Unequal political participation increasingly challenges democracies. This turnout gap is particularly large among younger voters – with severe implications for future developments of democratic representation, legitimacy, and quality. This article focuses on the role of political efficacy in explaining unequal turnout among newly enfranchised citizens. We argue that internal political efficacy is particularly important for turnout among the newly enfranchised from lower class backgrounds as they lack alternative mobilizing factors – such as politically aware and active parents, political knowledge, and mobilizing networks. Furthermore, we argue that once they successfully turned out in their first election, they are as likely as those from higher class backgrounds to turn out in their second election. We empirically test these arguments using original longitudinal data on newly enfranchised citizens from three German Federal States (Bundesländer). Overall, our results support the argument: Internal efficacy is a stronger predictor of first turnout among young adults from disadvantaged backgrounds compared to those from more advantaged backgrounds; but those who did turn out are as likely to turn out in their second election as those with higher class backgrounds. This highlights the relevance of political efficacy in the (re-)production of persisting political inequality.