Kamala Harris wants to unleash a young voter tsunami. But will her plan work?
CHICAGO — The "brat"-themed branding reverberating this summer through Gen Z also rocked the 2024 Democratic National Convention as candidates and organizations rally young voters — many participating in their first election — to Kamala Harris’ cause.
Young voters stand to be a critical bloc in the 2024 presidential election, particularly in swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia. Here, vote margins in thousands — even hundreds — could determine whether Harris or Republican nominee Donald Trump wins the White House.
And Harris has work to do during the presidential election’s final weeks, particularly among young men, who continue to prefer Trump in significant numbers.
But Team Harris has a playbook, and the Democratic National Convention was ground zero for its unveiling.
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NextGen America, the nation’s largest youth voting organization, boasted a lime-green setup at DemPalooza inspired by British pop singer Charli XCX’s ‘brat’ album. One of Harris’ most viral endorsements so far: Charli’s July 21 tweet proclaiming “kamala IS brat.”
Emily Slatkow, NextGen’s communications director, said the group, which works to register, educate and mobilize Gen Z voters, is leaning heavily into social media marketing inspired by memes and pop culture. She said the organization has seen more than a 200 percent increase in volunteer sign-ups in the weeks since Harris took President Joe Biden’s spot on the Democratic ticket.
“We saw the enthusiasm, the engagement online and on our social content, and our field team even saw folks approaching them excited and eager to register to vote,” she said. “We have really seen that enthusiasm just take over from the end of July going forward.”
Sunjay Muralitharan, 19, is the national vice president of College Democrats of America, a student at the University of California, San Diego — and a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention. He believes the Democratic Party “made the right choice” in having Biden step aside.
He’s noticed that a lot of his peers are “very impressed” with the Harris’ campaign’s social media outreach to young voters.
“They're venturing into Tiktok, into Instagram, into Twitter and all these social media platforms to actually connect with young voters. I think this speaks volumes, because the only way for them to do this well is to put young people in power within the campaign — to allow them to make consequential decisions in reaching their own constituency,” he said.
Harris’ spot at the top of the Democratic ticket “proves what is possible,” Muralitharan said, and “speaks to what our nation is.”
Young Americans were among the supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris at a presidential campaign rally on Aug. 10, 2024, at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz. (Gage Skidmore)
“Our nation is a nation of immigrants. Especially our generation, Gen Z, nearly half of our eligible voters are immigrants and are minorities,” he said. “Having someone that looks like us displays that anything is possible within this country. Harris rising to the top of the ticket kind of inspires millions of Americans who don't conventionally see themselves in positions of power.”
Hailee Clack, a member of NextGen’s Leaders Lab, is a 21-year-old delegate representing Flint, Mich., who, as a young Black woman, says Harris inspires her.
“There's a certain type of freshness and excitement surrounding Kamala,” she said. “We’re revved up and we feel like our voices are truly being heard this time. It's almost like it's 2008 and 2012 again.”
“I'm from Flint,” she added, underscoring the challenges a decade after a public health crisis revealed lead and other contamination in the drinking water. “Being a young person from Flint in this area is very crucial, so I can make sure that my city is being heard.”
She urged young people to vote, saying “your vote does matter.”
“I know a lot of people feel like it doesn't matter if they vote or not, but it really does,” she said. “A lot of (swing) states end up winning by a small margin of error — two to three thousand votes, maybe even a thousand — but that could just be a few more doors being knocked on.”
Alexandre Burgos, 26, a Latino, LGBTQ+, first-time, at-large delegate from Buffalo, N.Y., agrees.
“I know the outcome of the election and the fate of our country lies in our hands,” Burgos said.
Justin Meszler, a 20-year-old delegate representing Massachusetts' 4th District and student at Brown University, serves as National Programming Director of Voters of Tomorrow, an organization mobilizing Gen Z’s political engagement.
He said Voters of Tomorrow has witnessed young people becoming “more motivated to vote” when the organization educates them about Harris and what she stands for.
“Young people are not apathetic about politics, but for too long we have not seen government meet the moment of the challenges facing our generation,” he said. “Harris brings hope and joy and a renewed energy to the political arena, and young people are fired up.”
Muralitharan said he plans to rally young voters by focusing on how Harris “has clear priorities that align closely with us.”
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“Fighting for housing affordability, cracking down on major corporations, acquiring homes in masses, policies like reproductive rights or climate habitability,” he said. “Things like that, that are integral to the priorities of youth.”
One issue that’s particularly important to 19-year-old delegate Jack Chrismon “as a gay person living in the state of Texas,” he said, is the Affordable Care Act.
“It’s because of pre-exposure prophylaxis, which prevents me from contracting HIV,” he said. “Prior to the Affordable Care Act adopting it as a medication that is of essential use for preventing the spread of communicable diseases, it would have cost me $6,000 every three months. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, it is free for me, but that could be undone under Project 2025.”
