September 6, 2024 • 50 mins
On this episode of The Middle we're asking you: What's on the minds of younger voters ahead of this presidential election? We're joined by Carolyn DeWitt, president and executive director of Rock the Vote, and Anil Cacodcar - a Harvard political science student who conducted a national poll of youth voters ahead of the election. The Middle's house DJ Tolliver joins as well, plus callers from around the country. #election #youthvote #vote #voterturnout
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Middle is supported by Journalism Funding Partners, a nonprofit
organization striving to increase the sustainability of local journalism by
building connections between donors and news organizations. More information on
how you can support the Middle at listen toothemiddle dot com.
Welcome to the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson along with our
(00:21):
house DJ Tolliver and Tolliver. We are officially post Labor Day,
which means, according to the old tradition made famous in
the John Waters film Serial Mom, that you can't wear
white shoes anymore, but also that we are in the
home stretch of the presidential campaign.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I gotta tell you, man, Serial Mom was like the
scariest movie in the world to me as a kid,
but now this election is like, it's a close second.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Pretty scary of there.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well, you know, one of the things I'm so excited
about with this show in particular is that we always
get calls from younger listeners. A couple of twelve year
olds even called in when we had the astrophysicist Neil
deGrasse Tyson on taking questions about space. So I know
that this hour we're going to hear from people under
let's say forty about what you're thinking about heading into
this election, what's most important when it comes to your vote.
(01:08):
And we're taking your calls at eight four four four middle,
that's eight four four four six four three three five three.
We're going to get to those in just a moment,
but first, a couple weeks ago, as Democrats officially nominated
Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate, we asked you how
you feel about your choices in this election. Here's what
some of you had to say on our voicemail after
the show.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
This is Ken Davis.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
I'm calling from Aiken, South Carolina.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
Hi.
Speaker 7 (01:33):
My name is Anna. I'm calling from Las Vegas.
Speaker 8 (01:36):
This is Evan Tucker from Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 9 (01:39):
My name is Jamie and I am from the Twin Cities.
I am not thrilled about any of the choices in
the election. I'm not sure who exactly all vote for.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I was okay with Biden, but I'm much more excited
with Kamala Harris.
Speaker 7 (01:57):
I'm voting for former pros in Trump. The economy is terrible,
Securing our border is really important. Why anyone might think
that things will change with Kamala? They seem to be
forgetting that she's our current vice president.
Speaker 8 (02:13):
Non committed, non Democrat, non Republican voters adamantly say that
they're going to vote third party no matter what, all
because you want to vote your conscience. I think these
people don't see the long view of history.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Thanks to everyone who called in, and you can hear
that entire episode on our podcast in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
on the iHeart app or wherever you listen to podcasts.
So now to our topic this hour, young voters, what
matters to you heading into this election?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Now?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
To put things in perspective, half of all voters aged
eighteen to twenty nine voted in twenty twenty. That's a
remarkable eleven point increase from the previous presidential election. But
of course it's anyone's guess what will happen this time around.
The voters who were young then are a little older,
and there's a new crop of young voters Tolliver. When
our listeners reach us.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
They can call us at eight four four four Middle
that's eight four four four sixty four three three five
three all right to us at Listen to the Middle
dot com. Or they can write to us on TikTok,
which I.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Will be checking.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Good because I don't like having to do that, but
I'm glad that you're going to check TikTok. So joining
us now our panel Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, A Neil Kakudkar,
who is a student at Harvard University, where he conducted
a poll of young voters across the country with the
school's Institute of Politics and Neil, Welcome to the Middle.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Hi Jeremy, thank you so much for having me on.
It's such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It's great to have you and joining us from Baltimore,
Carolyn DeWitt, President and executive director of Rock the Vote,
which since nineteen ninety has worked toward increasing turnout among
voters eighteen to twenty four. Carolyn, great to have you
with us as well.
Speaker 10 (03:44):
Hi Jeremary, thanks so much for having me and for
uplifting youth voting.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well before we get to the phones, Anil, what did
you find in your poll were the most important issues
to young voters around the country.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
The issues that are most important to young voters, you know,
in many ways aren't very different from the issues that
are you know, impacting all voters in general. The economy
was top of mind for our sample, and the top
three issues out of sixteen that we fielded were inflation, healthcare,
and housing, And particularly I'd like to draw importance to housing.
You really can't talk about the economy with young people
(04:18):
unless you're talking about the cost of rent.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's interesting that you mentioned those issues and not because
if you were watching the news or paying attention to
the news over the last many months, you would think
that young voters care a lot about the war in Gaza?
Did that how did that play into your poll?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Absolutely? We conducted an entire research section trying to get
to the bottom of how exactly you know, the Israel
Hamas war will impact the youth vote, And what we
found is that, you know, for a large, you know
portion of this generation, they aren't just tapped into that conflict,
as are you know, many other foreign policy issues. See
if you ask questions about you know, the Middle East,
(04:55):
there's a consistent forty to fifty percent of the sample
that doesn't have enough in for to make a decision.
But for you know, an election as close as this one,
any issue can be an important issue. So I think
it's important to you know, take things into consideration as
a whole and not single out any particular issue as
you know, the issue to win the youth vote.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Carolyn, do you find that young voters are more motivated
by issues or candidates?
Speaker 11 (05:21):
Certainly issues?
Speaker 10 (05:23):
I think most most voters, right, that's not unique to
young voters. But I think what oftentimes is I would
say not young voters are not given actually the credit
that they get a lot of times about how they
approach issues. They're not single issue voters. They look at
issues in a very complex way and they see how
(05:45):
interrelated they are. So it's not just about a single issue,
but it's about a whole broad agenda that a candidate
is bringing. What do you.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
See in your time at Rock the Vote and you've
been there for a while, what do you see are
the are the things that motivate young voters to participate
in our elections? Because we always hear that the turnout
among younger voters is lower than it is among the
population as a whole.
Speaker 10 (06:09):
Yeah, I was going to say it's you know, each
election cycle you hear young, our young voter is going
to turn out, and each I feel like generation is
blamed for their turnout when this is actually not a
single generation problem. Since eighteen year old's got the right
to vote in nineteen seventy two, we've seen that young
(06:30):
voters have turned out at twenty to thirty points lower
in each presidential election, and that disparity is even greater
in my term or in local elections. And that's because
we have a systematic problem, right. We don't do much
in our country to prepare young people to vote when
they turn eighteen. And even worse, we see, as young
(06:53):
people have been breaking turnout records in twenty eighteen twenty twenty,
we've actually seen some states make it harder for them
to vote. So it's incredibly important for us to actually walk.
What all the research actually says is that young voters
are new voters, and so they're unfamiliar with the process.
So a lot of it is actually about breaking down
the process and connecting the issues that they care about
(07:15):
so passionately to the candidates and to the policies themselves.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, let's get to some young voters because they are
lighting up the phones right now. Tommy is in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Tommy,
welcome to the middle. How old are you and tell
us what you're thinking about this election.
Speaker 12 (07:30):
Hi, I'm Tommy. I'm eighteen years old and this will
be my first election.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And what are the big issues that are important to you.
Speaker 12 (07:40):
I'm most interested in social justice and equity going into
our future, and also gun control, especially in our schools.
I think both of these and many other issues will
make a big difference as we pave our way into
the future.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
And are you definitely going to vote? This is a
question that Anil's poll asked people, But are you definitely
going to vote in this election?
Speaker 12 (08:06):
Well, it's definitely harder for me to vote since I
have to mail in from college.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
I have every intention to do so this year.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Great Tommy, thank you so much for that. And a Neil,
what do you make of that? He says it's more
difficult for him. I mean, this is a problem for
a lot of college students. They live in one state
because they're going to school there during this is during
the school year, and they have to vote in another state.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
No, I feel you right there. I have to submit
a copy of my student ID to you know, request
a mail in ballot for the first time in the
state of Louisiana, where I'll be voting this fall. You know,
the important thing is too. I mean when we asked
two years ago in our poll about high school civics education,
a lot of young people, you know, just didn't feel
(08:50):
like their high schools prepare them to, you know, logistically
go through the process. What does it mean to submit
a mail and application? What does it mean to vote early?
You know, how am I going to make a plan
to vote the day of? Because you know, those things
are things that can catch you off guard as a
young voter, and you're building the habits of engaging with
a healthy democracy. Folks who have been doing this for
(09:10):
twenty thirty years know the drill. You know, they go
to their local elementary school right before work or you know,
right after work and have that time carved out and
have that muscle memory built into their you know, into
their minds. But you know, something very you know, impressive
I want to you know, point out for this generation
is that we're voting at twice the rate that you know,
our parents were voting when they.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Were our age.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
So despite all of those challenges, you know, these mobilizing
issues have really driven young voters like you and me
to the polls.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Let's go to ken Zi, who is in Houston, Texas.
Ken Zi, welcome to the middle. Go ahead. How old
are you hi?
Speaker 13 (09:47):
I'm Kissey. I will be twenty five on election day?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And what's your what's your thought about this? Are you
excited to vote?
