ANALYSIS | Many Young Adults Support Harris, But Will They Show up to Vote?

Photo Credit: NPR

After what The Economist described as a “disastrous debate performance” by President Joe Biden on June 27, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the 2024 Democratic nominee. Within just 24 hours, all 50 state Democratic party chairs gave their endorsement. 

As described by Policy Magazine, “The game was over before it began,” and a new campaign for the Democratic party quickly began. Former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, and former First Lady Michelle Obama have all endorsed Harris. Now, many young adults are joining the ranks of Harris supporters.

Prior to her candidacy for the 2024 US election, Harris served as Attorney General of California from 2011 to 2017, when she began her term as a senator for the state in Washington. In 2021, she was elected the 49th vice president of the US, becoming the first woman and person of colour to serve in the role.

Way to Win, a political strategy group with a “data-based approach to political funding” identified and surveyed a group of young voters to examine how they felt about the country’s direction, its electoral process, and the candidates before them. The survey was conducted prior to Biden dropping out of the race. 

The common themes identified were that young voters feel a lack of control in regards to larger scale societal issues, including the economy and the high cost of living.

“You’d see over and over again, just how young people do feel powerless and out of control, regarding their finances, their own ability to provide themselves, health care, and just the state of the world. That is something that [persists] and is still a thing we have speak to,” said Way to Win co-founder and Vice President Jenifer Fernandez Ancona in an interview with Vox. 

When asked about what issues matter most to them, the top issues that emerged among young voters were: the cost of living/economy, abortion/reproductive rights, democracy, education, and gun violence.

“What we see in the data is that Harris is almost kind of the ideal candidate for them, because [she presents] the three things that [young people] said they wanted most: authenticity, actionable policies, and a change from the status quo,” said Ancona.

The survey also found that young Americans often use social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram for news and current events, suggesting that social media has potential for reaching prospective voters.

On May 10, 2023, Harris spoke at a swearing-in ceremony of commissioners for an initiative focused on expanding the educational opportunities of Hispanic and Latino Americans. During the ceremony, Harris stated that establishing equity for Hispanic and Latino children is vital, highlighting the disparities for Hispanic and Latino Americans, who don't necessarily start out at the same base. 

“How are we approaching this issue in a way that we also understand we cannot support and help our young people if we don't also look at the context in which those young people live and are being raised?" said Harris. "My mother…she would give us a hard time sometimes — and she would say to us, 'I don't know what's wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?' You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you." 

For Harris, the daughter of two immigrants, the issue carries personal significance. Her mother was born in Chennai, India and her father in Saint Ann’s Bay, Jamaica. If elected, Harris will be the first woman and first woman of colour to be president of the United States. 

After Harris shared the coconut tree anecdote, multiple videos were made on various social media platforms. A viral meme created by Ryan Long, a 22-year-old college student who paired clips of Harris with the music from Charli XCX’s newest album, Brat. From coconut memes to coconut emojis, coconuts have become synonymous with Harris’ campaign. 

Though the deeper contextual meaning behind the anecdote may have become lost in online rhetoric, it has brought attention to Harris’ presidential campaign from young adults, who’ve viewed the coconut tree videos on social media countless times.

One TikTok user commented on the coconut tree and Charli XCX mashup saying, “If Kamala [...] wins, historians will have to study the significance of what this edit did for America.”

Harris’ deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in an interview with CNN that the “digital team’s goal is to convert the organic excitement about her candidacy into volunteers, donors and simply getting more people to post about Harris — from professional content creators to everyday supporters.” 

Even Harris’ team has joined in on the media craze through a combination of posts on TikTok, Instagram, X, and Facebook. @KamalaHQ on TikTok has been growing rapidly, currently sitting at over 200 million likes and 4.9 million followers. 

Sohali Vaddula, national director of communications for the College Democrats of America, told CNN that memes of Harris make her seem more “relatable.”

“It just makes people feel like she's one of us, like we're not too far off from her. And it also just resonates with us better,” Vaddula said. “Politics is difficult. All of these policy issues or things that are going on can be really heavy sometimes, and adding memes to that kind of just makes it a little bit more lighthearted.”

Though it may seem that young people’s excitement surrounding Harris’ campaign is going to tip the scales on election day, there isn’t much evidence to support the claim. Low youth voter turnout in past US elections, however, has been well documented.                                             

According to an October 2024 Times/Siena Poll of the National Likely Electorate, 57 per cent of people aged 18–29 said they would vote for Harris. However, when the same group was asked about their likelihood to vote, 54 per cent of respondents said they would almost certainly vote, while 33 per cent said they would very likely vote in the Nov. 5 election.

In past US elections, youth voter turnout has consistently been the lowest of all age groups. According to The New York Times, fewer than half of Americans aged 18-29 voted in the 2016 presidential election. 

John B. Holbein, a public policy professor and author of Making Young Voters, found that even young people who are interested in voting often don’t follow through on their intentions. 

For example, many young people lack confidence in their ability to navigate the voting process for the first time. Just registering to vote can be a complex task. Others say that with their busy lives, voting simply falls by the wayside.

Data from the US Census Bureau found that only 40 per cent of young people were registered to vote for the 2022 midterm election. Programs that help young people register to vote aim to address this discrepancy. 

According to data from the University of Chicago Press Journal, same-day registration helps young people who frequently change their address, and infrequently interact with government agencies that provide registration services. Some states also provide 16 and 17-year-olds the chance to preregister before they turn 18.