September 30, 2024
How Kamala Harris Can Win More Young Voters
By Evan Robins
With fewer than 50 days left until the election, the Harris campaign faces the challenge of ensuring that its momentum among young people goes beyond memes.
Darby Creegan, a rising junior at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, said she felt dread before Biden stepped down. While she would have supported him, she says, faced with the choice between Biden and Donald Trump, it wouldn’t have been an easy vote.
But with Kamala Harris as the official Democratic nominee (and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate), she’s hopeful that Democrats now have a shot. “I hope that Kamala being younger will mean that her campaign will be a little bit readier to engage with Gen Z. For many of us, this is our first presidential election that we can vote in,” said Creegan, who works to register voters through the school organization SwatVotes. “I think having her on the ballot already is very galvanizing.”
The aftermath of Biden’s withdrawal and his immediate endorsement of Harris caused mayhem on social media platforms like X and TikTok. Jokes about coconut trees, and references to Charli XCX’s new album Brat filled the timeline. Even Harris’s official campaign team joined in.
But for Jessika Landon, the director of communications at the youth-led organization 18by Vote, it will take much more than trending social media memes to get Harris into the Oval Office. “I find that this momentum is often hard to keep,” Landon said. “Relatable marketing can become stale quickly, and can be seen as ‘cringe’ in almost the blink of an eye. As somebody who has been in the social media/marketing game for a long time, and as a civically engaged member of Gen Z, I think it will be tricky for candidates and organizations (including our own) to keep such high results until November. But I have hope.”