Chrismon is a rising sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. He said the Harris campaign is targeting his university as a key location in Texas.
“Because of how dense our student population is and the relatively higher turnout compared to other campuses, Travis County has the highest voter registration rate of any county in Texas. so We have a lot of voters compared to maybe some other campuses around the nation,” he said.
“People are a lot more enthusiastic about this year's election than they were even two months ago. We're expecting higher voter turnout on campus this year than ever before,” Chrismon added.
Chrismon mentioned a trend of young voters expressing dissatisfaction at having to pick “between the lesser of two evils.”
“I feel that a lot of the youth anguish with that issue was especially inflamed by the current war in Gaza,” he said. “Harris is more progressive on Gaza policy than Biden. So I definitely do think now it's less of a question of the lesser of two evils for a lot of young people. And from what I've seen on the internet and in real life, young people are a lot more enthusiastic about voting for Harris now.”
A party divided
Harris can hardly afford to take young voters for granted.
Some young Americans gathered this week in Chicago said they lack enthusiasm for Harris for the same reason they did for Biden: Israel’s 10-month-long war on Hamas.
Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Union Park and marched to the site of the convention Monday. Protests continued throughout the week, with 55 to 60 people arrested Tuesday night following clashes with police.
Because many protesters say they believe Biden and Harris are complicit in the killings of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, they plan not to vote for Harris in November, even if that has the practical effect of helping Trump, who has made clear his support for Israel’s military effort.
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“It’s important for our politicians to know that they can't have a milquetoast approach towards the conflict in Palestine right now. Like, inaction is one of the worst actions that you could be taking,” said Cameron Crans, a protestor from Seattle. “Maintaining the status quo doesn't make you a progressive politician.”
Protesters expressed anger at the idea of their taxpayer dollars paying for the deaths of civilians in Gaza. Last Tuesday, the U.S. approved another $20 billion in weapons sales to Israel.
“I'm frustrated where my tax dollars are going,” said Kevin Lily, a protestor from Chicago. “I mean, there's people experiencing homelessness, people without health care, people who are really struggling here, and we're sending billions of dollars to a genocidal state the size of New Jersey.
Lily added: “I want to see action. Feeling sorry and understanding all that — that's cute, but like, people are really dying. So I need to see some action behind those words.”
Sean Duffy, a protester and co-chair of Chicago’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter, also said his decision to vote is contingent on Harris’ policy regarding the war.
Peeling and torn Kamala Harris Forward posters on an abandoned building on the West Side of Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. (John Ruberry / Shutterstock)
“Vice President Harris would not only win my vote, but I will go knock doors in Michigan and in Wisconsin, which is just a short car ride away, if she commits today to a full arms embargo to military aid to Israel,” Duffy said. “If she doesn't do that, she'd risk losing the election to Donald Trump … there’s a lot of folks who might stay home if they see that Kamala Harris is going to continue the terrible policies and Palestine of Biden's administration.”
The annual Harvard Youth Poll, which surveys Americans aged 18-29 and was published in April, found that out of 16 ranked issues, the Israel-Palestine conflict was of 15th most importance to young voters. Inflation, housing and healthcare were the top three most pressing issues for youth while student debt, the war in the Middle East and free speech were the least.
An April Pew Research Center survey found that, out of adults younger than 30, just 16 percent favor the U.S. providing military aid to Israel, in contrast to 56 percent of adults 65 and older.
Despite these polling numbers, dedicated American advocates of the Palestinian cause are often extraordinarily vocal about the issue, which has led to significant public attention.
A total of 36 uncommitted Democratic delegates — who earned their place at the Democratic National Convention after more than 740,000 presidential primary voters chose “uncommitted” instead of Biden — share similar goals with pro-Gaza protesters.
They hope threatening the Harris-Walz ticket with a loss of voters would assuage the vice president to implement an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and embargo of arms to Israel.
During her nomination acceptance speech Thursday, Harris both affirmed her commitment to Israel’s right to defend itself and the United States’ support of its military — while at the same time declaring the war in Gaza must end and the carnage of innocent Gazans must stop.
Crans said he thinks Gaza policy is “the most important factor” influencing his decision to vote in November, but still would choose Harris over Trump.
“Being in a two-party system,” he said, “I am still gonna vote for her. If it's between her and Trump, yeah, anything to stop Trump from being in office again.”
Muralitharan acknowledged that there’s “generally a negative apparatus” regarding the narrative of the two-party system being a choice between a “lesser of two evils.”
“But right now, we're witnessing such a stark contrast … it’s historic,” he said. “There's this clear difference between one party who's primarily focused on the ego of one man and another that's focused on the best interests of American people.”