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Brian Duff, Ph.D., associate professor and chair in the Department of Political Science, was a guest on MPBN’s “Maine Calling” program on Monday, April 18, 2016, joining a discussion on “The Youth Vote 2016.”

Duff and other panelists shared their views on the extent to which young people of the Millennial Generation are getting involved in this election cycle and in which issues they are most engaged.

Duff explained his belief that Millennials are, in general, disinterested in politics, largely because of their belief that individuals have very little power to affect political outcomes. “All the data that I look at see the Millennials as sort of cynical about politics and uninterested in politics,” he said. “They are unique in that way… It’s very hard to get Millennials interested, and it’s very hard to get them over their basic sense that the game is rigged and politicians are in it for themselves.”

Duff noted that the presidential candidates that are attracting the most Millennial support—Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders—are both, in their own ways, cynical about the political establishment.