Speaker 13 (09:56):
I actually am. I'm excited now that Kamala is running
instead of Biden. So my generation, I feel like we
didn't like Biden or Trump or to go whenever. It
was our first time to vote, and we weren't excited
this time either. But now that we actually have a
new option, I think there will be more of us
going out in voting. I'm an independent, so you know
(10:19):
I didn't like either option, but now I actually have
someone I can be excited about, and I feel like
a lot of my friends build the same way. It's
making us want to take the time to go to
the pool.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Kenzie. Thank you for that call, Carolyn. Have you heard
a lot of that so far, just because of the
change in the race that happened over the summer with
Biden getting out in Kamala Harris getting in.
Speaker 10 (10:42):
Yeah. Absolutely. So I should preface this with saying, rock
the vote is nonpartisan. We were just focused on building
young people's power. But the reality is we have seen
a surge.
Speaker 11 (10:53):
We've seen a lot of energy.
Speaker 10 (10:55):
There wasn't you know, transparently, there wasn't a lot of
energy or interest in a Biden Trump rematch, even though
young people voted overwhelmingly for Biden. And what we've seen, also,
honestly from the Hairs campaign is they're they're leaning into it.
They're leaning into gen Z culture that summer. Yeah exactly, Yeah,
(11:19):
they're like embracing there's more snark, there's more right, there's
more means, and so it's it's energizing the young voters.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Absolutely, you know, Tolliver, I certainly remember some of the
rock the Vote commercials from the height of the MTV era,
featuring musicians like Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Jemmy, We're so old.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Oh my god, here's sir mix a lot who, in
all fairness is not someone I typically associate with voter turnout.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Take a listen, yo, what's up.
Speaker 14 (11:47):
It's real popular in rap music right now. To disty establishment.
I'll complain about the establishment's fault.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
I want to get what.
Speaker 14 (11:56):
Needs to be popular is getting you all out there
to vote. You know what I'm saying, I'm going to
tell y'all, if you're eighteen or older and you're an
American citizen, you got the right to vote.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Seem damn you.
Speaker 14 (12:07):
Got any complaints, you take it out on him Pace
Baby Got Baby.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Got Back to the polls apparently.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah. By the way, podcast listeners, you know you don't
get music like the people on the radio do because
we don't have the rights to play for you. But
I can tell you this. We didn't even play Baby
Got Back on the radio because it probably wouldn't have
been appropriate. So we'll be back with more young callers
on the Middle. This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson.
(12:37):
If you're just tuning. In the Middle is a national
call in show. We're focused on elevating voices from the
middle geographically, politically, philosophically, or maybe you just want to
meet in the middle. This hour, we want to know
what's on the minds of young voters ahead of the election. Tolliver,
what is the number to call in?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's eight four four four Middle. That's eight four four
four six four three three five three. You can also
write to us that listen to the Middle or on
social media.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'm joined by longtime Rock the Vote president and executive director,
Carolyn DeWitt, and Anil Kakudkar, a student at the Harvard
Kennedy School who helped conduct a national poll of young voters.
And before we get back to the phones, Aneil, we
know that over the course of history, youth voter turnout
is lower than the population as a whole, and a
lot lower than the oldest voters. You talked a little
(13:24):
bit about that, but what do you think would be
the one thing that would help boost turnout among the
youngest voters.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You know, we in two thousand and eight, that's often
you know, looked back upon as the youth vote moment,
but that was sort of like a little blip in
the continuum of the youth vote. And twenty eighteen and
twenty twenty two are three consecutive cycles in which organizing
power has been built top you know, this willpower to
you know, get young people out to the ballot box.
So it really isn't one thing that's going to drive
(13:56):
young people to the polls. It's not one candidate, but
the infrastructure, so to speak, has already been put into
place to have young people turn out. You're having campaigns
meet young voters where they're at, You're meeting them, you know,
through you know, trusted sources on social media and even
cable news in some cases. So to answer your question,
you know, the one thing I would do to increase
(14:17):
youth turnout is to meet young voters where they're at
and not you know, not you know, expect young voters
to you know, adhere to you know, the traditions of
voter outreach.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Carolyn, I read that same day voter registration is particularly
effective at encouraging young people to vote, and letting sixteen
and seventeen year olds pre register to vote before they
turn eighteen can also substantially increase turnout. Is that kind
of thing widespread across the country.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
It's not widespread, although a lot of organizations like Rock
the Vote are trying to encourage states and actually at
the federal level to adopt these policies because they do help.
Speaker 11 (14:57):
New voters through the process.
Speaker 10 (14:58):
Right, it's getting them not just pre registration, but automatic
voter registration. So when you're there getting your driver's license,
for instance, when you're sixteen, right, you're getting automatically pre
registered to vote, so you're not having to go back
when you're eighteen, which kind of makes no sense to
anyone who's eighteen years old, right, and you're in a
transition moment as well, so you know, it's inevitable that
(15:21):
every election cycle we're also hearing from someone who missed
the registration deadline, that did not realize that they had
a registration deadline, and it's heartbreaking. They want to actually participate,
but then they're barred from doing it. And you see
in some states that they're actually making registration and you'll
notice actually some states are worse.
Speaker 11 (15:41):
Off with policies.
Speaker 10 (15:42):
They make voter registration deadlines early and then they don't
have same day registration in order to make it harder
for young people to vote. And I always say they
if your vote wasn't powerful, they wouldn't be trying to
prevent you from voting.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right, Yeah, yeah, let's go back to the phones in Michael,
who's in Harrisburg and Sylvania. Michael, welcome to the middle.
Just tell us your age and then go.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Ahead, Hi, I'm twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Awesome. When what do you think?
Speaker 4 (16:09):
So?
Speaker 5 (16:10):
I think that the economy and affordability, obviously, according to
the polls and everything seems to be top of mind
for a lot of people. But my concern, especially for
younger people, is some of the misinformation that's coming from
where these inflated prices are coming from, i e. Corporate greed,
things of that nature. I'm at the point in my
(16:31):
life that I should be looking at trying to buy
a house, and it's wildly unaffordable. And there's one campaign
that I think will help address these types of issues
more than the other will.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And what about your news? Where are you getting your
information from?
Speaker 5 (16:49):
So that's the other thing. It's really nice. I've grown
up of conservative and then when I was in high school,
I started listening to NPR and I started to get
more of a broad viewpoint of things. But I still
will get my news from places like Fox, like Breitbart,
things of that nature. But I'll also take things from
the other side and try to have a more balanced
(17:09):
viewpoint so I know what all the different sides are saying.
It helps you be a more informed person to know
when everybody is saying.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Michael, thank you so much for that call. Aneil. You know,
one of the things that I always say, or always
ask when I go and speak to a classroom of
college students or even high school students, is where do
you get your news, and so many people now are
just getting it from YouTube or TikTok or other places
where you're not necessarily sure how much you can trust
(17:40):
the information you're getting. Not that some people feel that
they can trust the information they're getting from mainstream news organizations,
But what about the information side of this, and Neil,
in terms of the people that you have spoken with, we.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Ask a lot about this in our pool. And if
you look at twenty twenty and twenty twenty four and
compare where you know voters under thirty are getting their
information from, looks a lot different between these two election cycles.
You're seeing less young people tuned into Fox News CNN.
You're seeing less young people tuned into even Facebook and Twitter,
slash x or Snapchat or Instagram. The only social media
(18:16):
platform that we've tracked that's seen, you know, a significant
increase in viewership for news content is TikTok. So you're
seeing that young voters are getting harder to reach on
these other platforms where campaigns have sort of built a
habit of reaching out to people there, and you're seeing,
you know, as as the cycle ramps up, you know,
both sides of the isle are making a significant effort
(18:37):
to court young voters on TikTok. You've seen, you know,
President Trump, you know, start a TikTok account himself and
his campaign reach out to young voters on there, and
you know, through through content creators and influencers. So young
people are getting their news from a variety of sources.
It's not to say that everyone's going on social media
and no one's going on cable TV. In fact, it's
(18:57):
quite the opposite. A lot of folks are getting their
news from cap TV and even YouTube and you know,
you know, social media altogether, so it's not one particular
source that's drowning out the others.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Well, we talk about social media, tolliver anything coming in
on email or on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sorry, I'm rushing to follow Donald Trump's TikTok real quick.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
One second.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
A mod in Florida is twenty three, and he says,
I consider myself an undecided voter. Probably the most important
thing for me is corporate greed, the job market, and
balancing environmental preservation with providing affordable housing. Owen, a twenty
two year old gen Z voter, says, my personal and
political focus is entirely on climate mitigation. We're slowly collectively reacting,
but not nearly fast or forcefully enough. Spoiler alert, all
(19:39):
of these comments have to do with climate change.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, actually, Carol, and that makes me wonder whether you
see kind of a lack of hope or an abundance
of hope among younger generations about some of these big
issues like climate change being solved in the future if
they participate in the political process, they believe that they
can actually make a difference.
Speaker 10 (20:03):
Yeah, I think that you're hitting a great point. I
think the reality is gen Z and it's not unique
to gen Z, but gen Z is incredibly frustrated and
understandably so with where a lot of these issues are
at that have been building up. Right. Climate change has
been ignored for a long time. Gun violence has been
(20:23):
ignored for a long time. Right, I was going to say,
and now in some of these cases also, these issues
are being rolled back. And so you see these issues
such as also making sure that there's equity and in
marginalized communities so LGBTQ, right, communities of color, and these
(20:45):
are the issues that are really heart issues for young
people because they're also living through them. This is an
incredibly diverse generation, it's about fifty percent people of color.
