Consider This from NPR - Ahead of the 2024 Election, Young Rural Voters Want To Be Heard

Episode Date: July 16, 2023

Since the 2024 Presidential election may ultimately be decided by a handful of votes in a handful of states, courting young voters will be key. Gen Z has been turning out in record numbers in recent midterms. Often much of the political conversation focuses on young voters in and around big cities. But since young voters are so key for Democrats' success, and rural voters are an essential bloc for Republicans, what young, rural voters think really matters. Host Scott Detrow spoke with NPR's Elena Moore and Xinema Bustillo, who talked to Gen Z voters in rural North Carolina.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University performs breakthrough research every year, making discoveries that improve human health, combat climate change, and move society forward. More at iu.edu forward. When it comes to Gen Z in politics, two things seem to be true at the same time. Young voters are showing up and caring about elections. The top two midterms for youth turnout, 2018 and 2022. But at the same time, young voters feel increasingly turned off and less loyal to the main two political parties. And here's another thing about young voters. So much of the political and media conversation about them

focuses on young voters in and around cities. And young rural voters, they notice the slight. I'm from the mountains, and my friends and I all have all of our teeth, which I think really, really throws some people off sometimes. But we do have all of our teeth, and we are civilized, for lack of a better term. From the outside looking in, people are kind of like, I don't understand why anybody would want to live in a rural area, but I don't know. I think that sometimes they kind of generalize like, well, this is what the people there live like and this is what they believe.

But really, when you get there, it's like I think that it kind of speaks for itself. Consider this. Republicans think they have a lock on rural voters. Democrats think they have a lock on young voters. So where do young rural voters fit in and what do they care about? We'll talk to a group of them in a key swing state to find out. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Sunday, July 16th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally, and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. The 2024 presidential election will likely be decided by a relative handful of voters in a handful of states. That matters in a place like North Carolina, where former President Donald Trump won in 2020 by less than 75,000 votes. So the rate that young rural voters show up at the polls could very well decide the election. I spoke with NPR's Elena Moore and Ximena Bustillo, who talked to some of those crucial Gen Z voters in Raleigh. We went down to North Carolina and got together with a group of students from across the political spectrum and really got to know a lot about their hometowns and pick their brains on all sorts of issues that are important to them. Let's get to know them. My name is Regan Bunch. I am from Hayesville, North Carolina, and I go to school at UNC

Wilmington. I'm 20 years old. I'm Bryson Hyman from Indian Land, South Carolina, but I live in Lillington now. Just graduated from Campbell University, and I'm from Indian Land, South Carolina, but I live in Lillington now. Just graduated from Campbell University, and I'm 22. My name is Trina T. Locklear. I'm from Shannon, North Carolina, located in Robson County. I go to State. I'm a rising junior. I just turned 20 Sunday.

I'm Kayla Tran. I go to UNC Chapel Hill, and I'm from Bass, North Carolina, and I am 19. My name's Larry McCallum. I'm from Lumberton, North Carolina. I go to UNC Pembroke, and I'm 22. My name's Larry McCallum. I'm from Lumberton, North Carolina. I go to UNC Pembroke, and I'm 22. My name is AJ Jacobs. I'm 18, and I'm a rising sophomore at Rice University in Houston. And I'm from Pembroke, North Carolina, a proud member of the Lumbee tribe. I love hearing from this collection of people because I feel like almost entirely when the media talks about young

voters, they're talking about young urban voters. Right, young urban voters. And some of these students were really involved with like young Republicans, but others were just friends of friends of friends that we were able to find that are not super involved. And they all didn't agree on everything, but they did actually agree on a lot, including how people outside their communities just don't understand rural voters. This is a completely backward place, that there is no education, that people aren't involved in politics, and the ones that are are kind of crazy and don't have a mind. No, there are normal people down here. We live life a little bit slower, and we like stuff sweet, but we're not stupid.

