Vice President Kamala Harris, now the clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, may need strong support from Gen Z voters if she hopes to defeat former President Donald Trump in November.
Many Gen Z voters, a group that includes those ages 18 to 27, will be casting their first ballots in this year’s election. While younger voters have historically supported Democratic candidates more often than Republicans, some polling of a still-hypothetical Trump-Harris contest has suggested that the coming election could be different.
A Quinnipiac University poll conducted from July 19 to July 21, ending on the day that President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, found that Trump was leading the vice president by a massive 19 points, 58 percent to 39 percent, among voters ages 18 to 34—which includes Gen Zers and some millennials.
However, polling on a Trump-Harris matchup has been limited and some surveys reveal wildly different results. A Civiqs tracking poll conducted over two weeks through July 21 found that voters ages 18 to 34 prefer Harris over Trump by 20 points, with 57 percent of respondents favoring Harris and 37 percent backing Trump.
A Marist/NPR/PBS News poll conducted on Monday found that Harris had a 47 percent to 42 percent lead over Trump among Gen Z and millennial voters. Polling data measuring the preferences of Gen Z alone remains elusive.
Grant Davis Reheer, professor of political science at Syracuse University, told Newsweek via email that he was “surprised” by the Quinnipiac poll result, which was conducted over the phone, a form of communication that many young people may avoid in favor of text messaging.
Reheer predicted that Harris would soon improve her standing among Gen Z voters, explaining that “as she becomes well known in the coming weeks, the difference in ages between the two candidates will be apparent, and she will have an opportunity to communicate her positions on the issues that this demographic cares most about.”
Harris has already received an unlikely but potentially influential endorsement from Gen Z favorite Charli XCX. The British pop star wrote that “Kamala IS brat” on Sunday in a post to X, formerly Twitter, a reference to her album Brat.
The idea of a “brat summer” has recently gone viral online among Gen Z. Charli XCX has described “brat” as “that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes” but “kind of like parties through it [and] is very honest, very blunt.”
The Harris campaign has embraced the endorsement, with Kamala HQ, the vice president’s official campaign account on multiple social media platforms, setting its cover photo in the style of the Brat album.
Dan Lamb, senior lecturer at the Brooks School of Public Policy at Cornell University, said that Biden’s endorsement of Harris “resets the dynamics of the race” in an email to Newsweek, while adding that the president’s “repeated references to Harris as ‘kid’ this week emphasizes a generational change at the top of the ticket.”
“Harris had sure-footed rollout this week with her pointed speeches and her contrast with Trump in style and substance,” Lamb said. “She is earning social media buzz with viral memes about being ‘brat’ and ‘coconuts’ that connect with younger voters.”
“In 2020, young voters heavily favored Biden/Harris and led all groups in terms of increased turnout over 2016,” he continued. “To reach the same level of support, the Harris campaign will likely emphasize issues younger voters care about like healthcare, housing, jobs, reproductive rights, gun safety, and climate change.”
Political analyst Craig Agranoff told Newsweek via text message that Harris “has the potential to significantly connect with Gen-Z voters through her use of social media and her stance on key issues that resonate with younger generations.”
“To enhance her reach, she should focus on more interactive and authentic engagement methods,” said Agranoff. “This could include hosting virtual town halls, participating in popular Gen-Z platforms like TikTok, and collaborating with influencers who have a strong following among young voters.”
“Additionally, addressing issues in a relatable and straightforward manner, and showing a genuine understanding of Gen-Z concerns, will help bridge the gap and build stronger connections with this demographic,” he added.
Enthusiasm and voter turnout among Gen Z voters could have a major impact on an election that may be decided, like previous contests, by a relatively small number of votes in key battleground states.
“The big question for this demographic is turnout,” Reheer said. “The demographic has the lowest turnout of all the age groups. Democrats have for a while now tried to appeal to and mobilize this age group, with some success, depending on the candidate. Can Kamala Harris replicate Barack Obama‘s success, at least in limited fashion? That’s the big question.”
“One of the interesting things about this situation is that the country knows Trump very well, and the same for Biden,” he added. “Enter into that a relatively unknown quality at, if not the eleventh, then the tenth hour, and it all becomes far less predictable.”
Polls have recently suggested that there is a widening gap in the political leanings of Gen Z depending on gender, with women becoming more liberal and men becoming more conservative. Reheer said that Harris’ “historic” candidacy would likely “appeal to the women and non-white voters in this age group.”
D. Stephen Voss, professor of political science at the University of Kentucky, told Newsweek via email that “most analysis of politics through a generational lens exaggerates the generation gap within particular demographic groups,” while arguing that political divisions are better explained by “race and ethnicity” across all age groups.
Voss went on to say that if the Harris campaign wants to specifically appeal to Gen Z, she could use rhetoric that plays into the group’s “high degree of anxiety” and “greater degree of moralism” when compared to slightly older millennials.
“The superhero-movie rhetoric that Joe Biden used in 2020—talk of battles between light and darkness—seems tailored to younger voters and Harris might want to mimic it,” Voss said. “Already we’re seeing artwork portraying Harris as a superhero, consistent with the Good versus Evil messaging Democrats wielded against Trump last go round.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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