You have a larger LGBTQ community. You they're going through
the process right They're experiencing gun violence in their schools,
(21:06):
they're experience immigration issues, and so they aren't they aren't
looking at this as a thing that needs to be sold,
like whether or not the candidate cansulv it. They need
to be solved. They're seeing that they are the ones
that are going to be suffering from the consequences of
the inaction, and they're frustrated by it, but they're also
(21:28):
hopeful and want to take the reins and take over
and solve the issues in a bold way.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Let's go to Jasper, who's in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Jasper, welcome
to the middle. Tell us your age then go ahead. Hello.
Speaker 15 (21:41):
I'm twenty five and my biggest concern is parenting. I'm
soon going to be marrying my partner fingers cross, and
I want to be able to child in a way
that I feel most comfortable with and I can afford
being able to buy property, whether that be a house,
and being able to keep a job. And because I'm
(22:03):
going into the public health field, I need to be
sure that i'm able to be getting grants, So I
need an administration. I believe in public health and.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Are you seeing that in the choices that you have now?
Speaker 15 (22:17):
I do, for the most part, I do.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah. Are you for sure going to vote?
Speaker 15 (22:24):
Almost certainly? Fought shadow of a doubt.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Oh.
Speaker 15 (22:27):
On top of that, since we did mention parenting, like
I do want to make sure I'm going to be
able to marry my partner, So that's also like top
in mind for me.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, Jasper, thank you so much for that call. And
let me go to Linda, who's in Parker, Colorado. Linda,
what's your age and what do you think?
Speaker 16 (22:48):
Hi, I'm twenty four.
Speaker 15 (22:51):
I'll be twenty five this next year.
Speaker 16 (22:54):
And I think that this election is going to be
very pivotal for just how the democracy is gonna run.
Like we've seen a lot of news headlines come out
about interference with things like that, and my perspective on
it is it doesn't matter who you vote for, Like,
I don't care who you vote for, but the biggest
thing is to vote and for your opinion to be
(23:17):
out there so that way there is evidence to back
that up. I think that there's a lot of issues
in our country right now that are below the belt
that shouldn't be the biggest priority.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Like like what what do you think what are you
thinking about? By the way, on that front, what do
you think should not be should not be talked about?
Should not be a big priority right now.
Speaker 16 (23:39):
So comparing it to my mom's generations and comparing it
specifically to my grandmother's generation, I feel like the topic
of women's rights is really something that shouldn't be the priority.
There seem to be way more issues of like schools
being underfunded, Like that should be a priority. We have rights,
(24:02):
No one's taking that away. It's never been a conversation
of hey, let's take away your rights because you're a woman. Yes,
there's different access to different you know, abortion and things
like that, and resources, but it's that shouldn't be what
we're talking about at a federal level. We should be
addressing the financial situation. We should be looking at our
(24:23):
foreign policies and things like that, because when you bring
it down to how our democracy works, our biggest influence
is at our local government and the federal government can't
really control a lot of that. So it's see your
problem in your neighborhood, Like there's an abortion clique that
I want to be here, or if you have the
(24:44):
other opinion where you don't want one, go to your
local officials because that those are the people that are
take it.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Okay, Linda, Yeah, we've got to thank you so much
for that call. And I think, by the way, a
Neil Coco car I want to I want to go
to you on that. I think some people would probably
disagree that the federal government doesn't have an anything to
do with with your access to abortion, especially right now
with the Supreme Court decision that occurred. But what do
you make of what Linda was saying about the kinds
of issues that are important to her versus the kinds
(25:11):
that are not. And she did mention the economy as
being a very important one.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I mean, like we discussed earlier, young voters aren't a monolith,
but they are by and large concerned with personal freedoms. Now,
whether that's the personal freedom to be safe from gun violence,
or the freedom to breathe clean air and clean water,
or you know, the freedom to you know, make reproductive
health care decisions. So this theme of freedom is something
that the Hairs campaign has definitely at least latched onto
(25:39):
in their messaging to young voters. But I think it
also speaks more broadly to the way that young voters
view the government as a tool, you know, to accomplish change.
So if you looked at young voters in twenty fourteen,
twenty twelve and you ask them, you know, do you
think the government should be providing, you know, basic health insurance?
Do you think the government should be acting aggressively on
climate change? By and large, young people would not agree
(26:01):
that the government you had that place Today, young Republicans
even are more likely than not to say that the
government should provide basic health insurance to those who can't
afford it. So we're seeing, really, you know, big shift
in terms of how young voters, both liberal and conservative,
both Democrat and Republican, view the role of government in
addressing their day to day concerns. And that's part of
(26:24):
why we've seen such a precipitous decline in institutional trust.
If you ask young people if they trust Congress, the president,
the military even to do the right thing, you know,
it's so much less likely that they're going to say yes.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Today, Hey, Carolyn, how do you get young people to
trust you at rock the vote to help them figure
out how they should vote. You've got to attract a
new crop every every four years.
Speaker 10 (26:50):
I you know you that's perfect. I always say we
have a new class of young voters. It's like, why
haven't we solved the young voter? Because there's a new class, right,
there's every year. Every there are four million new eighteen
year old who are going to be eligible to vote
this year, right, this is going to be sixteen million
are going to be able to vote in their first
(27:10):
presidential election. So what I think Neil like said earlier
is like trusted messengers are incredibly important, especially in the
space where you have a lot of media, a lot
of noise on social media, and so organizations like Rock
the Vote and others is we don't rely on young
(27:31):
people coming to us, right, going to go to them, right,
We go to them, We go to where they are.
So a lot of that is working with cultural trusted messengers.
Cultural messengers, so musicians, athletes, celebrities, sometimes it's teachers. We
also have school programs, So we're touching them wherever we
can in their spaces and bringing them, welcome them into
(27:55):
the civic space.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Let's go to Daniel who's in Kansas City, Missouri. Daniel,
Welcome to the middle. Tell us your age and tell
us what you think.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Hi.
Speaker 17 (28:04):
I am thirty one years old within Kansas City, Missouri.
So I'm in a pretty solidly democratic stronghold in what's
otherwise a very solidly read state. And I'm pretty concerned
this election cycle about voter accessibility and the fact that
(28:25):
I've heard some stories. I'm an avid int art listener,
and I've been hearing some stories about I'm looking to
be voter suppression efforts across the country, and I wonder
if maybe your experts could speak this more broadly, or
in Missouri and Kansas in the Midwest, But it seems
like there might be some efforts to take people off
(28:45):
voter rolls, and I'm wondering if that's affecting younger voters
because they are such a strong, yeah, you know, voter
block this this election cycle, if that's something that might be,
you know, affecting younger voters.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Now, well, let me take that to Carolyn Dewait. Carolyn,
what do you think about that? Are some of these
efforts in various states to take people off roles and
suppress voting. Is that going to have a big effect
on young voters.
Speaker 11 (29:11):
Absolutely, so.
Speaker 10 (29:12):
I think most people think of voter suppression in terms
of the nineteen fifties, right, we think of like pre
Voting Rights Act, And since the Shelby Beholder decision of
twenty thirteen, we've actually seen a rollback. That's why a
lot of people call it the Jim Crow. Number two
is that we are seeing voter suppression efforts and policies
(29:35):
pass that we have not seen in decades. And there
is a way to fix that. There's federal legislation that
can fix that, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
But what we are seeing, what you're talking about, of
voter role purging, We are seeing millions of people being
thrown off voter roles. So even if you're registered to vote,
(29:56):
it is incredibly important to make sure that you check
your registration status and encourage those around.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
You, you know, Tolliver. As we heard from Carolyn, people
under twenty one weren't even legally allowed to vote until
pretty recently in the country's history.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Nineteen seventy one saw the passage of the twenty sixth Amendment,
which brought the national minimum voting age down eighteen here's
President Richard Nixon at the certification of the amendment.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Well, it's a very.
Speaker 18 (30:20):
Great privilege to welcome this very exciting group to the
White House on the day that we celebrate our National
Independence Day. And it seems to me that it is
particularly appropriate that on this same day we are certifying
the twenty sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
That amendment, as you know, provides for the right to
(30:41):
vote of all of our young people. Between eighteen and
twenty one, eleven million new voters as a result of
this amendment that you now will see certified by the
GSA Administrator.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Wow, you know, Tulliver, it's amazing how many times we've
heard Richard Nixon on this show. He really did do
a lot in his presidency out side of Watergate.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Turns out, who knew.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
We'll be right back with more of the Middle. This
is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. This hour, we're asking
what's on the minds of young voters ahead of this election,
and as we've been hearing, we have a lot of
young listeners here at the middle. You can call us
at eight four four four Middle. That's eight four four
four six four, three, three, five three. I'm joined by
longtime Rock the Vote president and executive director Carolyn DeWitt
(31:25):
and Anil Kakukar, who's a student at Harvard University's Kennedy
School and he helped conduct a national poll of young voters.
We've got some more on the line, and I want
to go to Sung Gin, who is in Detroit, Michigan.
Sung Gin, what's your age and what do you think?
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Hi?
