Gen Z voters at DNC energized by Harris/Walz ticket
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Voters of Tomorrow's Aliza Lifshitz and Jessica Siles. Photo: Carrie Shepherd/Axios
The group Voters of Tomorrow (VOT) has released a poll that shows Gen Z voters in swing states overwhelming supporting Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump.
The big picture: VOT is a Gen Z-led non-partisan group that encourages political action by 18-29-year-olds, a generation that has an estimated 40 million eligible voters.
What they found: A poll conducted Aug. 16-20 from a sample of 1,601 people aged 18-29 in Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, and Wisconsin shows Harris beating Trump 54% to 22%.
- The margin of sampling error was ±2.4%.
- The top three issues based on the poll were jobs and the economy, abortion and health care.
- Respondents were least concerned about a potential TikTok ban, judicial appointments and voting rights.
Between the lines: Only about 14% of those surveyed included the war in Gaza in their list of top three concerns, a contrast with many of the demonstrators who used the DNC to urge Democrats to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Zoom in: At an event in Chicago last week around the DNC, VOT leaders, as well as Gen Z politicians from Indiana and Pennsylvania, talked about how 2016 inspired their political involvement.
- "My story is I am an immigrant, and as an immigrant, I have lived under the Trump administration in fear ... what happens if we lose, I might get deported," VOT executive director Santiago Mayer told the crowd.
- "I think in 2016 it was really the sense of this entrenched political system, and that's why it really pushed me, personally, to get involved in state and local politics, because I saw that I was in New York at the time, there were legislators on our state level who were blocking codifying Roe v. Wade," VOT's Aliza Lifshitz told Axios.
Zoom in: VOT had officially endorsed President Biden as the Democratic nominee, but Vice President Kamala Harris replacing him ignited some energy in young voters.
- "We definitely saw more volunteer applications and chapter network applications ... a lot of young people that maybe weren't as engaged to the table and now wanting to get further involved, and not just vote, but to really also knock on doors and really rally behind a candidate," VOT's Jessica Siles told Axios.