Kamala Harris has Gen Z appeal among young voters looking for change

“All they know is Trump or Biden,” said 27-year-old Rep. Maxwell Frost of young voters eager to help Kamala Harris make American history as the first female president.

There was a wave of energy among young voters who were eager for the chance to make Kamala Harris the first female president in US history, as well as the first black female president and the first president from South Asia.

Some are even comparing it to how Millennial voters felt when Barack Obama was elected in 2008. Angela Demas, 21, of East Lansing, Michigan, says she remembers hearing about that excitement as a child.

“I definitely saw a lot of people excited and ready for change,” said Demas, who is running for local office in 2024. “I think that’s come to the fore again now that Kamala Harris is running.”

The connections between Harris and Obama immediately emerged on social media when President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would step down from his own reelection campaign and instead endorse his vice president in the race for the White House against Republican Donald Trump. Memes were shared hundreds of thousands of times. People remixed her old speeches, her laughs, her dance moves.

Harris’ campaign has also embraced it, albeit cautiously.

It’s too early to tell whether the excitement around Harris will translate from social media to the November ballot. But early indicators show she is energizing a group of Americans who were cold to the Democratic administration’s reelection prospects earlier this year over a long list of grievances, including worries about climate change, inflation and Israel’s war in Gaza. Many had previously told USA TODAY that they were considering not voting or drifting toward the Republican ticket, which now includes Trump, 78, and J.D. Vance, 39.

“All they know is Trump or Biden,” Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., currently the youngest member of Congress at 27, told USA TODAY. “A lot of them weren’t born during Obama and a lot of them were too young, they don’t remember. So 100 percent, for a lot of them, this is the first time they’ve felt hope on that level.”

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who was also the youngest member of Congress when she was elected, recounted in an interview how she was a teenager when the 47-year-old Obama won the White House in 2008.

“I can totally see how some people feel the same way, and that this is a similar turning point. Not only the fact that we’re actually talking about the possibility of the first woman being elected president of the United States, and a woman of color at that, and No less of a black woman, no less of an Indian, Caribbean descent as well,” she said. “It’s very exciting and empowering for a lot of people.”

Converting that excitement into votes will be crucial, said Hans Riemer, who was Obama’s national youth vote director in the 2008 general election campaign against John McCain, then a 72-year-old Republican senator from Arizona. Young voters have become a crucial voting bloc, he said.

“Joe Biden’s inability to close the deal with young voters contributed to his position in the election, and Harris has the potential to generate a lot of interest there, and it could be a critical part of her majority,” Riemer said. “Trump did much better with young voters and with voters of color than any Republican candidate has done in a long time, and in many polls that’s the difference between Trump’s margin of victory, or at least a big part of it. So if Kamala can keep Biden voters and attract young voters, voters of color who went to Trump, she’s going to win.”

For Obama, it all happened organically. The first-generation iPhone came out in the summer of 2007, in the midst of an intense Democratic primary battle with Hillary Clinton and Biden. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter were still relatively new and gaining popularity. Young voters were confident that they could change the outcome of the election by voting for him.

“That was the coRe,” Riemer said. “They believed in their power. Barack Obama believed in them, and told them that over and over again, and they responded. And you have to have that kind of environment for young voters to feel like they have a sense of empowerment, impact, and a candidate who believes in it, frankly.”

Harris still has an online community of supporters left over from her 2019 presidential campaign: the KHive.

The Trump campaign has also made a heavy appeal to younger voters this cycle, and some polls have shown the effort is paying off. A March poll from the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics found that while Biden led among young voters, Trumps were more eager to vote for him.

“Poll shows President Trump crushing Kamala Harris among young voters,” said Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung, without citing a specific poll.

Early indicators

There are already early indications that a change is underway.

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of NextGen America, said Harris often polls “very highly” among young voters, even if Biden’s approval isn’t as high among the same generation.

But after all the excitement the vice president has already garnered, especially with viral memes online, Tzintzún Ramirez said she would “bet all my savings” on Harris polling well with young voters.

“This is the most diverse generation in American history, so I think a lot of young people will relate to her story,” she said. “We think that will really increase the motivation of young people to participate in this election, and also voters of color.”

Vote.org, a nonpartisan voter registration organization, reported Wednesday that in the 48 hours following Biden’s announcement, there had been a nearly 700% increase in daily voter registrations — more than 38,500 new registrations.

Voters between the ages of 18 and 34 accounted for 83% of new registrations.

Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) said people recognize the opportunity to vote for hope, just as he did in 2008.

“A lot of young people were just demoralized about what their future held and now they see a candidate that I think is a good fit for them,” said Swalwell, a 43-year-old congressman who ran against both Biden and Harris in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Harris has spoken on 12 college campuses since the Supreme Court struck down abortion protections under Roe v. Wade. She has already become a familiar face to younger voters, Swalwell said.

“She’s not new to this. She’s not like Johnny who’s been hanging out with young people lately. She’s pretty well-versed in what they care about,” he said.

Votes of voters

Taino Moreno, 17, was attending a donor event for California State Senate member Dave Min when he heard the news that Biden had withdrawn from the election.

In the fall, he will attend Harris’ alma mater, Howard University.

“I grew up with a black president and I was excited,” Moreno said. “I felt like I could do that… I haven’t had that feeling since I was a little boy.

Briana Lee, 18, a freshman at UC Berkeley who lives in Huntington Beach, California, was 2 years old when Barack Obama was elected president.

“Young people have experienced the most political apathy in terms of not wanting to vote and as we saw Trump and Biden go head to head in 2020, I know a lot of people said they didn’t want that rematch,” Lee said. “I think it has a lot of potential to re-energize that youth voter base.”

Justyn Kelly, 21, a political economy major at USC in Los Angeles, has voted in the 2022 midterm elections, his first time running for president.

“I’m very excited to vote for someone who – and will be, I’m going to put that out there: the first female president of the United States.”

-Rebecca Morin, Karissa Waddick in Washington contributed to this article