'Change of mood': Young Texas voters turn to presidential election, motivated by Kamala Harris

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For Kaylee Caudle, 19, the mood around the election was bad.

On Nov. 5, Caudle will be old enough to vote in a presidential election for the first time. She won’t be voting for former President Donald Trump, whose conservative rhetoric and policies don’t align with her values, she said, particularly on issues like reproductive rights and the environment. So, for lack of better options, she expected to vote for President Joe Biden, even though she thought he was a bit too old to run again.

“It was hard to get excited when everyone seemed so depressed about the election,” said Caudle, a sophomore at Rice University. “The mood wasn’t there.”

Then came the memes.

In July, Caudle’s social media feeds were flooded with clips of Vice President Kamala Harris’ speeches, overlaid with synth-pop beats and viral dance sequences. Pop star Charlie XCX declared that “Kamala is a BRAT,” a key endorsement that resonated with her generation of Gen Z fans. In a nod to a now-viral speech in which Harris quoted her mother as saying, “You feel like you just fell out of a coconut tree,” coconut emojis rained down on TikTok. Suddenly, the election was fun.

Caudle says Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket has boosted her enthusiasm to vote for the first time in November — and encouraged her friends and family to register, too.

“The memes are silly, but they’re really catchy and a good way to remind people that this is a great candidate who’s not 80 years old and also has good policies,” Caudle said.

The new Trump-Harris matchup is helping Democrats close the enthusiasm gap, in part by capturing the attention and interest of younger voters who traditionally turn out less than older generations. But the historic nature of Harris’ candidacy as the party’s first Black and South Asian presidential nominee, combined with the campaign’s rapid shift in tone, is prompting young voters of all political persuasions to take a hard look — some for the first time — at what role they might play in November.

“I feel like with a female president, it’s a whole new perspective. You see things in a different light,” said Daijha Davis, a sophomore at Texas Southern University. Davis, who will also vote for the first time in November, said she hadn’t paid much attention to Trump or Biden’s track record in office and had been a bit conflicted about her vote. But the revitalized social media presence of Harris’ campaign has won her over, and she’s now ready to vote for Harris.

If motivated, Gen Z voters could have a major impact on the election. Texas has the second-youngest median age of any state except Utah. And in 2020, about 1.3 million Texans ages 18 to 24 were registered to vote. These voters have traditionally turned out at lower rates than any other age group, with voter turnout rates steadily increasing as age groups increase.

About 43% of young Texans ages 18 to 29 voted in 2020, an eleven-point increase from 2016. 66% of all eligible voters and 76% of eligible voters ages 64 and older voted that same year.

Jeremi Suri, a history professor at the University of Texas at Austin, predicted that Harris’s rise would be a “tremendous” boost for Democrats among younger Texans, who are particularly concentrated in urban areas and are largely nonwhite. They may not be able to swing a presidential election on their own, he said, but they could influence the outcome.

“Harris can address youth issues in a way that neither of the other two candidates can,” Suri said, citing gun violence and reproductive rights as key issues. “She’s in the cultural, social and educational world of young people, much more than the two older men.”

The flurry of social media presence around Harris has engaged young Democrats, said Olivia Julianna, a Houston-based Gen Z influencer.

“A lot of young people who were previously scared or didn’t know what was going to happen…now have so much energy and are so excited, not only to vote for Kamala, but to volunteer and make videos,” Julianna said.

But Gen Z doesn’t support Democrats in a monolithic way. Nationally, polls show that Gen Z men are more conservative than previous generations. The ideological gap between young men and women has widened as reproductive rights have become a top issue for women and young men have felt more welcome in the Republican Party. Polls earlier this year showed Biden losing support among young voters to Trump.

These young conservatives will likely be as turned off by Harris’ candidacy as they were by Biden’s, regardless of their age, said Sam Somogye, executive director of the Texas Young Republicans.

Harris’ handling of immigration issues and her stance on gun rights would be particularly alienating to young Texans, Somogye predicted.

“Saying she wants to ban assault rifles and attack the Second Amendment is not going to go down well,” Somogye said. “Whoever advised her to come to Texas, of all places, and say that makes it clear that her campaign and the Biden administration are completely out of touch with the American people and especially Texas voters.”

Arshia Papari, a sophomore at UT-Austin, said he had been torn between voting for Biden or a third-party candidate, citing the Biden administration’s support for Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war despite the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

While Biden has repeatedly called for an end to the war, the United States has continued to support Israel through military aid and diplomatic support. The war has become a point of contention for many college campuses, with many young progressives leading protests in support of a free Palestine and demanding that universities divest from companies linked to Israel and weapons manufacturing.

Despite his frustration with the Biden administration’s response, Papari ultimately backed Harris. The vice president is not only younger, but also seems more open to the concerns of younger voters, he said.

Arshia Papari stands under the UT Tower in Austin on August 6, 2024. Papari, a sophomore, is majoring in government. Credit: Olivia Anderson/The Texas Tribune

Harris said last month that she would “not remain silent” about the humanitarian toll of more than 39,000 people killed during the Gaza campaign.

“I would like to see her take further steps and decisive steps to withdraw American support for Israel’s atrocities and bring us back to the right side of history,” Papari said of Harris, adding that she seems “more empathetic on the Gaza issue” than Biden or Trump.

Fatima Qasem, a senior at the University of Houston, disagrees: “Based on Kamala’s actions or inactions, we haven’t seen any evidence that her policies are any different than Biden’s.”

Qasem, 19, said many students who see the war between Israel and Hamas as a central issue are unlikely to be swayed by Harris’ candidacy. Only a call for a permanent cease-fire and a suspension of all aid to Israel could persuade those voters to support Harris, said Qasem, a member of his campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine.

Many SJP chapters are politically neutral and neither advocate for nor disfavor candidates, Qasem said. Still, his chapter has encouraged young people to consider options outside of voting, including supporting third-party candidates or not voting at all.

Sneha Kesevan, 21, is one of those young voters who is torn between voting for Harris or a third-party candidate.

The UT-Austin pre-med student said she, too, noticed a “change in mood” after Biden stepped down, but wanted to see more evidence that a Harris administration would actually end the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“What are you going to do to stop this? Instead of just saying that this war has to end,” Kesavan asked. “Even if she says something and doesn’t take action, then what does (Harris) believe?”

Kesavan said she could have better understood Harris’s positions if there had been debates or primaries. Before the Democratic Party nominated Harris as its candidate, there had been discussions among party leaders about holding a mini-primary if Biden decided to withdraw.

“I really wanted to see how it would go,” Kesavan said. “The idea of a mini-party congress seems more democratic to me.”

Disclosure: Rice University, Texas Southern University – Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin and University of Houston have provided financial support to The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a full list of supporters here.

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This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/12/kamala-harris-texas-young-voters-gen-z/.

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