Enthusiasm among young voters has skyrocketed since President Joe Biden stepped down from his candidacy for a second term and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris.
Members of a coalition of youth voter groups said Thursday they’ve raised record amounts of money and seen spikes in chapter signups and voter registrations less than two weeks after Harris began her campaign.
“How young voters are feeling right now and what we’re hearing on the ground, it’s honestly excitement,” said Jessica Siles, deputy press secretary for Voters of Tomorrow — a group that encourages Gen Z individuals to become more politically engaged.
Siles said the group raised $125,000 the day Harris announced she was running for president and saw more applications to join their chapters in the three days following the announcement than the two months prior.
The group plans to make 20 million contacts with young voters on college campuses and by phone and text “to ride this momentum” before November.
Garrett Readling, communications director for the Young Democrats of North Carolina, said Harris is “the perfect person to meet the challenges ahead of us,” including gun violence, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, healthcare and income inequality.
“Since young people my age have been engaged in politics, things have been bad,” he said. “It’s been an environment where it’s really easy to be jaded. Where we reach people the best is by giving them something to believe in and something that’s good and genuine. And I think Vice President Harris is doing exactly that.”
Echoing the campaign of former President Barack Obama, “hope” is the word most often used to describe Harris, former 2020 Harris for President campaign worker Deja Foxx said.
“Young people are telling me that they feel hope for the first time in a long time,” said Foxx, 24, who is an Arizona native. “They are really interested in knowing who she is and where she comes from. She feels like a real person.”
Foxx said young people in battleground states, especially people of color, who already planned to vote are energized and excited.
“We’re seeing young people moving from voters into full-on surrogates” for Harris, she said.
Siles said young voters don’t stay up for hours editing fan cams about candidates they don’t care about.
“Memes are a Gen Z love language,” Siles said, referring to the viral brat and coconut tree memes about Harris that took social media by storm last week, racking up millions of views.
To build on the momentum for Harris in the lead up to Election Day, Voters of Tomorrow announced Thursday it has partnered with Power to the Polls to recruit Gen Z poll workers.
“With under 100 days until one of the most pivotal elections of our lifetimes, we need dedicated, trained poll workers to ensure it remains safe, secure and accessible,” Voters of Tomorrow Executive Director Santiago Mayer said in a statement.
“Donald Trump attacks election workers and undermines trust in our elections. He wants to stop young people and Black and brown people from voting," he said "But Gen Z is ready to step up and strengthen our democracy.”