WSJ What’s News - Chasing the Vote: Students Are Split on Gaza. Could It Swing North Carolina?

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

There are nearly a quarter million students in the University of North Carolina system, and its flagship campus at Chapel Hill was in the spotlight this spring after pro-Gaza demonstrators set up an encampment on the quad. WSJ political reporter Jimmy Vielkind traveled to North Carolina’s campuses to see how voters are weighing the Middle East conflict and the protests it spawned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Metrolinx and Crosslinx are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. This is what the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill sounded like in April during the last week of classes.

Protesters here were upset about Israel's response to the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that left about 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, and around 250 taken hostage. More than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to health authorities there, who don't say how many were combatants. Logan Kaelin, a senior at UNC majoring in political science, said he felt moved to join the demonstrations. Especially when it comes to the humanitarian devastation that has occurred in Gaza, I think

that a lot of people, a lot of students really feel like it's like we're screaming into the void and no one's listening and no one seems to care. There were similar protest encampments at schools around the country, mostly in California in the northeast. But the demonstrations at UNC became national news because of what happened next. Protests led to chaotic moments today on the UNC Chapel Hill campus with police and pro-Palestinian protesters clashing on the quad this morning and afternoon. After protesters took down the Stars and Stripes and replaced it with the Palestinian flag,

police and school officials put the American flag back up. Then, there was a standoff as fraternity members and supporters of Israel ringed the flagpole. I was there. I was in there. I stood there holding up that flag for like an hour and a half. That's Daniel Stompel, a senior at UNC Chapel Hill. He's Jewish and lived in Israel for part of his time in high school. We were, again, this was like mega viral.

People in the Israeli parliament, what's it called? Bibi! Bibi shouted us out. As news of the standoff reverberated beyond campus, so too might its political impacts. In the years since the Hamas attacks, the Biden administration has worked toward a ceasefire and sought the return of hostages in the Middle East. Biden also supported additional aid and weapons sales to Israel, angering some Democrats. Daniel and Logan are two of the roughly 30,000 students at Chapel Hill, the oldest public university in America, but their split views helped me explore a burning question.

With the war in the Middle East widening and campus protests calmer but still simmering, how important is the issue with students? And will Gaza have a bigger electoral impact on Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump? I'm Jimmy Vielkind and this is Chasing the Vote, a multi-part series from the Wall Street Journal. I've been going to battleground states across the country to see how big issues in the presidential

campaign are playing out on the ground. Our last episode focused on voters in Nevada who were unenthusiastic about both major party candidates. I came to North Carolina because of the protests at Chapel Hill and because of the prominent place that public higher education plays in the state. There are about a quarter million students in the UNC system, and according to the non-partisan aggregation firm L2Data, only one other swing state has a higher percentage of active voters under the age of 25.

It really is a mecca of colleges and universities, particularly the university system, which I think they have 17 campuses all over the state, but also a really robust HBCU network and private schools. So I think that's my colleague, Valerie Borreline, who covers the Carolinas and also reported on Gaza protests last spring. You can forget because it was a lifetime ago politically, but it was such a potent issue. They were having to cancel classes and cancel graduation and then Biden decides not to run and that changes the color of the race and it changes the timbre of the race it just feels a little bit of a different moment. Most of the biggest protests took place before Biden dropped out and outside of the battleground

states that could decide the presidential election. Chapel Hill is an exception there, since it's in a state that Trump won by just 1.4% in 2020, and student votes are a crucial block. The student body is left-leaning. Vow said people here refer to it as the People's Republic of Chapel Hill. So if there's any place where Gaza would loom large, it's here.

But many students I talked to described other concerns. What are the big issues for you? Probably right now, like, like gun control with the, like, school shootings and stuff. I'm worried about the economy. I know that my family's life was better four years ago under Trump. It would be a huge step for this country to have not only a woman but a black woman leading this country. I would say for me the biggest issues are reproductive rights and also upholding our democracy.

That last voice was Logan Kalin again, who I met while he was sitting on the steps of UNC's Wilson Library, next to Mason Roth, a junior from Southern Pines. Logan wore a Palestinian flag bracelet and both said they were part of the campus protests. They're both upset with Harris' support for Israel, but still plan to vote for her. I'm casting my vote for her and once she's there, it doesn't mean that we stop speaking about these things

because we're supposed to hold our politicians accountable. You're supposed to hold your president accountable. As an Arab American myself, I have so much respect for all the people in the uncommitted movement who have been pressuring her and Tim Walls and even withholding an endorsement because I think that that is an issue that they've made central to them. And I think that it does represent the views and beliefs of a lot of Americans and a lot of Democrats.

