Why do young voters love Bernie Sanders?

LOS ANGELES — It is one of the most consistent — and counterintuitive — facts behind Bernie Sanders’ four-year march from insurgent presidential contender to front-runner: The oldest candidate in the Democratic field owes his success to the youngest voters in the party.

Sanders, 78, with a surly resting face and a disheveled halo of thinning white hair, may seem like an unorthodox choice for voters several generations removed. But with his defiance for convention and decades-long crusade for revolution, Sanders is uncommonly in sync with the political sensibilities of younger Americans hungry for sweeping action on climate change, student debt and health care.

For younger voters, their formative years have primed them to embrace more radical politics. The warnings they hear from scientists about climate change have become increasingly dire. The frequent school shootings that have made lockdown drills a normal part of life have prompted students to call for more government regulation on guns. The Great Recession — which hammered millennials as they entered the job market while Generation Z watched their parents weather the downturn — instilled a deep skepticism about Wall Street and, more broadly, the country’s economic structures.

Sanders may come across as angry. But young voters consider the problems at hand and figure, why shouldn’t he be?

“You have people that actually criticize him for being so passionate and yelling at you,” said Norma Sandoval, a UCLA graduate student in molecular biology. “But you see that he truly does want what’s best for the majority of the people.”

Ideological affinity, coupled with a head start on youth organizing from his 2016 campaign, has made the Vermont senator a formidable favorite among millennial and Generation Z voters. Sanders won approximately half of voters under 30 in the Iowa and New Hampshire contests, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.