The Opinions - These Young Voters Offer a Road Map For Kamala Harris

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

Listen in on this focus group with young undecided voters — a group that could determine the outcome of the upcoming presidential election. The New York Times deputy Opinion editor, Patrick Healy, spoke with some Gen Z voters to better understand the issues they’re focused on and how they’re feeling about Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.In this episode, he argues that while many young undecided voters don’t trust Harris, there are clear ways for her to win their support. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is The Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times Opinion. You've heard the news. Here's what to make of it. I'm Patrick Healy, deputy editor of New York Times Opinion, and I run our focus group series where we talk to a lot of different kinds of American voters about how they're feeling about the presidential election. I've been working on these focus groups for about three years, and what I love about them is just eavesdropping on what regular voters are thinking and feeling and saying about the country. This summer, we decided to do something a little different

to follow a group of young, undecided voters through the election. I've been covering presidential races for 20 years, and here's something that I've noticed in each election. There's often not a lot of conversation about young voters in America, but over and over again in these presidential races that I've covered, I've seen how young voters make a big difference. I saw in 2016 how Hillary, how Hillary Clinton lost in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,

those key states that she needed, in part because younger voters went to Jill Stein and other third-party candidates. I work on these focus groups with Frank Luntz, a veteran pollster and focus group leader. I've looked forward to this session since the New York Times came up with this idea. And we check in with these young voters about once a week just to see how they're reacting and feeling

to big events in the news or big moments in the news. or big moments in the race. Every one of you is 27 years of age or under. You may well decide who the next president is. The group is a mix of ages, backgrounds, ethnicities, states, and stages of life. And in the last year and a half, my husband and I also bought a house. I'm a law student right now. Just recently graduated from my university this past May and had a real tough time going into the

workforce. These young voters were interesting because they followed the news a lot. They follow politics a lot, and yet they're still torn between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. My mom decided because I don't fit into a box. I don't vote Republican. I don't vote Democrat. I look for party issues, and I try to find a candidate who I can trust. And I'm not seeing that with either candidate.

So we wanted to dig into what issues, what concerns, what doubts they might have about one or both candidates that's keeping them on the fence. These focus groups are not meant to be a poll. They're not scientific. They're not overly representative of the country. But they do track a polling in terms of which groups might be really decisive and influential in an election. And after talking with them for several hours, I think what they're offering is a pretty clear roadmap for what Harris needs to focus on this fall. The first thing I would say about this group is that there's a general pessimism that comes from their lived experiences. This is the way that Jack, one of our focus group participants, put it to me in our first discussion.

I come from a generation that is just plagued by tragedy, whether it's going into college during the pandemic, a background of when I was in middle school and elementary school, lots of gun violence, playing in the country, economic turmoil. I mean, it's just been terrible for my generation. And unfortunately, between that and the divide in the country as a whole, I don't feel as optimistic as I should be about. living in the United States in the future. And I really think that sense of trepidation and negativity has expanded to encompass the election in American politics.

I think no matter who wins, we're screwed either way. I think that when we wake up on November 6th, half the country is going to be pissed if Donald Trump wins. Half the country is going to be pissed if Kamala wins. I feel the divisiveness is just going to continue, and no matter who wins. Some of the focus group participants were wrestling with a pretty nuanced idea. They were concerned about the future of the country

but they were also concerned about the future of their own lives. I'm not decided because it's like I also like between remembering January 6th and thinking about everything else. When I go into the voting booth, will I be thinking about the officers and the Capitol? Or will I be thinking about like the Title IX education and how will my children grow up in a country with more than two genders, right? How am I supposed to choose between the country and my own individual situation? The criticisms of Harris and Trump were different. A lot of the younger voters are suspicious of Kamala Harris, but they detest Donald Trump. This gives Harris an opening.

If one of the candidates is just a no-go, I will not vote for him again, the other candidate, even if there's suspicions or doubtful about her, she can address those. She can use interviews and debates and speeches to try to fill in some of those blanks and get more people on her side. Okay, so here's what I think Harris needs to focus on based on what these young, undecided voters are saying. And it's not rocket science. What issue matters most? Lowering the national debt. Inflation.

Inflation, specifically the cost of living. Economic regulation and deregulation. Inflation in the price of groceries. It's the economy. It's always the economy. This is the same trend in older voters, too. These young voters are worried about whether they'll be able to afford rent, whether they'll be able to buy a home someday, whether at some point they'll actually be able to put money away for retirement. But what's also interesting among these younger Americans is the Middle East and foreign policy being a key factor.

Strong military. Relationship with Israel. Relationship with Israel as well. Anti-Semitism. In this race, the war in Gaza is really capturing attention, especially among younger voters. And they want to see what Harris would do. Here's the good news for Harris. Her speech at the Democratic Convention did start moving the needle with some of these younger voters.

Almost everyone in our group praised how she talked about her mother and her family during the acceptance speech. There were also a few policy issues and positions that clearly broke through with these voters. Her support for abortion rights, her recognition about gun violence as a major problem in the country. Some people changed their opinions. For example, Abigail said, I'm undecided because I think I have to choose between my country's best interest and my own, and I hate that. But after the speech, Abigail told me, and these are her words, I can now see that she can be well spoken and that she has an inspiring American story. Before, I wasn't sure if she was genuinely proud of our country, but now I see that she wants to defend her vision of American democracy.

And that was powerful, even if some of what she said was misleading. to these young voters that Kamala Harris may win over many of them. If she goes all in on really promising to codify Roe versus Wade, whether she can or not, if she sounds like a tough prosecutor on gun violence, if she talks about taking on dictators, coming up with ways to lower costs, and really pinning down Donald Trump on January 6th, and how his behavior was completely unacceptable. Here's how one focus group participant put it. So Kamala Harris, if you come up with a plan for inflation and a plan for the genocide in Gaza, you will win the election.

If she stays on track with those issues, she's got a real chance of winning over those undecided voters and winning the election in November. If you like this show, follow it on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts. This show is produced by Derek Arthur, Sophia Alvarez Boyd, Vichakad, Fiby Lett, Christina Samuoski, and Jillian Weinberger. It's edited by Kari Pitkin, Alison Bruzek, and Annie Rose Strasser. Engineering, mixing, and original music by Isaac Jones, Sonia Herrero, Pat McCusker, Carol Saburo, and Afim Shapiro. Additional music by Amin Sojota. The fact check team is Kate Sinclair, Mary Marge Locker, and Michelle Harris. Audience Strategy by Shannon Busta, Christina Samuelski, and Adrian Rivera.

The executive producer of Times Opinion Audio is Annie Rose Dresser.