Logan was referencing a campaign by Democrats earlier this year to cast empty or uncommitted ballots in presidential primaries. More than 700,000 voters took part in various states, including almost 89,000 in North Carolina. The uncommitted movement sent delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and was part of the protests there. During her acceptance speech on the DNC's last night, Harris addressed the situation in the protests there. During her acceptance speech on the DNCs last night, Harris addressed the situation in the Middle East. She pledged to work for peace, and tried to walk the line between supporting Israel, and of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas

caused on October 7th. And acknowledging the humanitarian toll in Gaza. So many innocent lives lost. Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking. Trump has said he stands strongly with Israel. Tonight, we honor the memory of all who lost their lives in the October 7th attacks, and we pray to God that Israel will redeem their deaths with ultimate victory over those who wish to destroy it.

Even though many people are unhappy with how the candidates are positioned on this matter, are there really enough single-issue voters on this topic to sway the election in November? That's after the break. After decades of shaky hands caused by debilitating tremors, Sunnybrook was the only hospital in Canada who could provide Andy with something special. Three neurosurgeons, two scientists, one movement disorders coordinator, 58 answered questions, two focused ultrasound procedures,

one specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound procedures, 1 specially developed helmet, thousands of high intensity focused ultrasound waves, 0 incisions, and that very same day, 2 steady hands. From innovation to action, Sunnybrook is special. Learn more at sunnybrook.ca slash special. I met Puyon Ordubadi in Chicago. He's a lawyer in the rally area and the North Carolina co-chair of the Abandon Harris campaign. He was at those protests outside the Democratic National Convention. From the river to the sea!

Abandoned Harris goes further than the uncommitted movement, which sought to make a statement during the Democratic primaries. The Abandoned Harris campaign is telling voters, many of whom previously backed Democrats, to either leave the top of the ticket blank or support a third-party candidate. We're hoping that there's going to be a significant shift towards third parties, not only by Muslim Americans or Arab Americans, but people of conscience who are just really disgusted by the actions of this administration. Some Gaza protesters have been reassured by the way Harris has talked about Palestinian suffering,

but plenty of others haven't. The candidates don't matter when the policies are the same. That's Sophia Brown, a 24-year-old who graduated from Chapel Hill last semester. I met up with her and others who joined the protest, including labor organizer Emerson Goldstein. Unlike Poojan, Emerson plans to vote for Harris this November, but described it as a knife's edge decision. They say a vote is a chess move, right? It's a strategic way for us to weigh in about the conditions

under which we're going to fight and organize. And I think that a second Trump administration would be catastrophic to the right to protest. The protesters I spoke with acknowledged that not every voter is as focused on the Middle East as they are. We spoke in late September, before Israeli troops attacked Hezbollah in Lebanon and before Iran launched drone and missile strikes into Israel.

More than half of Democrats surveyed in a September AP-Nork poll said the Israeli government bears quote, a lot of responsibility for the continuation of the war, compared to about 4 in 10 Republicans. Pouyan, from the Abandon Harris campaign, said he believes the best way to increase US pressure on Israel is to cost Harris the election. If Donald Trump is elected, we understand that there is a chance that we are going to be blamed,

and we're very comfortable with that at this point. We want to show the Democrats that genocide is our red line, and once that line has been crossed there's no going back. How many students see a red line? That's after the break. Are you registered to vote? In your Chapel Hill address? I'm from here. Oh, perfect. Even better.

Thank you. Are you registered to vote? Back on the Chapel Hill campus, I found a group of four students in a brick plaza called The Pit. They were wearing tar heels for Harris Walls t-shirts while handing out stickers and voter registration forms. The response was generally good. My job has become a lot easier this semester.

I used to have to harass. That's Sloane Duvall, president of the College Democrats. She said the group is engaging students multiple times a week. When you talk to a student, what's your pitch? As young people, our future is on the line in this election. We have MAGA Republicans running to take away our rights and free nubs and send us backwards. Sloan said the Gaza protests haven't had much of an impact. As much as we see activation around that issue in the news, the students that I'm talking

to, that's not the news, the students that I'm talking to, that's not the main issue for them right now. They're really scared about their reproductive rights. They're really scared about progress on climate action going backwards. Democrats are making a concerted push for younger voters in North Carolina. The Biden-Harris campaign started this work in the spring,

earlier than previous cycles, and the Harris campaign says it has 80 staffers dedicated to campus outreach in the state. Also part of that effort is Anderson Clayton. The 26-year-old Democrat is the youngest chair of a state political party in the country. I wanted to talk with her about a tour of campuses she did in September, so we met at a former textile mill that now serves as a local party office. We have to bring campaigning to where people are. We have one of the largest university populations, like the third largest I think out of all the battleground

states is what it would be for how many students we have. But then you also have to think about that's not just the universities, it's also community colleges, which is also where we have organizers dedicated to. There's reason for Democrats to hope. Barack Obama carried the state in 2008. Donald Trump has won here twice, but his 2020 victory by about 74,000 votes was the narrowest of any state he won. Polls show Trump leading Harris in North Carolina by a single percentage point. But this year, there are lots of local issues weighing on the presidential contest.

Hurricane Helene devastated areas in the western part of the state, complicating things for election officials. And GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson allegedly made anti-gay and racist comments a decade ago in an online pornography forum. Robinson denied making the comments, but many Republicans are keeping their distance. Anderson said she talks to students about local and state races, directly connecting their vote to things that personally impact young people, like regulations about car

insurance. She didn't have much to say about the protests. What did you make of the protests on campuses last year? That they had the right to do it. Okay. I left Chapel Hill to get a sense of how students on other campuses feel. There was a very different vibe at North Carolina Central University,

an historically black college in Durham. People walking around the student union said they were excited to vote. I feel like this is a very good opportunity for us, especially as a young black woman. I feel like my opinion matters for the first time ever. That's Taylor Plummer, an 18-year-old studying business administration. Taylor is looking forward to voting for Harris. Her sentiments were in line with other people we interviewed.

She said Gaza should weigh on voters, but didn't think it would be enough to sway them. Yes, I feel like everything that was going on with that, it just kind of still should be steering people into the right decision. On the other side of the aisle, I found a completely different dynamic. Republicans said the protest encampments have helped galvanize people to their cause. Some of the counter-protesters from Chapel Hill were invited to speak at the Republican National Convention.

A spokesman for the North Carolina GOP said the party is campaigning in the tailgating areas surrounding college football games, talking to both students and alumni about the economy. Matthew Trott, head of the UNC Chapel Hill College Republicans, said his group saw an uptick in interest after last semester's protests. A lot of young people don't turn out to vote and a lot of young Republican people don't turn out to vote, whether that is, say, fraternity guys who may just not care one bit about politics, they may be conservative, they may like Trump, but they just don't care enough to go vote,

getting them out. He said a lot will depend on whether the demonstrations pick back up again. There have already been several protests on campus this semester, but they've involved fewer people than the biggest rallies in the spring. So where does this leave us? Right now, it's clear Gaza isn't the top issue

for most students I spoke with in North Carolina. And some younger voters are just going about their coursework without learning much about what's going on in the Middle East. Some right-leaning students and Jewish students were put off by the encampments, but I found it solidified their beliefs more than pushing them to a new candidate. But the issue is critical for some voters, particularly Arab Americans and Muslims around the country.

Some of them say they've turned away from Democrats, and they'll continue to talk about the conflict in the Middle East as more people are killed. The election is so close in North Carolina that Democrats will need every possible vote if they want to flip the state back into their column. They're hoping voters will think more broadly about the election, even if they're upset about Gaza. I thought of that listening to Logan Kalin, one of the protesters. I think two things can be true.

I think that I can recognize that the Biden-Harris administration's stance on Israel is not something that I support. And also recognize that there's a vast number of other things that are also impacting my vote in this election that there is a major difference on. Chasing the Vote is part of the Wall Street Journal's What's News. This episode was produced by Ariana Asperu and Jess Jupiter. Sound designed by Michael Laval. He also wrote our theme music. Editorial oversight from Joshua Jamerson, Falana Patterson, Ben Pershing, Scott

Salloway, and Chris Zinsley. I'm Jimmy Vielkind and I'll be back soon with another installment of Chasing the Vote. Thanks for listening.