Speaker 6 (31:43):
I'm Sung Jin. I'm twenty four years old, as a
young voter, someone who's never missed the general or primary
election since the age that I could vote. I'm extremely
engaged in foreign policy at this moment. I'm extremely I
have my eye Israel Palestine. I watched the d NC
with a lot of enthusiasm and was thoroughly disappointed with
(32:06):
Kamala Harris's speech, and so I'll definitely be looking for
a commitment from her.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
What kind of commitment.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
A commitment to stop the violence, a commitment to end
the arms trade that sustains the genocide of the Palestinians.
These are things that as a person living in community
with the biggest population of Arab Americans, and of course
as a Korean American I don't plan to speak for everyone.
I speak for myself and a lot of my friends.
(32:36):
I'm looking for an end to the kind of administration
that would bet in such an action that Israel is
committing against the Palestinians.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
And just quickly your thoughts on Trump and his his
his views on the situation in Gaza.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
Certainly, Donald Trump is a nightmare and I do not
want Donald Trump. And so that's why I'm speaking specifically
about Vice President Kamala Harris. And that's why all the
power to the student protesters at universities and the people
that I hope to join in putting pressure on Kamala
Harris and making a deeper commitment because as an undecided voter,
(33:18):
I'm looking to her.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Sun Jin, thank you very much for that call, Anil.
As you said, the issues that are important to people
who are younger like Sunjin are a lot of the
same issues that are important to all generations. And he's
in Michigan, which is a state that has a lot
of people that are particularly concerned about the war in Gaza.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Absolutely, we had the chance to go to the Metro
Detroit area the week of the Democratic primary in Michigan
and conducted a town hall out in Livonia with some
young voters as well to get some qualitative thoughts on
you know, it was driving the uncommitted vote. And we
also met with some local leaders behind the uncommitted vote
as well to understand, you know, what's driving this. And
(34:05):
I think, you know, when we talk about the conflict
in the Middle East and young voters, something that often
gets left behind is the fact that young voters sympathize
equally with both people groups, but view the governments involved
less favorably. And you know, this is really a people
driven conversation. So any any emphasis on you know, the
(34:27):
well being of families and children, you know, is sure
to you know, capture, capture the hearts and hopefully votes
of young voters.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Justin is in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Justin Welcome to the
middle Can you give us your age and go ahead? Please?
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Yeah, Hi?
Speaker 19 (34:45):
I am twenty eight years old and I'm from Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
And what are you thinking about ahead of this election?
Speaker 19 (34:54):
There is one topic that concerns me way more than
any others, and that is the war in Europe, the
war in Ukraine. I study history at the U of M.
And at any time that there has been this sort
of arms race, this build up of military power, this
(35:15):
this it's I mean, it's not even a Cold War anymore.
It's it's way hotter than the Cold War used to be.
And I'm looking for someone who actually wants to de
escalate the fighting in Ukraine and towards a deal, a
negotiation to stop violence, because it doesn't seem to me
that that Ukraine is going to militarily achieve their goals
(35:40):
anytime soon. Read lots of polls that lots of Ukrainians
are willing to trade land for peace. I mean, there's
so many there's such a great depth of history here
in Eastern Europe, and I feel like like Americans in
general don't know anything of the history to read behind
(36:02):
the Yeah, the geopolitical crisis that's in Ukraine's debate, and
I just want that to come to an end.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, yeah, justin Thank you very much for that, Carolyn DeWitt.
Are you surprised about these from these callers that are
that are calling about foreign policy issues at that age?
Speaker 11 (36:17):
No, not at all.
Speaker 10 (36:18):
I mean this is uh I was I was saying before,
I think we underestimate the you know, a lot of
people underestimate this generation and how they have more access
to information than any generation before them, and they are
more connected to what's going on around the world.
Speaker 11 (36:38):
So it doesn't surprise me at all.
Speaker 10 (36:40):
I think what we heard also from the previous caller was,
you know, this desire to want to engage in the
democratic process, to want a candidate who aligns with their
values and who want one of the things that we
talk a.
Speaker 11 (36:58):
Lot about a rock the voter.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
There's no perfect candidate, right You rarely get a can't
These are humans. These are complex issues, and so a
lot of times it's about finding the candidate who most
aligns with your values and then pushing the issue as
hard as you can, because a lot of these big
issues take decades a lot of times to resolve.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Let's go to Scott, who's in Boston, Massachusetts. Scott, how
old are you and what do you think?
Speaker 20 (37:27):
I am thirty three years old, so I guess I'm
on the older side of the bell curve here, but.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Still count it as young. I still counted as young
in the middle right now, So go.
Speaker 20 (37:37):
Ahead, nice what I think that a lot of voters are,
especially like my age and younger where just jumping into
the economy again, your first job out of school, got students,
got to pay. You've got all these things going on
happening now. But people are forgetting the fact that, like
(38:00):
we're talking about Donald Trump here, a person that is
interested in getting back into office to make consequential changes
to the way that our democracy works. And I'm not
saying that our democracy right now is perfect, but I
do think that it's a terrible idea to vote someone
into office who has an interest in meddling in the
(38:24):
Federal Reserve's duty to preserve the balance of the economy.
And if you think that Donald Trump is well qualified
to do that and he's not going to make interest
rate cuts just to make himself look better, you end
up in a situation like they have in Turkey, where
Aroon and his administration get to control the economy and
(38:46):
they have driven that economy into the ground. So I think,
you know, for me, it's scary that, like we're ignoring
the fact that there's some interest that Donald Trump has
that hard hugely consequent Yeah, bigger than your immediate economic will.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, Scott, thank you very much for that call. Tolliver,
do you think I have to ask each person when
they call to give us their age first, or will
they just do it without me asking.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
I was just thinking, we're like carding all our listeners.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Must be this tall to ride the ride. Okay, let's
try Bevin in Saline, Michigan. Bevan, welcome to the middle.
Go ahead.
Speaker 21 (39:29):
Hi, I am twenty five, twenty three years.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Old, twenty three Okay, great.
Speaker 21 (39:36):
I think that the issue between the two parties is
that sometimes they are saying the same thing with different language.
So a lot of the time, when the right will
say the elites, the left will say corporate greed or capitalists.
Speaker 22 (39:55):
But a lot of this is just pandering and and
neither party is addressing the issue that voters want to
be addressed. There's the two party system isn't really serving people,
and people need something that's not backside corporate interests to
make them excited to vote.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Bevin, that's a great point. I want to ask Aneil
about that. A couple of things there, but one of
them that I'd love to ask you about is are
the candidates talking to your generation? Do you feel like
they're pandering as we just heard there, or are they
are they talking with respect to younger voters.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
No, yeah, I mean it's important to remember that young voters,
you know, didn't just fall out of the coconut tree.
I mean, this is a pretty savvy generation. So I
think I think the radar for pandering is very strong
with this generation. And I think that growing up in
the digital age is digital natives. We're exposed to so
much content that is manufactured. So when something comes up
(40:59):
that is obviously you know, very polished and very pristine.
You know, eighteen nineteen twenty year olds grew up on
an Internet where photoshop is you know, a regular occurrence
where we know, you know, what an AI generated image
looks like because the fingers are off right. So this
is a generation that's naturally skeptical of any outreach from
you know, you know, people in power. But you know
(41:21):
that's that skepticism can actually be a benefit in many
cases because it forces you know, you know, candidates who
are wanting to engage with young voters to to engage
more critically and to you know, dig a little bit
deeper than you know a promise, you know, a campaign
promise or you know, a rally. It really forces candidates
to build relationships trusted relationships with these young voters over
(41:44):
time and as the race is reshuffled with you know,
under one hundred days left, there isn't a whole lot
of time to do that. So it really is, you know,
a supreme challenge to do that right now.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Way under one hundred days. I think we're closer to
say days.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Right now the first early ballots go out, and just.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
That is true, very very soon, the first early ballots
go out, I think in North Carolina, which is the
swing state at this point. Let's get to William, who's
in Nashville, Tennessee. William, go ahead, Hey.
Speaker 5 (42:15):
There I was.
Speaker 23 (42:17):
I just thought I would call in because I heard
a caller earlier talk about how they are holding out
for Kamala Harris to stop the violence in Israel and Palestine,
which I mean, I agree with I I want that
violence to stop. But I just don't see that ever
(42:43):
happening with a Kamala or Donald Trump, because I think
there's too much money involved with the with either party,
and there's global politics involved that obviously aren't gonna benefit
(43:06):
the Palestinian people.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Are you planning to vote, William? Are you planning to
vote in this election? And do you know who for,
because it sounds like you don't like either one.
Speaker 23 (43:16):
I don't really like either one. I would like to
vote for Kamala because I think that there's a chance
she will do something.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
About abortion.
Speaker 23 (43:28):
Abortion issues, which is I think another super important thing
that's being glossed over kind of. But I also kind
of don't I wouldn't be surprised if if nothing was
able to be done in that sense either, because I
feel like the Democrats have been holding abortion over our
(43:48):
heads as like a campaign point for years and years
and years, and Donald Trump and the Supreme courte that
he elected took it away from the American people and
now it's just another like it's like an added AMMO
(44:09):
for a Democrat.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, you know, yeah, William, thank you for that. And
Carolyn de wait, it brings up a point because William
sounds like it doesn't really like either side. There you've
said Rock the Vote is a nonpartisan organization. I do
want to ask you though, after the after the twenty
sixteen election, you released a statement from Rock the Vote
(44:34):
saying this is a jarring day for millennial voters who
voted overwhelmingly for Secretary Clinton and for progressive candidates. Down
the ticket. How do you keep Rock the vote nonpartisan
when in many cases, as I'm sure in twenty sixteen,
a lot of the people who you're representing basically are
going to vote one way as opposed to sort of
split down the middle.
