Lauren Gambino in Atlanta
Sat, 27 July 2024
The US vice-president arrives in Westfield, Massachusetts, on 27 July 2024.Photograph: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
Kamala Harris pledged to earn the votes of young people this election, as the vice-president and newly elevated presumptive Democratic nominee rides a gen Z-powered wave of online “Kamalove” .
In a virtual address to attendees of a two-day summit in Atlanta, hosted by the liberal gen Z-led organization Voters of Tomorrow, Harris said she had been elected the first female vice-president of the United States “because young voters showed up” in 2020. She touted “historic progress” made by the Biden-Harris administration on combating gun violence and climate change, all of which she said was again “at stake this November”.
“We know young voters will be key, and we know your vote cannot be taken for granted,” she said in a pre-taped video. “It must be earned, and that is exactly what we will do.”
In the days since Joe Biden ended his presidential re-election campaign and endorsed the vice-president for November’s race against Republican nominee Donald Trump, young supporters have flooded social media with coconut tree video cuts and “brat summer” memes – a reflection of the way her candidacy has jolted a presidential race many Democrats had feared was slipping away.
On the sidelines of the summit, progressive US representative Pramila Jayapal, said the level of enthusiasm she has seen for Harris in the last six days – especially among young people – was “undeniable”.
“I have not seen anything like this,” Jayapal, chair of the Progressive caucus, which was divided over the question of whether Biden should step aside, said in an interview. “The closest was probably Barack Obama.”
Citing the Harris campaign’s record fundraising and a surge of early support, Jayapal said: “But this is even more than that – just the amount of money that’s been raised. The fact that it’s come from grassroots donors, the fact that it’s first-time donors, the volunteers, the voter registration, it has really been palpable.”
Related: ‘I’m rocking with Kamala’: Black men defy faulty polling by showing up for Harris campaign
Jayapal said Harris, who is poised to become the first woman of color to lead a major-party presidential ticket, had a unique opportunity to excite young people as well as Black and brown voters. Harris was also a strong messenger on issues that matter to young people, especially abortion rights, she said.
“On every level, including the fact that she is a prosecutor and she will prosecute the case against a convicted felon, I think this is going to be a candidate that can take us to victory,” Jayapal said.
Doug Jones, a former Alabama senator and a close ally of Biden, said Democrats were desperate to unite after a painful few weeks.
“It has moved not just with lightning speed, but with an enthusiasm that I’ve never seen,” he said in an interview at the conference. “It is extraordinary.”
A handful of new polls this week showed Democrats, with Harris at the top of the ticket, gaining a few points against Trump, with the national race against the former president now neck-and-neck.
A New York Times/Siena poll found Harris up 18 points over Trump among voters under 30, while an Axios/Generation Lab poll showed her opening a 20-point lead over the former president.
Many young people have expressed hope that Harris will distance herself from Biden’s approach to Israel’s war in Gaza.
During a meeting on Thursday, the vice-president said she implored Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire deal that would pause the fighting in Gaza and release hostages. In comments afterward, Harris emphasized Palestinian suffering while also recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself.
“We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies,” Harris said this week. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.”
Jayapal, who was among the roughly 100 House Democrats who boycotted the Israeli prime minister’s address to Congress this week, said it would be “complicated” for Harris to chart her own course while still serving as vice-president.
“I know that she feels a deep empathy for Palestinians,” said Jayapal, who said she had spoken recently to Harris about the issue. Pointing to Harris’s remarks after meeting with Netanyahu this week, the Seattle Democrat said: “I think she was trying to signal that she wants to take a different course – that she wants to perhaps consider things that President Biden hadn’t considered or had decided not to do.”
Jayapal noted that it wasn’t just young people and Arab and Muslim Americans who were pushing the administration to change its approach. Black faith leaders and labor groups have also joined calls for the US to stop sending offensive military aid to Israel.
“I believe she is listening to all of that,” Jayapal said. “How she actually moves, we’re going to have to see.”
Jayapal also weighed in on Harris’s search for a running mate. Her preference is Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, a strong supporter of labor who Jayapal believes would help Democrats hold the midwest. Walz is one of more than a half-dozen candidates viewed as potential running mates.
