House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in her weekly press conference Thursday that she supports lowering the voting age to 16, arguing that “it's really important to capture kids when they're in high school.”
"I myself have always been for lowering the voting age to 16," she said. "I think it's really important to capture kids when they're in high school, when they're interested in all of this, when they're learning about government, to be able to vote."
“My view is that I would welcome that,” she added. “But I had been in that position for a long time.”
Pelosi just advocated for lowering the voting age to 16 years old to "capture kids when they're in high school." pic.twitter.com/GxPTBPFBLJ
— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) March 14, 2019
Pelosi has vocally supported lowering the voting age in the past, telling The New York Times in 2015 that she was “all for” lowering the voting age to 16 or 17 “because when kids are in school, they’re so interested, they’re so engaged.”
Freshman Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) introduced an amendment to the Democrats' broad "For the People" voting proposal, last week that would have lowered the voting age to 16, but the amendment was voted down.
Even if the amendment had remained, the proposal would not have passed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called the legislation on elections and voting a "sprawling 622-page doorstop" that "is never going to become law." He added that it "should be called the Democrat Politician Protection Act," because its provisions helped Democratic incumbents.