Students danced in the hallways and in their seats in the Hampton University auditorium long before Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage for the first stop of her fall college tour.
Jaden Clemons and Layth Carpenter, both 18-year-old freshmen, said they viewed Harris as “authentic” and “relatable” as graduates of Howard University, another historically black school.
But neither was willing to commit to supporting Harris and Joe Biden next year, the first time they will be eligible to vote in a presidential election. And when it comes to lining up behind Democrats or Republicans, Clemons said, “We don’t even feel like we have to choose.”
Pulling students like these two off the sidelines is one of the biggest challenges facing the White House as Biden seeks a second term as the oldest president in American history, and Harris will have to rise to that challenge when she meets in the coming weeks commutes between campuses. Although young people lean left, they are less likely to vote, and preventing them from tuning out is crucial in tight races where votes are at stake.
And Biden isn’t the only candidate trying to win the support of young voters. Former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in his comeback bid for the White House, visited Iowa State University last weekend.
During a barbecue at Alpha Gamma Rho, an agricultural science fraternity, he threw autographed footballs into a cheering crowd and then attended the football game against rival Iowa State.
“I guess the youth like Trump,” he said.
John Brabender, a media adviser for the Trump campaign, said the former president tried to show up at events that resulted in videos on social media – such as Trump’s appearance at a mixed martial arts fight in Las Vegas in July .
With YouTube and TikTok being important platforms for young people, he said: “Our goal is to ensure that content is created interesting enough to be shared.”
It can be difficult to capture the attention of young people, but Trump’s celebrity remains strong. One of the few things Isaac Gavin, a 21-year-old graduate of Drake University in Des Moines, knows about the Republican primary is that Trump is a candidate again.
“I don’t even know everyone who is running. There seem to be so many,” he said. “It is confusing.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican who announced his retirement this week, told reporters at the U.S. Capitol that he doubted Trump could gain traction with a new generation.
“My party will only succeed in winning young people over if we talk about the future,” he said. “And that hasn’t happened yet.”
According to AP VoteCast, Biden won 61% of voters ages 18 to 29 in 2020, making young voters a crucial part of his coalition. However, according to a new AP-NORC poll, his approval rating within that age group is now 29%, compared to 40% overall.
At Hampton, Harris said, there was too much at stake — abortion, voting rights, gun control — for students to miss their chance to shape the country’s future.
“What worries me sometimes is that our young leaders are told that their voice doesn’t matter,” she told the audience. “Because you voted,” Harris added, “Joe Biden is president and I am vice president of the United States.”
Harris’ college tour — with another stop Friday at North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, N.C. — is part of a broader strategy.
The White House has worked with online influencers to reach people who don’t rely on traditional media. The Democratic National Committee is also building a network of student volunteers to organize on college campuses, and they hung banners over football games to push for voter registration.
“As Democrats did in 2020 and 2022, we will meet younger Americans where they are and put their energy into action as part of our winning coalition in 2024,” said Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for the Biden campaign .
Given the liberal attitudes of younger voters, Democrats’ competition is not always from Republicans, but from apathy or the lure of a third party. John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, said the White House needs to reach out to people who tend to be politically reserved so they know what Biden has accomplished since taking office.
“It’s just an incredibly challenging environment to get that message across,” said Della Volpe, who worked on Biden’s 2020 campaign. “And when these things are not understood, cynicism grows.”
Destiny Humphreys, a 22-year-old graduate of South Carolina State University, said she fears politicians will always say they will “listen to the people” only to back down once they assume a position of power.
“Everyone always says the same thing, just in different ways, but ultimately they don’t listen to people,” she said.
On Thursday, Harris repeatedly tried to demonstrate that she understood the concerns of young voters. She said they taught her about “climate anxiety” and her fears about a warming world.
At another point, she asked how many students in her schools had participated in active shooter drills, and a sea of hands went up. Older people, Harris said, “don’t get it.”
Harris acknowledged that the White House has faced obstacles, such as the U.S. Supreme Court decision that undermined his debt relief plan. But she said she would not stop fighting for the government’s agenda.
“I like to say, ‘I eat ‘no’ for breakfast,” she said. “I don’t hear ‘no’.”
Harris ended with a cry for help. “With each generation we must fight for our rights and freedoms,” she said. “So just stay active. Because I and your country are counting on you.”
After the event, Carpenter said she felt Harris “sidestepped” students’ questions and blamed the problems on Congress.
But Clemons might be convinced. Biden and Harris are “strong candidates in my eyes,” he said, “largely based on what I saw today.”
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