Trump made his own pitch to young conservatives in Florida, at a conference on faith hosted by the far-right youth advocacy group Turning Point Action. In his remarks on Friday, Trump vowed to “protect Christians in our schools and our military and our government and our workplaces and our hospitals, in our public square”.
He also told the gathering that they would not “have to vote again” if they return him to the presidency in November’s election.
“Christians, get out and vote! Just this time – you won’t have to do it anymore,” he said, denouncing the vice-president as “incompetent”.
Harris, speaking earlier on Saturday at a private fundraiser in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, called the attacks on her by Trump and his running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, “just plain weird”.
Recent polling had shown Republicans making gains with voters under 35 amid widespread disillusionment with the state of American politics, its institutions and its leaders. However, an Axios/Generation Lab poll conducted after Biden stepped down, shows Harris opening a 20-point lead over Trump with young voters.
Youth-led groups that have been calling on Democrats to do more to invest in young people are hopeful Harris can harness this new energy around her campaign. Already, her campaign has leaned in, embracing an excitement Voters of Tomorrow has branded “Kamalove”.
“The thing that’s creating the energy here is Vice-President Harris and the hope that she’s been giving young people and the vision that she wants to accomplish for us,” said Marianna Pecora, the group’s communications director. “Young people are excited and they’re energized and they’re finding politics to be a joyful thing, something that they want to pay attention to for the first time in a long time, and I don’t think that’s momentum that can die with a meme.”
Voters of Tomorrow recently joined with a coalition of 17 youth groups to unite behind Harris. The newly formed alliance aims to boost Harris in the final 100-day stretch before election day.
On 21 July, after Biden endorsed Harris, Voters of Tomorrow recorded its best fundraising day, raising nearly $125,000. It has also been flooded with new applications and requests to start new chapters – proof, they say, that the excitement is translating into real-world action, and hopefully votes.
“We are the underdogs in this race. Level-set, OK,” Harris said at the Massachusetts fundraiser on Saturday. “We are the underdogs in this race, but this is a people-powered campaign.”
Kamala Harris Joins TikTok In Effort To Reach Young Voters
Marita Vlachou
Fri, 26 July 2024
Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday launched an account on the popular social media platform TikTok, seizing on the momentum her campaign is experiencing.
Videos of Harris, who recently became the presumptive Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race on Sunday, have already gone viral on the platform, as her ascent to the top of the Democratic ticket seems to have energized young voters.
“Well, I’ve heard that recently I’ve been on the For You page, so I thought I’d get on here myself,” Harris said in her first post on the platform, which has so far garnered over 6.3 million views.
Memes of coconut trees, in reference to a past speech of Harris’ that her detractors previously used against her, are all over the internet.
“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,” Harris recalled her mother telling her and her sisters in the now-viral clip.
The endorsement of British pop star Charli XCX, in a post referencing her latest studio album, “Brat,” seems to have further added to the excitement around her candidacy.
“Kamala IS brat,” the singer wrote.
As of early Friday, the TikTok account @kamalaharris had amassed a following of 1.6 million.
“She’s gone from cringe to cool in 24 hours as a whole generation has taken all that content and remixed it in all these incredible TikTok videos,” CNN political commentator Van Jones said on the network earlier this week.
Rob Flaherty, the deputy manager of Harris’ campaign, told People creating the account is part of their strategy to leave “no stone unturned” in their effort to reach voters.
“Getting the vice president up on TikTok means she’ll be able to directly engage with a key constituency in a way that’s true and authentic to the platform and the audience,” Flaherty said.
Harris’ campaign has also taken over the account created for Biden’s now-defunct presidential campaign. That account has vastly grown its following once Harris took it over.
Even as more politicians flock to the platform though, TikTok’s presence in the U.S. remains under threat.
Biden signed a bill in April, which could ban TikTok in the U.S. unless it divested its Chinese ownership within 12 months, citing privacy and national security concerns.
TikTok sued the U.S. government over the legislation on First Amendment grounds.
