I know they're exit polls so they should be taken with a grain of salt, but I couldn't believe just how well Trump did with young voters in Missouri.
-18-29 year olds: Trump won 51-40 (by comparison he only won 30-44 year olds: 48-44).
-18-24 year olds: 57-35 !!!
Cnn exit poll.
The Senate numbers actually kind of track the trends seen from 2004-2012, where young voters consistently broke pretty heavily Democratic. They clearly carried that towards Democrats other than Hillary. I actually hadn't thought to check the EPs in MO for Kander. Yet another annoying statistic showing that had Hillary done as well as Obama among youth in MO, Kander might have pulled it off.
However, if the youngest voters don't go back to at least some sort of majority-Democrat, then I can only think that the future of Missouri might be more Democrat-friendly but ultimately not really what I imagine qualifies as an emerging Democratic state. It takes more than ~15 years worth of heavily Democratic voters to shift the political landscape in a state like Missouri.
It might be because, however much a long shot, 18-20/21 year olds are skewing the entire 18-24 year old demographic to be more conservative. Aka the whole Gen Z is more conservative theory.
I think the states where Trump either won 18-24 year olds or where 18-24 year olds voted more conservatively than the 25-29 year old brackets were:Wisconsin
Missouri
Minnesota
Pennsylvania
Maine (Note: 18-24 year olds voted more conservatively than their elderly, but not more conservatively than the 25-29 year olds, which still indicates a more conservative shift for this state overall).
