Who will be the losers of the 2024 elections? – Annie Andrews, Bruce Lesley

The 2024 election season is in full swing and there is a lot of tension surrounding thin margins and tight races. But the people who have the most to gain or lose are those who can’t vote.

Our nation’s children are in crisis and they desperately need brave, vocal champions. In 2021, Congress helped cut child poverty nearly in half, to the lowest level on record, with an expanded child tax credit. The number of children without health insurance fell for the first time in half a decade due to policies that maintained their access to care.

Food insecurity – in layman’s terms, children going hungry – fell to a record low.

Most of these gains have evaporated and new policies are causing children to fall further behind. Child poverty has nearly doubled from a record low of 5.2% in 2021 to 12.4% in 2022. More than 5 million children have lost health care because protections have expired – and this is in the middle of what the US Surgeon General has ordered has declared child poverty. mental health crisis. Politicians are grappling with school meal programs that keep more than 30 million children fed and the nutrition standards that keep them healthy.

Why does this happen? Too often, children are an afterthought. Lawmakers are quick to kiss babies, to use platitudes: “Children are our future.” But inevitably there is a disconnect between the positive, superficial messages about children and the measures taken to prioritize their well-being.

Candidates can talk about the importance of protecting our children, but when it comes to involving children in actual policy decisions on education, economic security, climate, gun violence, health care and the prospects of the next generation, they are lagging behind all but a few are woefully lacking.

In the coming elections, every candidate in every race at every level must abandon empty rhetoric and embrace a children’s agenda that puts children at the center of their campaigns. Prioritizing children is not only good for children; it’s good for all of us.

A campaign that puts children first would support reducing child poverty, for example by reintroducing the expanded child tax credit. It would be loud and proud if it stopped the exodus of children from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. It would advocate for a Farm Bill that provides adequate amounts of nutrient-dense, belly-filling food that helps children grow into productive citizens.

For example, a campaign that puts children first would be bold in solving the childcare crisis. It would provide a platform that invests far more in our nation’s children – who receive less than 10% of the federal budget despite making up nearly a quarter of the population – and would promote policies that ensure all children are safe from violence, abuse and neglect.

And the first campaign for children would win. American voters believe — by a 6-to-1 margin — that we spend too little on the health, safety and well-being of children, according to a national poll from Lake Research Partners. The same voters said they support expanding the child tax credit by 72% to 21%, and that that support crosses party lines.

Putting children first has worked in the past for the hundred-plus members of Congress who continue to be elected at least in part by putting children first. Donors have also noticed that children are a winning platform and have begun forming political action committees that support child-friendly candidates.

We call on all 2024 candidates, up and down the ballot, to follow suit. And we call on voters – in every state, in every district – to insist that children come first.

Annie Andrews is a pediatrician, gun violence prevention advocate and founder of Their Future PAC. In 2022, she was the Democratic nominee for South Carolina’s First Congressional District. Bruce Lesley is president of First Focus on Children, an advocacy organization committed to making children a priority in federal budget and policy decisions. They wrote this for InsideSources.com.