Trump, who also operates a TikTok account that boasts over 9.2 million followers, has voiced support for the Chinese platform despite his previous efforts to ban it as president.
The former president suggested that the main beneficiary of a nationwide ban on TikTok would be Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“Now [that] I’m thinking about it, I’m for TikTok, because you need competition,” Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview last month. “If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram — and that’s, you know, that’s Zuckerberg.”
Harris and Trump need to seduce politically fluid Gen Z ‘Tinder singles’ to win
Matt Canter, Sara Fagen
Fri, 26 July 2024
The 2024 Presidential election has gone from déjà vu to a whole new ball game—and it is time to reconsider all the assumptions about what factors and which voters will decide the outcome of this race.
While we don’t yet know exactly how the presumptive nominee Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will campaign for the presidency, we do know precisely which voters a winning campaign will need to engage and persuade to come out on top in November.
This year, polls have consistently indicated that younger, unmarried voters are a crucial demographic for both Democratic and Republican campaigns alike. These voters have only known a digital world, where anything they want or need is just a click away, including a date. One out of every seven voters has used Tinder in the last year.
Polling firms Global Strategy Group and Tunnl teamed up for an independent, nonpartisan survey commissioned by Match Group that focused on studying the attitudes of young, single voters who recently used an online dating app—we call them “Tinder singles.” Young voters generally express lower motivation to show up at the polls when compared to their older, married counterparts. However, our survey found that Tinder singles, who represent 44% of all single voters under 36, buck that trend—they are highly engaged.
Eighty percent of Tinder singles say that politics are important to their personal identity, compared to just 59% of young, voting-age Americans not on Tinder. This level of political and electoral engagement shows that these individuals are a key voter bloc that will determine who will win or lose the upcoming election.
One of the most striking characteristics of Tinder singles is their uncommon political fluidity. Unlike older, married voters who are more likely to view elections through a rigid partisan lens, Tinder singles are more persuadable.
General assumptions about Tinder singles and party alignment with the Democratic Party appear to be outdated with a growing number identifying as independent or Republican. This fluidity means that Tinder singles are not locked into any one side or one viewpoint, making them an extremely strategic voting bloc that could offer success to the party or candidate that can motivate them to vote. These are not party-line voters—they are issue voters and their participation will depend on whether candidates speak to their issue-based concerns.
The study also shows that the gender gap among Tinder singles is growing, with young, single women drifting further from their male counterparts politically. While women Tinder singles are more likely to identify as Democrats or liberals (57% of our female respondents leaned Democrat, compared to 42% of men), our research reveals nearly half of women Tinder singles say they might not even vote in the upcoming election. Young, single women are particularly disillusioned with the political process, with 58% believing politicians are more likely to ignore them. This apathy is a critical issue that all campaigns must address, as this group’s political involvement will significantly impact the election's outcome.
Tinder singles are not single-issue voters. They care deeply about broad economic issues, inflation, cost of living, jobs, wages, and reproductive freedoms topping their list of concerns. Notably, issues specifically around reproductive rights have emerged as a critical deal-breaker, especially for the group of young women seeking a reason to vote, with 30% citing abortion and reproductive rights as a top deal-breaker issue. Addressing these concerns and issues is key for any campaign.
Winning campaigns are defined not just by a clear, compelling message but also by identifying the voters it can mobilize. Twenty years ago, when George W. Bush was running for reelection, he expanded his base by targeting working-class white men, and the idea of “NASCAR dads” was born. When President Obama ran for reelection in 2012, he had to win over the so-called “Walmart moms,” who had largely voted for him in 2008 but were now facing economic challenges and working to stretch every dollar.
Like Walmart moms and NASCAR dads before them, Tinder singles are uniquely positioned to determine the outcome of this election. As we approach the 2024 election, they represent a dynamic and influential group that could shape not only the election this November, but the political landscape for decades to come.
The high engagement of Tinder singles, combined with the possibility of this voting bloc sitting out makes them key to any successful campaign. Their engagement, persuadability, and distinct concerns mandate that this cohort be a critical focus for campaigns. In order to secure Tinder singles’ votes, or ensure that they vote at all, candidates must listen to and address their concerns. In an election as closely contested as this one is shaping up to be, the Tinder singles' votes could very well be the deciding factor that will determine who wins and who loses.