Speaker 10 (44:54):
Yeah, so ever, since, thanks for the question, and honestly
for all the color, I'm really impressed by all the.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Callers who have Yeah, they're always impressive.
Speaker 10 (45:04):
But the you know, since Rock the Boat was founded,
it was founded on an issue. It was founded on
the censorship of hip hop and rap artists who had
something to say about what they were experiencing in their
day to day lives and the frustration and frankly, the
anger and of how a system was set up and
(45:26):
democracy and the censorship of their lyrics and their stories.
And so since it's founding over thirty years ago, we
have stayed true to that that we reflect what young
people care about. And so when young people care about
the issues of you know, abortion, climate change, gun violence,
the things that they're experiencing, we honor that. Frankly, we
(45:51):
don't shy away from that because these aren't issues that
one party has to represent. Both parties can be dealing
with them. Right can be a dressing them. It doesn't
have to be one. And we know that there are
people on both sides of the aisle, and I won't
just limit it to the two parties, but that there
are multiple individuals through the several different parties that do
(46:16):
actually exist, who are trying to address these issues. So
that is it's these We just uplift the issues. And honestly,
any candidate who speaks about the issues and tries to
address them in the way that young people want them addressed,
which is frankly, boldly and urgently are going to be
the party that wins wins the generation. And frankly, there's
(46:38):
no path forward to the White House for the candidate
that does not write that does not fit the generation.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Well yeah, generations, ze I think is the biggest generation
right now. Let's get one more caller squeezed in here,
Henry and Dallas, Texas. Henry, go ahead, briefly.
Speaker 24 (46:56):
All right, thank you so much. I'm twenty five, so
I don't have a ton of memory of many previous elections,
but going back to rewatch old debates that they met
Romney and Barack Obama or even watching the you know,
George Bush correspondence dinners unstruck by just how professional people
running to the highest office seem to have used to
(47:16):
Ben and I don't know how we return to that
level of civility and substance focused electoral politics that even
with a very short memory as a younger voter, I
still remember.
Speaker 17 (47:29):
I don't know how we get back to that. I
would very much like to.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
That is such a great point, Henry, a great point
to end on, and a Neil Kako kar Let me
just ask you. I actually am really disappointed when I
see now the debates happen and they don't shake hands
anymore because they just hate each other. It seems like
so much. But what do you think about the civility?
Just briefly as a final question to you.
Speaker 4 (47:51):
Absolutely, I mean, this is a serious election in you know,
many cases that in many cases has taken an unseerious tone,
and for young voters, particularly this new cohort that's aging
into you know, the electorate for the first time, we
don't remember anything other than you know this, you know,
lack of civility. When when Donald Trump, for example, we're
(48:12):
going to talk about Mitt Romney and George Bush has
sort of you know, predecessors to Trump. I don't remember
Bush and Romney as candidates. I was in seventh grade
when you know Trump ran in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, well they were. I could that, I can tell you.
I want to thank my guest, anil Ka Kukar, who
is a student at the Harvard Kennedy School that helps
conduct a national poll of young voters ahead of this election,
and Carolyn DeWitt, President and executi director of Rock the Vote.
Thanks so much to both of you.
Speaker 10 (48:41):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Thanks, And next week we're going to be bringing you
a special edition of the Middle right after the presidential
debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday. Then
we're back at our regular time with an episode about
the media tolliver.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
We want to know if you think media companies and
social media companies like ex and Meta have too much
sway in this election, and you can call in at
eight four four four Middle that's eight four four four
six four three three five three or right toosa Listen
to the Middle dot com.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
The Middle is brought to you by Longnok Media, distributed
by Illinois Public Media in Urbana, Illinois, and produced by
Harrison Patino Danny Alexander, Sam Burmastaws, and John barth. Our
intern is Anikadeshler. Our technical director is Jason Croft. Thanks
so much to all of our young listeners for calling
in this hour, what a great treat that was, and
thanks to the more than four hundred and ten public
(49:27):
radio stations making it possible for people across the country
to listen to the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson and I
will talk to you twice next week.
Speaker 8 (50:00):
These schools
The Middle is supported by Journalism Funding Partners, a nonprofit
organization striving to increase the sustainability of local journalism by
building connections between donors and news organizations. More information on
how you can support the Middle at listen toothemiddle dot com.
Welcome to the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson along with our
(00:21):
house DJ Tolliver and Tolliver. We are officially post Labor Day,
which means, according to the old tradition made famous in
the John Waters film Serial Mom, that you can't wear
white shoes anymore, but also that we are in the
home stretch of the presidential campaign.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I gotta tell you, man, Serial Mom was like the
scariest movie in the world to me as a kid,
but now this election is like, it's a close second.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Pretty scary of there.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Well, you know, one of the things I'm so excited
about with this show in particular is that we always
get calls from younger listeners. A couple of twelve year
olds even called in when we had the astrophysicist Neil
deGrasse Tyson on taking questions about space. So I know
that this hour we're going to hear from people under
let's say forty about what you're thinking about heading into
this election, what's most important when it comes to your vote.
(01:08):
And we're taking your calls at eight four four four middle,
that's eight four four four six four three three five three.
We're going to get to those in just a moment,
but first, a couple weeks ago, as Democrats officially nominated
Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate, we asked you how
you feel about your choices in this election. Here's what
some of you had to say on our voicemail after
the show.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
This is Ken Davis.
Speaker 5 (01:30):
I'm calling from Aiken, South Carolina.
Speaker 6 (01:33):
Hi.
Speaker 7 (01:33):
My name is Anna. I'm calling from Las Vegas.
Speaker 8 (01:36):
This is Evan Tucker from Nashville, Tennessee.
Speaker 9 (01:39):
My name is Jamie and I am from the Twin Cities.
I am not thrilled about any of the choices in
the election. I'm not sure who exactly all vote for.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
I was okay with Biden, but I'm much more excited
with Kamala Harris.
Speaker 7 (01:57):
I'm voting for former pros in Trump. The economy is terrible,
Securing our border is really important. Why anyone might think
that things will change with Kamala? They seem to be
forgetting that she's our current vice president.
Speaker 8 (02:13):
Non committed, non Democrat, non Republican voters adamantly say that
they're going to vote third party no matter what, all
because you want to vote your conscience. I think these
people don't see the long view of history.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Thanks to everyone who called in, and you can hear
that entire episode on our podcast in partnership with iHeart Podcasts,
on the iHeart app or wherever you listen to podcasts.
So now to our topic this hour, young voters, what
matters to you heading into this election?
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Now?
Speaker 1 (02:41):
To put things in perspective, half of all voters aged
eighteen to twenty nine voted in twenty twenty. That's a
remarkable eleven point increase from the previous presidential election. But
of course it's anyone's guess what will happen this time around.
The voters who were young then are a little older,
and there's a new crop of young voters Tolliver. When
our listeners reach us.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
They can call us at eight four four four Middle
that's eight four four four sixty four three three five
three all right to us at Listen to the Middle
dot com. Or they can write to us on TikTok,
which I.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Will be checking.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Good because I don't like having to do that, but
I'm glad that you're going to check TikTok. So joining
us now our panel Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, A Neil Kakudkar,
who is a student at Harvard University, where he conducted
a poll of young voters across the country with the
school's Institute of Politics and Neil, Welcome to the Middle.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Hi Jeremy, thank you so much for having me on.
It's such a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
It's great to have you and joining us from Baltimore,
Carolyn DeWitt, President and executive director of Rock the Vote,
which since nineteen ninety has worked toward increasing turnout among
voters eighteen to twenty four. Carolyn, great to have you
with us as well.
Speaker 10 (03:44):
Hi Jeremary, thanks so much for having me and for
uplifting youth voting.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well before we get to the phones, Anil, what did
you find in your poll were the most important issues
to young voters around the country.
Speaker 4 (03:56):
The issues that are most important to young voters, you know,
in many ways aren't very different from the issues that
are you know, impacting all voters in general. The economy
was top of mind for our sample, and the top
three issues out of sixteen that we fielded were inflation, healthcare,
and housing, And particularly I'd like to draw importance to housing.
You really can't talk about the economy with young people
(04:18):
unless you're talking about the cost of rent.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
It's interesting that you mentioned those issues and not because
if you were watching the news or paying attention to
the news over the last many months, you would think
that young voters care a lot about the war in Gaza?
Did that how did that play into your poll?
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Absolutely? We conducted an entire research section trying to get
to the bottom of how exactly you know, the Israel
Hamas war will impact the youth vote, And what we
found is that, you know, for a large, you know
portion of this generation, they aren't just tapped into that conflict,
as are you know, many other foreign policy issues. See
if you ask questions about you know, the Middle East,
(04:55):
there's a consistent forty to fifty percent of the sample
that doesn't have enough in for to make a decision.