That was Bryson Hyman, a Republican, and he also noted that while the South is very rural, it's not the same everywhere. So there are still bigger cities and a bunch of different cultures. Another student was Larry McCallum, who votes Democrat. And he also thinks that Democrats just get rural communities wrong. I think that if Democrats can figure out a way to target a lot of the issues that are on a lot of rural voters' minds, namely the economy and agriculture, I think that they would do themselves a big favor in elections. There was another Democrat, A.J. Jacobs, who had a very similar sentiment. He is a member of the Lumbee tribe.

It's the largest tribe east of the Mississippi, and it is not federally recognized. They helped former President Obama win North Carolina in 2008, but then have generally voted for Trump since. I've seen the Republican Party do a lot more recently in the community, but I think for a long time, both parties just kind of, you know, ignored us and thrown us off. So we're already hearing from very different people here, but it seems like there is a real common thread of feeling frustrated that neither party particularly seems to care about their part of the world or understand their part of the world. Is that fair? And they just want someone that can help make their hometowns the best. And so eventually we did get to talking about the 2024 election. We are seeing the possibility of another Biden versus Trump.

Joke scare. Let's talk about it explain the giggles oh goodness i mean not an uncommon reaction to her to a rematch what what particularly it seemed like everybody knew each other had the same opinion on this and we're looking around the room in that moment yeah kind of it it was really funny to watch because we've been asking young people this question for days. We had gone to a college campus in a nearby city. We had been just chatting with folks in the Raleigh-Durham area. And obviously, Scott, you know this from talking to voters, too. Biden's age comes up. And for a lot of these voters, those giggles were because of his age. Because of Biden specifically. Well, and Trump. Yeah. Biden is the oldest president ever. Before he was the oldest president ever,

Donald Trump was the oldest president ever. So, I mean, the choice here is, it's kind of slim when it comes to finding a fresh new face. That's a front runner. I mean, it's disappointing. You know, they're both old. I mean, they're both old as dirt. And I mean, I understand, you know, Biden's an incumbent president, but he's 80. I mean, exactly. So that was A.J. Kalen Trinity. And that line really sticks out to me. Old as dirt. And it's not surprising. According to NPR's latest polling, the president's approval with

folks under 30 is just 38 percent. And that's the lowest of any age group. Nationally, this is a huge challenge for the Biden campaign because they are banking on the fact that even if younger voters, even if Democratic voters are not enthusiastic about Joe Biden being president for four years, they will turn out and vote for him anyway because he's probably running against Donald Trump. So I'm curious what this collection of voters thought about Donald Trump. You know, they were not as hype as you might think. They have criticism about Trump. The only person that voters dislike more than Biden is Trump.

A big portion of the Republican Party wants somebody sensible, wants somebody who can work across lines. That was Bryson again, and he said he would really prefer candidates like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. And I will say both of those candidates are much younger than Trump by a few decades even. And, you know, going back to what you said for the Democrats, it's kind of a different ballgame because, yes, Biden is 80 and he would be 82 when he entered his next term if he won. But there is no huge field of candidates for Democrats to choose. There's no younger candidate in their mid 40s and 50s for Democrats to even compare Biden to. At least Republicans at the moment theoretically have that option. Right, right. And we heard voters talk about that. Here's Larry McCallum again.

Biden has been one of the most unenthusiastic candidates in American history. I voted for him, but the Democratic Party needs to work on their proposed candidates. And to others in the group, this idea of Biden-Trump isn't even where their head is at. They honestly cringe at the idea of choosing a party in itself. I don't want it to be something where it's like, well, these two old guys, like we just have to pick between one of them. Like, why do we have to pick? Amanda, the people you're talking to here clearly are not loving their choices or likely choices for the next election. They're not lining up with Team Democrat and Team Republican on many different fronts. But we hear them talking a lot about actually caring about the issues, digging into the issues. What do these voters care about? So one of the top issues is the economy. So those traditional pocketbook issues like job availability and housing affordability. Here's Bryson again.