Fri, 26 July 2024
The 2024 Presidential election has gone from déjà vu to a whole new ball game—and it is time to reconsider all the assumptions about what factors and which voters will decide the outcome of this race.
While we don’t yet know exactly how the presumptive nominee Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will campaign for the presidency, we do know precisely which voters a winning campaign will need to engage and persuade to come out on top in November.
This year, polls have consistently indicated that younger, unmarried voters are a crucial demographic for both Democratic and Republican campaigns alike. These voters have only known a digital world, where anything they want or need is just a click away, including a date. One out of every seven voters has used Tinder in the last year.
Polling firms Global Strategy Group and Tunnl teamed up for an independent, nonpartisan survey commissioned by Match Group that focused on studying the attitudes of young, single voters who recently used an online dating app—we call them “Tinder singles.” Young voters generally express lower motivation to show up at the polls when compared to their older, married counterparts. However, our survey found that Tinder singles, who represent 44% of all single voters under 36, buck that trend—they are highly engaged.
Eighty percent of Tinder singles say that politics are important to their personal identity, compared to just 59% of young, voting-age Americans not on Tinder. This level of political and electoral engagement shows that these individuals are a key voter bloc that will determine who will win or lose the upcoming election.
One of the most striking characteristics of Tinder singles is their uncommon political fluidity. Unlike older, married voters who are more likely to view elections through a rigid partisan lens, Tinder singles are more persuadable.
General assumptions about Tinder singles and party alignment with the Democratic Party appear to be outdated with a growing number identifying as independent or Republican. This fluidity means that Tinder singles are not locked into any one side or one viewpoint, making them an extremely strategic voting bloc that could offer success to the party or candidate that can motivate them to vote. These are not party-line voters—they are issue voters and their participation will depend on whether candidates speak to their issue-based concerns.
The study also shows that the gender gap among Tinder singles is growing, with young, single women drifting further from their male counterparts politically. While women Tinder singles are more likely to identify as Democrats or liberals (57% of our female respondents leaned Democrat, compared to 42% of men), our research reveals nearly half of women Tinder singles say they might not even vote in the upcoming election. Young, single women are particularly disillusioned with the political process, with 58% believing politicians are more likely to ignore them. This apathy is a critical issue that all campaigns must address, as this group’s political involvement will significantly impact the election's outcome.
Tinder singles are not single-issue voters. They care deeply about broad economic issues, inflation, cost of living, jobs, wages, and reproductive freedoms topping their list of concerns. Notably, issues specifically around reproductive rights have emerged as a critical deal-breaker, especially for the group of young women seeking a reason to vote, with 30% citing abortion and reproductive rights as a top deal-breaker issue. Addressing these concerns and issues is key for any campaign.
Winning campaigns are defined not just by a clear, compelling message but also by identifying the voters it can mobilize. Twenty years ago, when George W. Bush was running for reelection, he expanded his base by targeting working-class white men, and the idea of “NASCAR dads” was born. When President Obama ran for reelection in 2012, he had to win over the so-called “Walmart moms,” who had largely voted for him in 2008 but were now facing economic challenges and working to stretch every dollar.
Like Walmart moms and NASCAR dads before them, Tinder singles are uniquely positioned to determine the outcome of this election. As we approach the 2024 election, they represent a dynamic and influential group that could shape not only the election this November, but the political landscape for decades to come.
The high engagement of Tinder singles, combined with the possibility of this voting bloc sitting out makes them key to any successful campaign. Their engagement, persuadability, and distinct concerns mandate that this cohort be a critical focus for campaigns. In order to secure Tinder singles’ votes, or ensure that they vote at all, candidates must listen to and address their concerns. In an election as closely contested as this one is shaping up to be, the Tinder singles' votes could very well be the deciding factor that will determine who wins and who loses.
