In the weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign, many of Rebecca Wilson’s friends have undergone a “total 360” on their interest in the 2024 election.
Wilson, a 20-year-old native of Allentown, Pa., has been involved in politics in her home state as well as Wisconsin and Georgia. She said in an interview that President Joe Biden’s departure from the presidential race was a complete reset. But she also said many of the people she’s talked to are more excited by the prospect of Harris as a candidate than by her actual policy stances, which are still being rolled out.
It’s a theme that arose in interviews with a number of young Democrats from pivotal swing states in recent days. When asked about key differences between Harris and Biden that excited young voters, some didn’t point to clearly defined policy areas, and those who did only cited one potential difference. It’s seemingly indicative of Harris’ evolving effort to define herself as a presidential candidate in the face of a short window to turn enthusiasm into votes.
Those Democrats also corroborated a surge in interest since Harris launched her campaign, one that has been statistically documented: A Pew Research Center poll from earlier this month saw 57 percent of voters under 30 backing Harris, a jump from the 48 percent support Biden received in July. But as Harris continues to release her agenda, it’s unclear what role her policies will play on the campaign trail.
“I don’t think when she launched her campaign that she’s done the best job at really highlighting some of her key policies,” Wilson said. “Most of the youth I’ve talked with more have honed in on Walz’s policy and really just the fact that Kamala is not an old white man, and she’s young and energetic.”
Economic policy rollout
Harris has started to lay out some policies, filling out her nascent candidacy. She shared a series of economic plans on Friday, and Democrats approved their 2024 platform on Monday. For some in-the-know voters, like 21-year-old Sloan Duvall, these policy announcements indicate the direction the Harris campaign is headed.
Duvall, who is the president of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill College Democrats, said she’s particularly excited about the benefits of Harris’ proposed housing plan, as it provides a $25,000 down payment incentive for first-time homebuyers. But those newly released economic plans were the only example she cited when asked about the daylight between Harris and Biden on policy.
Deon Canon, a 27-year-old delegate at the Democratic National Convention from Milwaukee, echoed Duvall’s enthusiasm for Harris’ economic proposals, citing a proposed $6,000 child tax credit, though he admitted he’s been preoccupied with convention prep and hasn’t fully familiarized himself with the platform. He also emphasized that Harris will continue to define her candidacy.
“It’s just an exciting time period as she begins to develop, what does the Harris-Walz administration look like?” he said. “She has the opportunity to shape that.”
War in Gaza holds attention
Madison Tiaffay, a rising junior at Emory University in Georgia, said she’s hopeful about Harris’ stance on the war in Gaza that has killed more than an estimated 40,000 Palestinians. She cited Harris’ decision to skip Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, her tendency to speak about the impact of the war on Gaza civilians more than Biden and her shifted language in her responses to protesters at her rallies.
“The war in Gaza was a pretty huge sticking point for a lot of young voters — I think it still is — and I think she needs to cater towards that more,” Tiaffay, who has been an executive board member of Emory Young Democrats, said. She said the conflict was the clearest avenue she could think of for Harris to differentiate herself from Biden.
That push has also been on display both inside and outside the convention: 30 uncommitted delegates are hoping to encourage change from within the convention, while thousands have taken to the Chicago streets to oppose U.S. support of Israel.
But the party remains split on the measures the government should take in the region.
Wilson, who is Jewish, said she hopes to see Harris strike a balancing act when she speaks about the conflict in the region. Violence is not the answer and people in Gaza should be safe, she said, but she also thinks Harris needs to prioritize the hostages held by Hamas, address rising antisemitism and be conscious of the Jewish vote.
The party platform backs the Biden administration’s efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the region, while characterizing Israel’s right to defend itself as “ironclad.”
From excitement to votes
To be certain, Harris is still in the early stages of her presidential campaign, which launched weeks before the convention. Some delegates emphasized the Biden administration’s record when asked about Harris policies that excited them. But the younger Democrats’ surge in enthusiasm around Harris largely remains vibe-based, with some recent exceptions, rather than policy-based.
That excitement, which is tied to conversations of young voter turnout, is just the latest iteration of a narrative about young voters’ influence on election results, according to John Holbein, an associate professor at the University of Virginia’s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy.
It’s a “common theme” in modern elections that young people show high levels of interest, he said. But that hasn’t translated into votes cast. In every election since 2012, voters under 30 have seen the lowest voter participation rate of any age group, according to analyses of historical voting data from the nonpartisan Washington-based Brookings Institution.
To transform excitement into momentum, Democrats must address the hurdles facing young voters, Holbein said. Those issues stem from factors like inexperience with the voter registration process, he said, coupled with restrictive voter registration and identification laws.
“I’m going to be looking for the campaign to actually invest resources into helping young people follow through and vote instead of just interest-based appeals trying to make voting hip or cool or trendy,” Holbein said. “I want to see if the campaigns will actually do something to help young people overcome registration and voting barriers.”
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