A companion to High Road Policy Vol. 4(1), Activating the Tenant Vote, a joint release of the ILR Buffalo Co-Lab and Tenants PAC, examines the untapped potential of the tenant electorate as a voting bloc in state and federal elections in New York. The factsheet is based on new analyses by the Cornell University ILR Buffalo Co-Lab of voter data from the Catalist national database. Nearly half of New Yorkers are renters, yet tenants vote at far lower rates than homeowners. The findings in this brief suggest that candidates for office, political parties, and other groups can can activate tenants as a voting bloc by campaigning on and passing tenant protections, with the potential to transform both election results and policy decisions affecting New York tenants.

Read the factsheet in full below, or click here to download the PDF.