SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KGET) — Recent polls, including a recent one conducted by NBC News, show President Biden losing favorability among younger voters.
But while the data may show how young voters nationwide feel, it’s not quite reflective of the outlook of many young Democrats in the Golden State. Biden had widespread support from this voter base at the California Democratic Party’s fall endorsing convention in Sacramento.
“It’s not so much a Biden thing,” said Justyn Kelly, the youth vote coordinator and field manager for Grassroots Democrats HQ. “The ones I’ve spoken to, it’s more so just like apathy towards the political process in general, which is even more concerning because they won’t be voting for anybody.”
Kelly was just one of many young Democrats working the convention in hopes of boosting youth voter turnout, come 2024.
Taking back the House — which, in political jargon, means flipping congressional districts from red to blue (taking out the Republican incumbent) or vice versa — is the focus of young Democrats too.
“We’re trying to drive out the vote in the really key House districts, so doing things like text, phone banking and more is really helping us,” said Evelyn Tsoi, the west regional director of the High School Democrats of America.
Tsoi described the organization as the high school branch of the national Democratic Party.
“It’s very important when it comes to these congressional races, because we know that the race to the presidential runs right through California,” said Robert Jimenez, operations manager of Grassroots Democrats HQ.
“If we bank on social media ads, digital stuff, we’re not really going to reach the people. So, it’s going to take door to door, meeting people in their classrooms, in the hallways of school and making sure that we’re actually talking to people and talking about the issues, because instead of telling somebody, just vote Democrat, we have to talk about what’s at stake and why it’s important to get our day out of office.”
Young Democrats are working on hotspot voter registration, phone banks and are hoping to expand door-to-door registration, especially here in the Central Valley, to push for a Democratic majority.
While digital platforms are the way to reach voters aged 18-to-35, according to Steven Sherry, head of business partnerships at Turn It Blue Digital, Jimenez was saying it takes work off the screen too.
“We want the first impression that a campaign makes to be a digital one, and we want the last campaign before they go into that voting booth or fill out their mail ballot form to be a digital one as well,” Sherry said.
Sherry said on platforms such as Hulu or Paramount+, increasingly popular among young voters without traditional cable, providing content to the diverse audience in their native languages has become more possible and sought out.
Jimenez continued: “People have said that it’s pretty difficult just because it’s a lot more rural, a bit more isolated from the larger cities. But it’s important to go out there in places like the Central Valley to register young voters and make sure that they’re aware of the issues that are on the ballot.”
Young voters said it’s not so much about party alignment for them. They see themselves more as an issue-based group.
“I would definitely agree with the fact that Democrats agree more with the issues that [young voter bloc] are caring for because we’re not really seeing the fight for the climate, the fight for rights on the other side,” said George Balan, finance director of both the California High School Democrats and High School Democrats of America.
Unblinded by party politics, the youth can see the intersectionality of issues too.
“I think also for issues like economy and jobs, they also align with the Democratic Party, just because things like climate and rights intersect almost exactly with jobs in the economy,” Balan commented. “Just because you need a strong climate to have strong jobs.”
Top of mind are climate change, abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and gun violence.
“People are concerned about whether or not they’re going to have a home to live in in a couple of years just because of how we continue to abuse our planet,” Balan said of why the environment is so important to voters his age.
“Ensuring that young voters know about these huge issues and how it affects them directly is really going to make a lot of a difference [in turnout],” Balan continued.
Kelly agreed, emphasizing a necessary strategy for the party.
“Speaking to the issues is most important. So if we can do that as Democrats, we’ll be successful.”
Balan explained fellow young people who dropped by the college/high school Democrats convention booth typically wanted to know how the voting process, in general, works.
But Balan noted another alarming trend he’s noticed: “I’ve seen a lot of people that are hesitant to identify with the Democrats and the Republicans because of how both parties have somewhat become polarized,” Balan said.
Nevertheless, the high school Democrat expressed hope: “The fact that we’re here today and seeing some of the young people just shows that we are making steps to ensure that young people feel comfortable identifying as a Democrat, as a progressive.”
When it came to casting votes, a sense of urgency could be seen from all voters 17 News talked to.
“Letting [the youth] know that if they do not use their vote, if they do not use their voices, we’re never going to make any progress on those issues,” Kelly said. “And we’re at a really critical point where this is a fight for democracy… We might not even have a democracy to be left with.”
These young voters heavily engaged in the political process said they’ll continue utilizing peer-to-peer organizing, as the youth know the youth best.
“It’s really easy to feel that nothing’s going to change. Why should I get involved?” began Jason Park, president of the California College Democrats. It’s really easy to get apathetic, but I don’t think we can afford to be apathetic and sit on the sidelines.”
Park, a candidate for membership on the DNC added, “I think folks are understanding how really extreme the GOP is. We can’t even get the government to stay afloat in terms of funding the government… So the fact that the Republicans can’t even do the very basics, I think is getting a lot of attention. And that is really opening a lot of my colleagues, classmates and peers in terms of in terms of how important it is to take back the House.”
Park, who is pushing for a greater presence of younger candidates in party leadership, said the youth political view is shaped by their lived experiences. So far, he said, younger voters have had to bear witness to numerous ongoing conflicts both at home and abroad.
Young voters told 17 News there’s often a feeling they and their priorities are not taken seriously by the adults, which may affect how many go to the polls.
Such a difference is seen in which issues matter most among age groups — as a refresher, climate change and human rights matter most for younger voters, while the economy and housing dominate the priorities of older voters.
“I don’t think enough young voters do know how important their vote is,” Tsoi said, noting she’s expecting and working hard towards record youth blue wave for 2024. “A lot of them just think like, hey, we live in California, such a liberal state.”
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