But for you know, an election as close as this one,
any issue can be an important issue. So I think
it's important to you know, take things into consideration as
a whole and not single out any particular issue as
you know, the issue to win the youth vote.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Carolyn, do you find that young voters are more motivated
by issues or candidates?
Speaker 11 (05:21):
Certainly issues?
Speaker 10 (05:23):
I think most most voters, right, that's not unique to
young voters. But I think what oftentimes is I would
say not young voters are not given actually the credit
that they get a lot of times about how they
approach issues. They're not single issue voters. They look at
issues in a very complex way and they see how
(05:45):
interrelated they are. So it's not just about a single issue,
but it's about a whole broad agenda that a candidate
is bringing. What do you.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
See in your time at Rock the Vote and you've
been there for a while, what do you see are
the are the things that motivate young voters to participate
in our elections? Because we always hear that the turnout
among younger voters is lower than it is among the
population as a whole.
Speaker 10 (06:09):
Yeah, I was going to say it's you know, each
election cycle you hear young, our young voter is going
to turn out, and each I feel like generation is
blamed for their turnout when this is actually not a
single generation problem. Since eighteen year old's got the right
to vote in nineteen seventy two, we've seen that young
(06:30):
voters have turned out at twenty to thirty points lower
in each presidential election, and that disparity is even greater
in my term or in local elections. And that's because
we have a systematic problem, right. We don't do much
in our country to prepare young people to vote when
they turn eighteen. And even worse, we see, as young
(06:53):
people have been breaking turnout records in twenty eighteen twenty twenty,
we've actually seen some states make it harder for them
to vote. So it's incredibly important for us to actually walk.
What all the research actually says is that young voters
are new voters, and so they're unfamiliar with the process.
So a lot of it is actually about breaking down
the process and connecting the issues that they care about
(07:15):
so passionately to the candidates and to the policies themselves.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
Well, let's get to some young voters because they are
lighting up the phones right now. Tommy is in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Tommy,
welcome to the middle. How old are you and tell
us what you're thinking about this election.
Speaker 12 (07:30):
Hi, I'm Tommy. I'm eighteen years old and this will
be my first election.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
And what are the big issues that are important to you.
Speaker 12 (07:40):
I'm most interested in social justice and equity going into
our future, and also gun control, especially in our schools.
I think both of these and many other issues will
make a big difference as we pave our way into
the future.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
And are you definitely going to vote? This is a
question that Anil's poll asked people, But are you definitely
going to vote in this election?
Speaker 12 (08:06):
Well, it's definitely harder for me to vote since I
have to mail in from college.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
I have every intention to do so this year.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Great Tommy, thank you so much for that. And a Neil,
what do you make of that? He says it's more
difficult for him. I mean, this is a problem for
a lot of college students. They live in one state
because they're going to school there during this is during
the school year, and they have to vote in another state.
Speaker 4 (08:29):
No, I feel you right there. I have to submit
a copy of my student ID to you know, request
a mail in ballot for the first time in the
state of Louisiana, where I'll be voting this fall. You know,
the important thing is too. I mean when we asked
two years ago in our poll about high school civics education,
a lot of young people, you know, just didn't feel
(08:50):
like their high schools prepare them to, you know, logistically
go through the process. What does it mean to submit
a mail and application? What does it mean to vote early?
You know, how am I going to make a plan
to vote the day of? Because you know, those things
are things that can catch you off guard as a
young voter, and you're building the habits of engaging with
a healthy democracy. Folks who have been doing this for
(09:10):
twenty thirty years know the drill. You know, they go
to their local elementary school right before work or you know,
right after work and have that time carved out and
have that muscle memory built into their you know, into
their minds. But you know, something very you know, impressive
I want to you know, point out for this generation
is that we're voting at twice the rate that you know,
our parents were voting when they.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Were our age.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
So despite all of those challenges, you know, these mobilizing
issues have really driven young voters like you and me
to the polls.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Let's go to ken Zi, who is in Houston, Texas.
Ken Zi, welcome to the middle. Go ahead. How old
are you hi?
Speaker 13 (09:47):
I'm Kissey. I will be twenty five on election day?
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And what's your what's your thought about this? Are you
excited to vote?
Speaker 13 (09:56):
I actually am. I'm excited now that Kamala is running
instead of Biden. So my generation, I feel like we
didn't like Biden or Trump or to go whenever. It
was our first time to vote, and we weren't excited
this time either. But now that we actually have a
new option, I think there will be more of us
going out in voting. I'm an independent, so you know
(10:19):
I didn't like either option, but now I actually have
someone I can be excited about, and I feel like
a lot of my friends build the same way. It's
making us want to take the time to go to
the pool.
Speaker 1 (10:30):
Kenzie. Thank you for that call, Carolyn. Have you heard
a lot of that so far, just because of the
change in the race that happened over the summer with
Biden getting out in Kamala Harris getting in.
Speaker 10 (10:42):
Yeah. Absolutely. So I should preface this with saying, rock
the vote is nonpartisan. We were just focused on building
young people's power. But the reality is we have seen
a surge.
Speaker 11 (10:53):
We've seen a lot of energy.
Speaker 10 (10:55):
There wasn't you know, transparently, there wasn't a lot of
energy or interest in a Biden Trump rematch, even though
young people voted overwhelmingly for Biden. And what we've seen, also,
honestly from the Hairs campaign is they're they're leaning into it.
They're leaning into gen Z culture that summer. Yeah exactly, Yeah,
(11:19):
they're like embracing there's more snark, there's more right, there's
more means, and so it's it's energizing the young voters.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Absolutely, you know, Tolliver, I certainly remember some of the
rock the Vote commercials from the height of the MTV era,
featuring musicians like Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Jemmy, We're so old.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Oh my god, here's sir mix a lot who, in
all fairness is not someone I typically associate with voter turnout.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Take a listen, yo, what's up.
Speaker 14 (11:47):
It's real popular in rap music right now. To disty establishment.
I'll complain about the establishment's fault.
Speaker 6 (11:54):
I want to get what.
Speaker 14 (11:56):
Needs to be popular is getting you all out there
to vote. You know what I'm saying, I'm going to
tell y'all, if you're eighteen or older and you're an
American citizen, you got the right to vote.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Seem damn you.
Speaker 14 (12:07):
Got any complaints, you take it out on him Pace
Baby Got Baby.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Got Back to the polls apparently.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
Yeah. By the way, podcast listeners, you know you don't
get music like the people on the radio do because
we don't have the rights to play for you. But
I can tell you this. We didn't even play Baby
Got Back on the radio because it probably wouldn't have
been appropriate. So we'll be back with more young callers
on the Middle. This is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson.
(12:37):
If you're just tuning. In the Middle is a national
call in show. We're focused on elevating voices from the
middle geographically, politically, philosophically, or maybe you just want to
meet in the middle. This hour, we want to know
what's on the minds of young voters ahead of the election. Tolliver,
what is the number to call in?
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It's eight four four four Middle. That's eight four four
four six four three three five three. You can also
write to us that listen to the Middle or on
social media.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I'm joined by longtime Rock the Vote president and executive director,
Carolyn DeWitt, and Anil Kakudkar, a student at the Harvard
Kennedy School who helped conduct a national poll of young voters.
And before we get back to the phones, Aneil, we
know that over the course of history, youth voter turnout
is lower than the population as a whole, and a
lot lower than the oldest voters. You talked a little
(13:24):
bit about that, but what do you think would be
the one thing that would help boost turnout among the
youngest voters.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
You know, we in two thousand and eight, that's often
you know, looked back upon as the youth vote moment,
but that was sort of like a little blip in
the continuum of the youth vote. And twenty eighteen and
twenty twenty two are three consecutive cycles in which organizing
power has been built top you know, this willpower to
you know, get young people out to the ballot box.
So it really isn't one thing that's going to drive
(13:56):
young people to the polls. It's not one candidate, but
the infrastructure, so to speak, has already been put into
place to have young people turn out. You're having campaigns
meet young voters where they're at, You're meeting them, you know,
through you know, trusted sources on social media and even
cable news in some cases. So to answer your question,
you know, the one thing I would do to increase
(14:17):
youth turnout is to meet young voters where they're at
and not you know, not you know, expect young voters
to you know, adhere to you know, the traditions of
voter outreach.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
Carolyn, I read that same day voter registration is particularly
effective at encouraging young people to vote, and letting sixteen
and seventeen year olds pre register to vote before they
turn eighteen can also substantially increase turnout. Is that kind
of thing widespread across the country.
Speaker 10 (14:47):
It's not widespread, although a lot of organizations like Rock
the Vote are trying to encourage states and actually at
the federal level to adopt these policies because they do help.
Speaker 11 (14:57):
New voters through the process.
Speaker 10 (14:58):
Right, it's getting them not just pre registration, but automatic
voter registration. So when you're there getting your driver's license,
for instance, when you're sixteen, right, you're getting automatically pre
registered to vote, so you're not having to go back
when you're eighteen, which kind of makes no sense to
anyone who's eighteen years old, right, and you're in a
transition moment as well, so you know, it's inevitable that
(15:21):
every election cycle we're also hearing from someone who missed
the registration deadline, that did not realize that they had
a registration deadline, and it's heartbreaking. They want to actually participate,
but then they're barred from doing it. And you see
in some states that they're actually making registration and you'll
notice actually some states are worse.
