Young Democrats are "cautiously optimistic" about Kamala Harris

Driving the news: Axios/Generation Lab polling conducted after President Biden bowed out shows Harris is significantly more popular among the country's youngest voters than Biden.

• Biden held a 6-point lead in a Biden-Trump matchup, whereas Harris picked up a 20-point lead among the same group of 18- to 34-year-olds.

Case in point: Vote.org, a nonpartisan voter registration platform, saw its greatest spike in 48 hours during the 2024 campaign cycle — a nearly 700% increase in daily voter registrations — following Biden's announcement, with 83% of new registrants between the ages of 18 and 34.

Catch up quick: Gen Z and millennial voters were crucial to Biden's 2020 victory, favoring the president over Trump by a roughly 20-point spread, according to Pew Research Center.

• The "authentic momentum" Harris' campaign has sparked on social media should not be dismissed, Voters of Tomorrow press secretary Jack Lobel told Axios.
• Harris' campaign has made politics "fun and approachable and a part of everyday life" for those who may not have felt engaged in past cycles, he said.
• "She's been fighting for young people for her whole career, and we know she'll do a phenomenal job as as the first woman president," he said of Harris, who is set to deliver virtual remarks Saturday to close out the organization's summit.

State of play: Republicans have not won over the majority of young voters — a group Trump has courted this election cycle — since 1988, but Biden began to lose his edge among them before suspending his campaign.

• Gen-Z for Change Communications Director Claire Simon juxtaposed Harris' campaign with Biden's, characterizing the shift as an opportunity for a platform "against Trump" to one that's "for something."
• "It really seems like kind of the whole energy in the Democratic Party was the lesser of two evils argument. And there's kind of an opportunity for now for us to really be fighting for a future-first platform," she said.

What they're saying: Samantha Sheppard, an associate professor of cinema and media studies at Cornell who researches race and gender issues, characterized Harris' run as a nationwide "shift in the consciousness of what's possible."

• While many have likened the enthusiasm surrounding her run to Obama's, Sheppard sees a distinction: "Obama wasn't in our social media age the way that we are right now, and the real struggles that we face right now are even different from that period. "
• She suggested that the time crunch Harris faces — with the Democratic National Convention's virtual vote looming and November just months away — may work in her favor in an era of "very short" attention spans.

Zoom in: Sheppard, a millennial voter, emphasized she still would have voted for Biden as a sort of "harm mitigation," saying the alternative presented "too many real risks."

• But Monday, she pulled on a shirt displaying a picture of Harris, decorated with the words "the first, but not the last," and told her mother, "It's time to go get back on those phones" and campaign.
• "It just feels like finally, finally we are being seen, and we are being supported," she said, noting that the "steadfast coalition building" and "deep network and infrastructure" of Black communities has oft been taken for granted — but is now on full display.

The bottom line: But Harris' road to the White House is not fully paved.

• "You [Harris] have an opportunity to win the youth vote by turning the page and differentiating yourself from Biden policies that are deeply unpopular with us," a Thursday statement from the Sunrise Movement, a national organization of young progressives, read.
• Simon described her general sentiment as "cautiously optimistic," saying young people still want to see how Harris' platform could cater toward key issues, like the Israel-Hamas war and climate action.

Go deeper: Three groups to watch in next round of Trump-Harris polling