state of utah. It seems that davis high students do not tend to ” sit on the fence” as 30% of utahs population.

45% of davis high students identify as republicans. A junior Trevor Schwab who identifies as a republican says he does so because:

“Really it all comes down to economics, I believe in civil rights and LGBT rights im totally am fine with. But republicans generally tend to support lower taxation because if people are taxed less it means that they are going to be spending more and creating economic stimulus. Which we have seen a lot from the trump administration, they’ve done some questionable things but their economic policy has been great. And republican focus on building infrastructure. Countries like japan have bullet trains that go hundreds of miles per hour and america is behind in that margain an republicans. And democrats have some good social ideals but their economic policy is lacking. And their emphasis on a strong military. And as much as some democrats hate how we are the world’s police force but when a government fails the international community has to step in and preserve.”

Another senior Max Barnett said that he identifies as a republican

“Because it’s the party that sides with my values the most, for example I’m pro second amendment, pro-life, pro capital punishment, but somethings i believe that republicans don’t generally believe are environmentalism and legalization of marijuana. and i think Donald Trump’s policy is good but as a person he is wack.”

Davis highs percentage of republicans is quite close to the state of utahs population. with only a 2% its clear to see that the majority of davis high students think similarly to the adult figures around them and assosiate with the same ideals as their parents.

 

27 % of davis high students are democrats. Jentry Breau said:

“i’m pretty neutral and open minded but on most hot button issues i agree with the democrats, i think they focus on the american people 98% of the time (which should be the case) and when it’s very important or dire they interject in international policies i think it’s important that we’re accepting and accommodating to the american people first and other countries aren’t less but shouldn’t be at the front of our focus and in my opinion the republicans are more concerned with what’s going on outside the country and treat citizens as a secondary though”

Sam Mckoncie said ““democrats have the values i have been raised with, i’m not a die hard democrat but i agree with them on most issues.”

The percentage of democrats at davis high is much higher than the entire state. Are people no longer choosing to identify as independents but as democrats in utah? are liberal ideals begining to take root in utahs young population?

So, Davis High school is 9% independent, 27% democrat, and 45% republican. And most people shared the same ideals as their parental figures.  While only a few people differ from their parents ideologies. One thing to take note of is the rising of democrats in younger people. One of the biggest things to stand out is the disproportunite amount of democrats. For the registered voters of utah only 10% identify as democrats but 27 percent of davis high students identify as democrats. Could this possibly be stemming from a sense of rebellion to think differently than the majority of adults around them or is a genuine beileif in modern liberal ideology? its hard to determine yet because the majority of Gen Z has yet too be of voting age or just havnet had an interst in voting.