Young people aren't wanting to come to rural areas. You know, they're going to college and they're graduating from med school. And it's really becoming hard to attract these younger or even older doctors to come to these rural areas. Fellow Republican Reagan Bunch is critical of Democrats and has taken issues with the Biden administration generally, tying the president's performance to growing challenges for rural communities. We're kind of in a pocket where, you know, if you do want that access to, or need that access to, like, emergency medical care, it can be a challenge. The students also noted a lack of infrastructure built in rural areas, but it's not just infrastructure, it's opportunity. There's just not a lot of industry.

You either work for the school system or you're working in tourism or you're working low-level, entry-level jobs that will not lead to a full career. So for college students like myself who want to go back, it's really daunting to figure out how I'm going to do that. I feel like we have so many people telling us all the time that all politics is nationalized and issues are kind of secondary to just kind of identity politics and trend lines. Sounds very much the opposite here. People want very specific things and feel like they're not getting them. But I want to get to one more big theme in politics right now, and that is social issues, particularly abortion in the wake of last year's Dobbs decision. We saw that play a huge role in the midterms. And it's clear that Democrats are hoping it'll play a huge role in the presidential election. I'm curious how that plays with this

group of rural and there's a pretty good mix of conservative voters in it. Yeah. And, you know, in the midterms, there was a tie between youth turnout and protecting abortion. Young people turned out partially because of abortion. So, yeah, we brought it up. And, you know, North Carolina, it's really a big topic for them right now because Republicans just ushered through a 12-week abortion ban. So a lot of people are thinking about it. And we asked the group how they felt. Here's Larry. I'm definitely pro-choice. Obviously, the Democrats sort of embody that position. I do think that restricting access to abortion, it's only going to serve to negatively impact mostly poor women and women of the more Democratic-leaning voters. But there was one thing that I thought was interesting that conservatives and, you know, more people in the middle could get behind,

and that was there isn't a lot of emphasis in politics on supporting children after they're born, supporting parents once they have kids. And that's something that conservative Reagan Bunch brought up. I'm pro-life. I would like to see heartbeat bills across the country, but I'd also like to see other legislation that would help make parenting more accessible.

So clearly abortion, top of mind issue, Scott. And when I think young voters, the other major issue of the past decade is gun violence. We have seen it unfortunately affect many of their daily lives at school growing up in a world where you regularly drill what to do when there's a school shooter. We have seen it ignite political activism in many different ways. I assume you asked about that too. I did. And they had a lot of thoughts on it. I mean, like you said, gun violence is extremely personal for Generation Z. That's this youngest group. And to Kayla, you know, she brought it up herself. It's an issue that unites a lot of her friends and just people in this generation. I was in the fourth grade when Sandy Hook happened. And I think that everybody can kind of pinpoint in their life, like when

they realized that this was a problem that we were going to deal with for the rest of our lives, potentially, if something isn't done about it. And most students in the group, including Kayla, actually grew up with guns, either in their household or in their communities. We asked them to raise their hands if they had this experience, and I think five out of six did. And A.J. was one of them, A.J. Jacobs, who's a Democrat, and he's part of the Lumbee tribe. He kind of weighed in and said this issue was complicated for him,

but at the same time, it is extremely simple. I've been raised around guns. Both of my parents are concealed carry. I've shot guns. I mean, I don't think there's any problem with it, but I think there are absolutely laws that be put in place to make it harder for people to get a gun. And I don't think that's a bad thing if you're a law abiding citizen. This was an issue that they chimed in on a lot. And one of the people who was pretty active in it was Trinity. Trinity actually agreed with what AJ was saying. And she said at this point, gun violence is almost casual in their community. She actually lost her cousin last fall due to gun

violence. He was shot in an altercation with another person in their county. I cannot stand seeing people my age losing their lives to gun violence to other people their age. It's getting ridiculous. And Trinity told us that increasing safety and reducing crime are top issues for her. And like we've been saying, she is undecided, and she doesn't know who she's going to vote for next year, but she did say definitively she plans to vote. And that was something that all six students could easily get behind and agree on. That was NPR's Elena Moore and Ximena Bustillo.

It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow.