Politics

Election 2024: The youth vote

By Lia Wong-Ferreira

As she pushed a shopping cart down the frozen food aisle at Trader Joe’s, Sofia Khan felt her phone, in her back pocket, vibrating with an Apple News alert. President Biden had just dropped out of the race for the White House.

“I thought it was a joke,” said Khan, 21, shaking her head at that message, four months before voter polls were scheduled to open. 

The 2024 presidential election is the first in which many members of Generation Z, a group ranging in age from 12 through 27, are eligible to vote. Many of them had told pollsters they prefer candidates who are younger than Biden and former President Donald Trump. 

Sanjar Aliev, a 17-year-old from Kyrgyzstan, who is enrolled at NYU, shared his perspective on the advantages of having a younger president. “They would understand the people’s needs better. Just, like, the country would start, like, adapting towards the younger generations.”

“I wish,” said Josh Wakefield, 15, “that other candidates had been selected and that the system was composed in such a way that other, younger, more, kind of, newer presidents were able to come to light so that there would be more of an opportunity for fresher blood.” 

Many expressed relief that Biden ended his campaign. 

“It’s about time he dropped out,” Michael Gillan, 25, a passerby interviewed at Washington Square Park, said laughing. “He doesn’t even know where he is half the time.”

Some Gen Zers interviewed by The Spectrum criticized how Biden has dealt with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“I feel like the whole situation with Palestine right now, with Biden, wasn’t handled,” Khan said. “I mean, I have no idea how to handle the situation, but I feel like he could have handled it better.” 

Some who agreed with Biden’s decision to step aside said they feared his decision might boost Trump’s chances of returning to the White House.

“It’s gonna turn America into a dictatorship, basically,” Candice Phillips, 20, said, referring to Project 2025, a conservative plan to reshape the U.S. government that some have tried to attach to Trump. “All our rights would be abolished … I think it’s going to target certain groups such as persons of color, the LGBTQ community, women, specifically.”

Others commended some actions Trump took during his presidency.

“He helped people with stimulus checks and stuff when people weren’t working during COVID,” said Gillan, as he stood in Washington Square .

As for Vice President Kamala Harris replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee, several said they don’t know much about her. 

 Despite that, said Owen Kreger-Stickles, 18, who was dining at NYU’s Weinstein Hall, “I support the policies I’ve heard from her more than I do of Donald Trump’s. And a vote in her favor, it’s less of a vote for her and more of a vote against Donald Trump.”

At first, Ty Golany, 15, a native New Yorker relaxing with his friends at Cooper Triangle, sighed when asked to describe the political state of the nation.  Then, “#$@!,” he said. 

Others had a similar response when posed the same question.

“Divisive,” said NYU student Nick Surya, 20, breaking from studying at the Kimmel Center, said. “People are very polarized to one side or another. You don’t see that much moderation anymore. It’s more like, ‘I like this person’ or ‘I hate this person.’ The political climate has become very tense.”

“Volatile,” Wakefield said, “definitely volatile. Divided. Divided where it shouldn’t be. Too much of black or white, us or them, one versus another. It’s the United States. We should be working towards things as a group instead of crossing our fingers for our guy to win over the other guy.”

Regardless of what some see as disunity among younger individuals, Kreger-Stickles said, “Young people should vote … I heard that the largest demographic of people that don’t vote is young people, like Gen Z. And I think that that needs to change, considering a lot of those policies Gen Z doesn’t agree with. The more people we can get educated and voting, the better we can do for our country.”