Speaker 11 (15:41):
Off with policies.
Speaker 10 (15:42):
They make voter registration deadlines early and then they don't
have same day registration in order to make it harder
for young people to vote. And I always say they
if your vote wasn't powerful, they wouldn't be trying to
prevent you from voting.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Right, Yeah, yeah, let's go back to the phones in Michael,
who's in Harrisburg and Sylvania. Michael, welcome to the middle.
Just tell us your age and then go.
Speaker 5 (16:03):
Ahead, Hi, I'm twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Awesome. When what do you think?
Speaker 4 (16:09):
So?
Speaker 5 (16:10):
I think that the economy and affordability, obviously, according to
the polls and everything seems to be top of mind
for a lot of people. But my concern, especially for
younger people, is some of the misinformation that's coming from
where these inflated prices are coming from, i e. Corporate greed,
things of that nature. I'm at the point in my
(16:31):
life that I should be looking at trying to buy
a house, and it's wildly unaffordable. And there's one campaign
that I think will help address these types of issues
more than the other will.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
And what about your news? Where are you getting your
information from?
Speaker 5 (16:49):
So that's the other thing. It's really nice. I've grown
up of conservative and then when I was in high school,
I started listening to NPR and I started to get
more of a broad viewpoint of things. But I still
will get my news from places like Fox, like Breitbart,
things of that nature. But I'll also take things from
the other side and try to have a more balanced
(17:09):
viewpoint so I know what all the different sides are saying.
It helps you be a more informed person to know
when everybody is saying.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Michael, thank you so much for that call. Aneil. You know,
one of the things that I always say, or always
ask when I go and speak to a classroom of
college students or even high school students, is where do
you get your news, and so many people now are
just getting it from YouTube or TikTok or other places
where you're not necessarily sure how much you can trust
(17:40):
the information you're getting. Not that some people feel that
they can trust the information they're getting from mainstream news organizations,
But what about the information side of this, and Neil,
in terms of the people that you have spoken with, we.
Speaker 4 (17:52):
Ask a lot about this in our pool. And if
you look at twenty twenty and twenty twenty four and
compare where you know voters under thirty are getting their
information from, looks a lot different between these two election cycles.
You're seeing less young people tuned into Fox News CNN.
You're seeing less young people tuned into even Facebook and Twitter,
slash x or Snapchat or Instagram. The only social media
(18:16):
platform that we've tracked that's seen, you know, a significant
increase in viewership for news content is TikTok. So you're
seeing that young voters are getting harder to reach on
these other platforms where campaigns have sort of built a
habit of reaching out to people there, and you're seeing,
you know, as as the cycle ramps up, you know,
both sides of the isle are making a significant effort
(18:37):
to court young voters on TikTok. You've seen, you know,
President Trump, you know, start a TikTok account himself and
his campaign reach out to young voters on there, and
you know, through through content creators and influencers. So young
people are getting their news from a variety of sources.
It's not to say that everyone's going on social media
and no one's going on cable TV. In fact, it's
(18:57):
quite the opposite. A lot of folks are getting their
news from cap TV and even YouTube and you know,
you know, social media altogether, so it's not one particular
source that's drowning out the others.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
Well, we talk about social media, tolliver anything coming in
on email or on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
Sorry, I'm rushing to follow Donald Trump's TikTok real quick.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
One second.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
A mod in Florida is twenty three, and he says,
I consider myself an undecided voter. Probably the most important
thing for me is corporate greed, the job market, and
balancing environmental preservation with providing affordable housing. Owen, a twenty
two year old gen Z voter, says, my personal and
political focus is entirely on climate mitigation. We're slowly collectively reacting,
but not nearly fast or forcefully enough. Spoiler alert, all
(19:39):
of these comments have to do with climate change.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Yeah, actually, Carol, and that makes me wonder whether you
see kind of a lack of hope or an abundance
of hope among younger generations about some of these big
issues like climate change being solved in the future if
they participate in the political process, they believe that they
can actually make a difference.
Speaker 10 (20:03):
Yeah, I think that you're hitting a great point. I
think the reality is gen Z and it's not unique
to gen Z, but gen Z is incredibly frustrated and
understandably so with where a lot of these issues are
at that have been building up. Right. Climate change has
been ignored for a long time. Gun violence has been
(20:23):
ignored for a long time. Right, I was going to say,
and now in some of these cases also, these issues
are being rolled back. And so you see these issues
such as also making sure that there's equity and in
marginalized communities so LGBTQ, right, communities of color, and these
(20:45):
are the issues that are really heart issues for young
people because they're also living through them. This is an
incredibly diverse generation, it's about fifty percent people of color.
You have a larger LGBTQ community. You they're going through
the process right They're experiencing gun violence in their schools,
(21:06):
they're experience immigration issues, and so they aren't they aren't
looking at this as a thing that needs to be sold,
like whether or not the candidate cansulv it. They need
to be solved. They're seeing that they are the ones
that are going to be suffering from the consequences of
the inaction, and they're frustrated by it, but they're also
(21:28):
hopeful and want to take the reins and take over
and solve the issues in a bold way.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Let's go to Jasper, who's in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Jasper, welcome
to the middle. Tell us your age then go ahead. Hello.
Speaker 15 (21:41):
I'm twenty five and my biggest concern is parenting. I'm
soon going to be marrying my partner fingers cross, and
I want to be able to child in a way
that I feel most comfortable with and I can afford
being able to buy property, whether that be a house,
and being able to keep a job. And because I'm
(22:03):
going into the public health field, I need to be
sure that i'm able to be getting grants, So I
need an administration. I believe in public health and.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Are you seeing that in the choices that you have now?
Speaker 15 (22:17):
I do, for the most part, I do.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Yeah. Are you for sure going to vote?
Speaker 15 (22:24):
Almost certainly? Fought shadow of a doubt.
Speaker 7 (22:27):
Oh.
Speaker 15 (22:27):
On top of that, since we did mention parenting, like
I do want to make sure I'm going to be
able to marry my partner, So that's also like top
in mind for me.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Yeah, Jasper, thank you so much for that call. And
let me go to Linda, who's in Parker, Colorado. Linda,
what's your age and what do you think?
Speaker 16 (22:48):
Hi, I'm twenty four.
Speaker 15 (22:51):
I'll be twenty five this next year.
Speaker 16 (22:54):
And I think that this election is going to be
very pivotal for just how the democracy is gonna run.
Like we've seen a lot of news headlines come out
about interference with things like that, and my perspective on
it is it doesn't matter who you vote for, Like,
I don't care who you vote for, but the biggest
thing is to vote and for your opinion to be
(23:17):
out there so that way there is evidence to back
that up. I think that there's a lot of issues
in our country right now that are below the belt
that shouldn't be the biggest priority.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Like like what what do you think what are you
thinking about? By the way, on that front, what do
you think should not be should not be talked about?
Should not be a big priority right now.
Speaker 16 (23:39):
So comparing it to my mom's generations and comparing it
specifically to my grandmother's generation, I feel like the topic
of women's rights is really something that shouldn't be the priority.
There seem to be way more issues of like schools
being underfunded, Like that should be a priority. We have rights,
(24:02):
No one's taking that away. It's never been a conversation
of hey, let's take away your rights because you're a woman. Yes,
there's different access to different you know, abortion and things
like that, and resources, but it's that shouldn't be what
we're talking about at a federal level. We should be
addressing the financial situation. We should be looking at our
(24:23):
foreign policies and things like that, because when you bring
it down to how our democracy works, our biggest influence
is at our local government and the federal government can't
really control a lot of that. So it's see your
problem in your neighborhood, Like there's an abortion clique that
I want to be here, or if you have the
(24:44):
other opinion where you don't want one, go to your
local officials because that those are the people that are
take it.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
Okay, Linda, Yeah, we've got to thank you so much
for that call. And I think, by the way, a
Neil Coco car I want to I want to go
to you on that. I think some people would probably
disagree that the federal government doesn't have an anything to
do with with your access to abortion, especially right now
with the Supreme Court decision that occurred. But what do
you make of what Linda was saying about the kinds
of issues that are important to her versus the kinds
(25:11):
that are not. And she did mention the economy as
being a very important one.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I mean, like we discussed earlier, young voters aren't a monolith,
but they are by and large concerned with personal freedoms. Now,
whether that's the personal freedom to be safe from gun violence,
or the freedom to breathe clean air and clean water,
or you know, the freedom to you know, make reproductive
health care decisions. So this theme of freedom is something
that the Hairs campaign has definitely at least latched onto
(25:39):
in their messaging to young voters. But I think it
also speaks more broadly to the way that young voters
view the government as a tool, you know, to accomplish change.
So if you looked at young voters in twenty fourteen,
twenty twelve and you ask them, you know, do you
think the government should be providing, you know, basic health insurance?
Do you think the government should be acting aggressively on
climate change? By and large, young people would not agree
(26:01):
that the government you had that place Today, young Republicans
even are more likely than not to say that the
government should provide basic health insurance to those who can't
afford it. So we're seeing, really, you know, big shift
in terms of how young voters, both liberal and conservative,
both Democrat and Republican, view the role of government in
addressing their day to day concerns. And that's part of
(26:24):
why we've seen such a precipitous decline in institutional trust.
