Just as the Republican Party mobilized in the early years of Barack Obama’s presidency, with Tea Party activists sweeping into office on account of vitriolic protestation of the Affordable Care Act, the 2018 Democratic primaries have given rise to a new breed of insurgent candidates: emboldened factions of young people, women, and people of color, some of whom have already successfully sought office this year. In Queens, 28-year-old Democratic Socialist__Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez__ steamrolled incumbent Representative Joseph Crowley in a June primary; in Boston, a 44-year-old member of the Boston City Council, Ayanna Pressley, defeated Representative Michael Capuano, a 10-term progressive incumbent. Promising change and capitalizing on anti-Trump fervor, these candidates have helped frame this year’s midterms as perhaps the most important in a generation, particularly for young voters.

Theoretically, many young people agree. “Complacency does not equal good leadership,” said one female millennial respondent to a survey conducted by theSkimm in September. “Progress is better than stagnant policy.” Another said: “Right now the status quo provides no checks on the branches of government. We need that check and accountability back. We also have a Congress that doesn’t reflect a majority of the nation (age & sex) and that needs to change.”

From a practical standpoint, however, data shows that millennial women aren’t necessarily involved in the electoral process as midterms approach. While an overwhelming 82 percent of female millennials say they’d prefer to vote for a candidate who challenges the status quo, and 55 percent say that the 2018 elections are more important compared to past midterm elections in their lifetimes, only 15 percent say they’re doing a lot of talking about the candidates, according to a new survey conducted by the Hive, theSkimm, and SurveyMonkey as part of Millennial Takeover 2018, our year-long editorial project in advance of midterms. The lack of enthusiasm is more or less consistent across party lines: just 20 percent of Republican or Republican-leaning female millennials say they’ve talked “a lot” with friends and family about the candidates running in their state, as do 18 percent of millennial women who are Democrats, or Democratic-leaning.

The numbers are slightly more encouraging when it comes to voting—more than half of millennial women say they are “absolutely certain to vote” or “will probably vote” in November. (Of course, those numbers likely overstate turnout—a statement to a pollster is no guarantee that someone will actually vote.) But among millennial women who don’t plan on voting, 29 percent say it’s because they don’t know enough about the candidates or issues, and 18 percent because they don’t believe their vote will make a difference. (Seventeen percent say they are “too busy.”) Moreover, many seem unwilling to learn, despite the abundance of educational sources and sites available online, and increased efforts by third-party Web sites like PolitiFact and FactCheck.org to deliver accurate information to readers. A full 29 percent of female millennials say they “don’t trust anything”—news outlets, government Web sites, or otherwise—when it comes to verifying a candidate’s beliefs. Just 30 percent of millennial women rely on the news to learn about candidates, and 29 percent say they use nonpartisan Web sites like Headcount.org. And in spite of the negative press around social-media platforms in the wake of the 2016 election, 21 percent of millennial women still turn to social media for accurate information about candidates. Far from making things clearer, technology only seems to have muddled the facts, and contributed to voter confusion.

Still, there are signs that Donald Trump’s presidency has moved the needle for female millennials. Many young women indicate sustained involvement in politics; some 38 percent of millennial women indicated that they are “about as involved” now as they were in 2017. Compared to last year, 40 percent of female millennials say they are “more involved” in politics or causes in their community. And 79 percent of millennial women who are likely to vote say having more women in Congress would have a “mostly positive impact” on the country (52 percent of likely millennial male voters believe the same). There’s little doubt that millennial women feel galvanized. Whether or not they’ll turn up at the polls in November remains to be seen.

Methodology: This SurveyMonkey/theSkimm/Hive online poll was conducted September 21–October 1, 2018, among a total sample of 4,263 adults, including 427 female millennials living in the United States. Respondents for these surveys were selected from more than two million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled error estimate for the full sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points. Among millennial women, the modeled error estimate is plus or minus 6 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over. The full breakdown by demographics is located here.