Harris's Climate Record Draws Young Voters and Trump Attacks
Justin Worland
TIME
Fri, 26 July 2024
It didn’t take long for climate groups, often stringent in their policy demands, to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid to succeed her boss as president. In the days after President Biden’s announcement that he was dropping out of the presidential race, climate advocates offered praise for Harris that some had offered to Biden only sparingly. Prior to joining the Biden White House, Harris had positioned herself as a supporter of aggressive measures to address climate change like the Green New Deal, and advocates saw a lot to like in her record.
Harris “could be the climate game changer we need,” said the Sunrise Movement, a youth activist group focused on climate change, in a statement. Six weeks earlier the group had publicly declined to endorse Biden’s reelection bid.
Following Biden’s announcement, Harris left little doubt that she wants to pick up the climate mantle and run with it. Some of her first remarks after Biden’s announcement hit the issue head on. “As district attorney, to go after polluters, I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation,” she said. “Donald Trump stood in Mar-a-Lago and told Big Oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution.”
To many on the right, Harris’s enthusiastic climate record represented an opening. Surrogates for former President Trump touted Harris’s support for a ban on fracking as a presidential candidate and homed in on her support for the Green New Deal, which Trump has taken to calling the “Green New Scam.” In their view, Harris’s record on climate and energy could help erode her standing in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state with a substantial oil and gas industry.
Before this week, climate change has played a back-seat role in the conversation around this year’s election. But energy and climate’s role in the race may have changed—and it’s not exactly clear how it will play out.
As a political matter, there are good arguments that might make both sides feel a degree of optimism that Harris’s long-standing climate positioning will aid their campaigns.
In the weeks leading up to Biden’s departure from the presidential race, polls consistently showed declining support for his candidacy among young people, a critical voting bloc in his 2020 victory. Climate isn’t necessarily the only issue—or even the primary one—on young people’s minds. But it matters quite a bit to young voters in the Democratic base who helped elect Biden in 2020. Sunrise alone says it reached approximately 3.5 million young voters. Many of those voters soured on Biden after, among other things, the administration approved a massive oil drilling project in Alaska. Harris’s campaign turned over a new leaf with these groups, benefiting from enthusiasm from climate-motivated voters that Biden had lacked thus far.
For his part, Trump has for months sought to move the energy issue to the center of the electoral conversation. Talking points taking aim at Biden’s energy agenda have featured at rallies in Michigan, where the auto industry is transitioning to electric vehicles, as well as at the Republican National Convention last week. “They’ve spent trillions of dollars of things having to do with the Green New Scam," Trump told the audience.
The political logic is simple. Americans consistently rank the economy and inflation as their biggest concerns. Clean energy policies make an easy foil in the fight to bring down costs. Much of this talking point is untrue. When deployed, clean energy is typically cheaper than its fossil fuel alternative. But that doesn’t mean that the message doesn’t work.
Recent opinion research from Third Way, a centrist D.C. think tank whose policy prescriptions align more closely with Democrats, found that voters by and large prefer candidates who say “we cannot address climate change until inflation is under control” over candidates who say climate change needs to be dealt with immediately.
Perhaps more important, oil and gas play a significant role in Pennsylvania's economy with significant fracking operations in the state’s north and western regions. The state is all but a must-win for Harris.
In the last few days, journalists and commentators have struggled to assess what Harris might mean for the future of climate policy. They have pointed to her harsh language condemning oil and gas as an indicator that she might take a more aggressive posture as president. They have pointed to her longtime embrace of environmental justice to suggest that the concerns of vulnerable communities might get an elevated position in the fight against climate change. And they have pointed to her engagement on international climate issues to suggest a redoubling of U.S. commitment on the issue abroad.
The truth is that at this juncture it’s hard to assess the full shape of a Harris climate agenda. Her climate policymaking would likely be constrained by complicated politics in Congress and a federal judiciary that is increasingly skeptical of climate measures. Surely, some part of her time in office would be spent defending and continuing to implement Biden’s biggest climate moves.
But, in contrast to Trump, one thing is clear about a potential Harris presidency: climate policy, in one form or another, would survive.
TIME receives support for climate coverage from the Outrider Foundation. TIME is solely responsible for all content.
