Stephanie Taylor Christensen

for Bank of America

The majority of young voters, ages 18 to 26 years old, surveyed in the latest Bank of America/USA TODAY Better Money Habits poll said they’ll vote with their pocketbooks in this upcoming presidential election. In fact, 65% will give more weight to a candidate’s stance on economic policies — and the impact that has on their wallets — than they will social issues.

When respondents were asked which financial issues will play the biggest role in who they’ll support politically, the young adults named job growth, the national economy, health care costs, and student loan debt as top concerns. More than 75% said they think the outcome of the next presidential election will impact their financial lives for the next four years.

Financial issues and how they’ll impact young voters isn’t a new topic to the campaign trail. President Obama addressed the cost of college tuition back in the 2008 election (and famously admitted that it took him decades to pay off his own student loans). In the 2012 presidential election, the economy was named the top campaign issue across voter segments in a Gallup poll conducted at that time. But today’s young voters, who may be students, new to the workforce, or struggling to achieve financial independence, know they face an uphill financial battle. The White House recently reported that 71% of students who have a bachelor’s degree emerge from college with student loan debt; the average owed is $29,400. Nearly 60% of the young adults surveyed who have student loan debt said it is impacting their decision on who to vote for in the presidential election.

Though data reported by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York indicates that the job market has improved slightly (9.5% of young workers were unemployed in March 2016, compared to 10.6% the year prior), young adults remain concerned. Slightly more than one quarter of the young adult respondents said they’d like to hear more about the candidates’ respective positions on job growth, followed closely health care costs, and national security. “As the economy improves and we get farther away from the financial crisis of 2008, hopefully the optimism of this group of young people is matched by opportunities and greater access to the job market becomes real for them,” says Andrew Plepler, Environmental, Social and Governance executive at Bank of America.

He adds that while young adult’s financial concerns are understandable, their awareness of how politics may impact their bottom line likely extends deeper than dollars and cents. “There’s a trust issue among young people - they are questioning whether the system works for them, whether that’s in regards to student debt, health care costs, or the job market. They’re wondering if the system will afford them the same opportunity their parents had,” says Plepler.

American University’s School of Public Affairs’ professor and political behavior expert Jan Leighley, Ph.D agrees that young voters’ focus on financial issues probably stems from a few factors, including a keen awareness of the impacts of the economic downturn. Leighley said it makes sense that they are focused on these issues “having the recession of 2008 in mind, and having seen parents and neighbors lose jobs and houses.”

It’s not surprising then, that based on their responses to the latest Better Money Habits poll, they want to make sure that economic issues are front and center in the coming weeks: 71% of the respondents said they would like hear the candidate’s stance on issues that will affect their personal financial situations.

It is clear that young adults today are focused on their finances, but they may not have the support they need. That is one reason Bank of America created Better Money Habits®, a free, interactive financial education resource developed in partnership with Khan Academy, a nonprofit with the mission of providing free educational content to anyone, anywhere. On it, young adults can read articles and/or watch short videos on a wide range of topics including how to manage income from a part-time job or freelance gig, and how to take advantage of pretax benefits offered through an employer to offset costs of health care.

Members of the editorial and news staff of USA TODAY were not involved in the creation of this content.