Fri, 26 July 2024
It didn’t take long for climate groups, often stringent in their policy demands, to get behind Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid to succeed her boss as president. In the days after President Biden’s announcement that he was dropping out of the presidential race, climate advocates offered praise for Harris that some had offered to Biden only sparingly. Prior to joining the Biden White House, Harris had positioned herself as a supporter of aggressive measures to address climate change like the Green New Deal, and advocates saw a lot to like in her record.
Harris “could be the climate game changer we need,” said the Sunrise Movement, a youth activist group focused on climate change, in a statement. Six weeks earlier the group had publicly declined to endorse Biden’s reelection bid.
Following Biden’s announcement, Harris left little doubt that she wants to pick up the climate mantle and run with it. Some of her first remarks after Biden’s announcement hit the issue head on. “As district attorney, to go after polluters, I created one of the first environmental justice units in our nation,” she said. “Donald Trump stood in Mar-a-Lago and told Big Oil lobbyists he would do their bidding for a $1 billion campaign contribution.”
To many on the right, Harris’s enthusiastic climate record represented an opening. Surrogates for former President Trump touted Harris’s support for a ban on fracking as a presidential candidate and homed in on her support for the Green New Deal, which Trump has taken to calling the “Green New Scam.” In their view, Harris’s record on climate and energy could help erode her standing in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state with a substantial oil and gas industry.
Before this week, climate change has played a back-seat role in the conversation around this year’s election. But energy and climate’s role in the race may have changed—and it’s not exactly clear how it will play out.
As a political matter, there are good arguments that might make both sides feel a degree of optimism that Harris’s long-standing climate positioning will aid their campaigns.
In the weeks leading up to Biden’s departure from the presidential race, polls consistently showed declining support for his candidacy among young people, a critical voting bloc in his 2020 victory. Climate isn’t necessarily the only issue—or even the primary one—on young people’s minds. But it matters quite a bit to young voters in the Democratic base who helped elect Biden in 2020. Sunrise alone says it reached approximately 3.5 million young voters. Many of those voters soured on Biden after, among other things, the administration approved a massive oil drilling project in Alaska. Harris’s campaign turned over a new leaf with these groups, benefiting from enthusiasm from climate-motivated voters that Biden had lacked thus far.
For his part, Trump has for months sought to move the energy issue to the center of the electoral conversation. Talking points taking aim at Biden’s energy agenda have featured at rallies in Michigan, where the auto industry is transitioning to electric vehicles, as well as at the Republican National Convention last week. “They’ve spent trillions of dollars of things having to do with the Green New Scam," Trump told the audience.
The political logic is simple. Americans consistently rank the economy and inflation as their biggest concerns. Clean energy policies make an easy foil in the fight to bring down costs. Much of this talking point is untrue. When deployed, clean energy is typically cheaper than its fossil fuel alternative. But that doesn’t mean that the message doesn’t work.
Recent opinion research from Third Way, a centrist D.C. think tank whose policy prescriptions align more closely with Democrats, found that voters by and large prefer candidates who say “we cannot address climate change until inflation is under control” over candidates who say climate change needs to be dealt with immediately.
Perhaps more important, oil and gas play a significant role in Pennsylvania's economy with significant fracking operations in the state’s north and western regions. The state is all but a must-win for Harris.
In the last few days, journalists and commentators have struggled to assess what Harris might mean for the future of climate policy. They have pointed to her harsh language condemning oil and gas as an indicator that she might take a more aggressive posture as president. They have pointed to her longtime embrace of environmental justice to suggest that the concerns of vulnerable communities might get an elevated position in the fight against climate change. And they have pointed to her engagement on international climate issues to suggest a redoubling of U.S. commitment on the issue abroad.
The truth is that at this juncture it’s hard to assess the full shape of a Harris climate agenda. Her climate policymaking would likely be constrained by complicated politics in Congress and a federal judiciary that is increasingly skeptical of climate measures. Surely, some part of her time in office would be spent defending and continuing to implement Biden’s biggest climate moves.
But, in contrast to Trump, one thing is clear about a potential Harris presidency: climate policy, in one form or another, would survive.
TIME receives support for climate coverage from the Outrider Foundation. TIME is solely responsible for all content.
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