If you ask young people if they trust Congress, the president,
the military even to do the right thing, you know,
it's so much less likely that they're going to say yes.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
Today, Hey, Carolyn, how do you get young people to
trust you at rock the vote to help them figure
out how they should vote. You've got to attract a
new crop every every four years.
Speaker 10 (26:50):
I you know you that's perfect. I always say we
have a new class of young voters. It's like, why
haven't we solved the young voter? Because there's a new class, right,
there's every year. Every there are four million new eighteen
year old who are going to be eligible to vote
this year, right, this is going to be sixteen million
are going to be able to vote in their first
(27:10):
presidential election. So what I think Neil like said earlier
is like trusted messengers are incredibly important, especially in the
space where you have a lot of media, a lot
of noise on social media, and so organizations like Rock
the Vote and others is we don't rely on young
(27:31):
people coming to us, right, going to go to them, right,
We go to them, We go to where they are.
So a lot of that is working with cultural trusted messengers.
Cultural messengers, so musicians, athletes, celebrities, sometimes it's teachers. We
also have school programs, So we're touching them wherever we
can in their spaces and bringing them, welcome them into
(27:55):
the civic space.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Let's go to Daniel who's in Kansas City, Missouri. Daniel,
Welcome to the middle. Tell us your age and tell
us what you think.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
Hi.
Speaker 17 (28:04):
I am thirty one years old within Kansas City, Missouri.
So I'm in a pretty solidly democratic stronghold in what's
otherwise a very solidly read state. And I'm pretty concerned
this election cycle about voter accessibility and the fact that
(28:25):
I've heard some stories. I'm an avid int art listener,
and I've been hearing some stories about I'm looking to
be voter suppression efforts across the country, and I wonder
if maybe your experts could speak this more broadly, or
in Missouri and Kansas in the Midwest, But it seems
like there might be some efforts to take people off
(28:45):
voter rolls, and I'm wondering if that's affecting younger voters
because they are such a strong, yeah, you know, voter
block this this election cycle, if that's something that might be,
you know, affecting younger voters.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Now, well, let me take that to Carolyn Dewait. Carolyn,
what do you think about that? Are some of these
efforts in various states to take people off roles and
suppress voting. Is that going to have a big effect
on young voters.
Speaker 11 (29:11):
Absolutely, so.
Speaker 10 (29:12):
I think most people think of voter suppression in terms
of the nineteen fifties, right, we think of like pre
Voting Rights Act, And since the Shelby Beholder decision of
twenty thirteen, we've actually seen a rollback. That's why a
lot of people call it the Jim Crow. Number two
is that we are seeing voter suppression efforts and policies
(29:35):
pass that we have not seen in decades. And there
is a way to fix that. There's federal legislation that
can fix that, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
But what we are seeing, what you're talking about, of
voter role purging, We are seeing millions of people being
thrown off voter roles. So even if you're registered to vote,
(29:56):
it is incredibly important to make sure that you check
your registration status and encourage those around.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
You, you know, Tolliver. As we heard from Carolyn, people
under twenty one weren't even legally allowed to vote until
pretty recently in the country's history.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Nineteen seventy one saw the passage of the twenty sixth Amendment,
which brought the national minimum voting age down eighteen here's
President Richard Nixon at the certification of the amendment.
Speaker 4 (30:19):
Well, it's a very.
Speaker 18 (30:20):
Great privilege to welcome this very exciting group to the
White House on the day that we celebrate our National
Independence Day. And it seems to me that it is
particularly appropriate that on this same day we are certifying
the twenty sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
That amendment, as you know, provides for the right to
(30:41):
vote of all of our young people. Between eighteen and
twenty one, eleven million new voters as a result of
this amendment that you now will see certified by the
GSA Administrator.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Wow, you know, Tulliver, it's amazing how many times we've
heard Richard Nixon on this show. He really did do
a lot in his presidency out side of Watergate.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Turns out, who knew.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
We'll be right back with more of the Middle. This
is the Middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson. This hour, we're asking
what's on the minds of young voters ahead of this election,
and as we've been hearing, we have a lot of
young listeners here at the middle. You can call us
at eight four four four Middle. That's eight four four
four six four, three, three, five three. I'm joined by
longtime Rock the Vote president and executive director Carolyn DeWitt
(31:25):
and Anil Kakukar, who's a student at Harvard University's Kennedy
School and he helped conduct a national poll of young voters.
We've got some more on the line, and I want
to go to Sung Gin, who is in Detroit, Michigan.
Sung Gin, what's your age and what do you think?
Speaker 5 (31:43):
Hi?
Speaker 6 (31:43):
I'm Sung Jin. I'm twenty four years old, as a
young voter, someone who's never missed the general or primary
election since the age that I could vote. I'm extremely
engaged in foreign policy at this moment. I'm extremely I
have my eye Israel Palestine. I watched the d NC
with a lot of enthusiasm and was thoroughly disappointed with
(32:06):
Kamala Harris's speech, and so I'll definitely be looking for
a commitment from her.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
What kind of commitment.
Speaker 6 (32:14):
A commitment to stop the violence, a commitment to end
the arms trade that sustains the genocide of the Palestinians.
These are things that as a person living in community
with the biggest population of Arab Americans, and of course
as a Korean American I don't plan to speak for everyone.
I speak for myself and a lot of my friends.
(32:36):
I'm looking for an end to the kind of administration
that would bet in such an action that Israel is
committing against the Palestinians.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
And just quickly your thoughts on Trump and his his
his views on the situation in Gaza.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
Certainly, Donald Trump is a nightmare and I do not
want Donald Trump. And so that's why I'm speaking specifically
about Vice President Kamala Harris. And that's why all the
power to the student protesters at universities and the people
that I hope to join in putting pressure on Kamala
Harris and making a deeper commitment because as an undecided voter,
(33:18):
I'm looking to her.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Sun Jin, thank you very much for that call, Anil.
As you said, the issues that are important to people
who are younger like Sunjin are a lot of the
same issues that are important to all generations. And he's
in Michigan, which is a state that has a lot
of people that are particularly concerned about the war in Gaza.
Speaker 4 (33:42):
Absolutely, we had the chance to go to the Metro
Detroit area the week of the Democratic primary in Michigan
and conducted a town hall out in Livonia with some
young voters as well to get some qualitative thoughts on
you know, it was driving the uncommitted vote. And we
also met with some local leaders behind the uncommitted vote
as well to understand, you know, what's driving this. And
(34:05):
I think, you know, when we talk about the conflict
in the Middle East and young voters, something that often
gets left behind is the fact that young voters sympathize
equally with both people groups, but view the governments involved
less favorably. And you know, this is really a people
driven conversation. So any any emphasis on you know, the
(34:27):
well being of families and children, you know, is sure
to you know, capture, capture the hearts and hopefully votes
of young voters.
Speaker 1 (34:37):
Justin is in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Justin Welcome to the
middle Can you give us your age and go ahead? Please?
Speaker 5 (34:44):
Uh?
Speaker 7 (34:45):
Yeah, Hi?
Speaker 19 (34:45):
I am twenty eight years old and I'm from Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (34:50):
And what are you thinking about ahead of this election?
Speaker 19 (34:54):
There is one topic that concerns me way more than
any others, and that is the war in Europe, the
war in Ukraine. I study history at the U of M.
And at any time that there has been this sort
of arms race, this build up of military power, this
(35:15):
this it's I mean, it's not even a Cold War anymore.
It's it's way hotter than the Cold War used to be.
And I'm looking for someone who actually wants to de
escalate the fighting in Ukraine and towards a deal, a
negotiation to stop violence, because it doesn't seem to me
that that Ukraine is going to militarily achieve their goals
(35:40):
anytime soon. Read lots of polls that lots of Ukrainians
are willing to trade land for peace. I mean, there's
so many there's such a great depth of history here
in Eastern Europe, and I feel like like Americans in
general don't know anything of the history to read behind
(36:02):
the Yeah, the geopolitical crisis that's in Ukraine's debate, and
I just want that to come to an end.
Speaker 1 (36:07):
Yeah, yeah, justin Thank you very much for that, Carolyn DeWitt.
Are you surprised about these from these callers that are
that are calling about foreign policy issues at that age?
Speaker 11 (36:17):
No, not at all.
Speaker 10 (36:18):
I mean this is uh I was I was saying before,
I think we underestimate the you know, a lot of
people underestimate this generation and how they have more access
to information than any generation before them, and they are
more connected to what's going on around the world.
Speaker 11 (36:38):
So it doesn't surprise me at all.
Speaker 10 (36:40):
I think what we heard also from the previous caller was,
you know, this desire to want to engage in the
democratic process, to want a candidate who aligns with their
values and who want one of the things that we
talk a.
Speaker 11 (36:58):
Lot about a rock the voter.
Speaker 10 (37:00):
There's no perfect candidate, right You rarely get a can't
These are humans. These are complex issues, and so a
lot of times it's about finding the candidate who most
aligns with your values and then pushing the issue as
hard as you can, because a lot of these big
issues take decades a lot of times to resolve.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Let's go to Scott, who's in Boston, Massachusetts. Scott, how
old are you and what do you think?
Speaker 20 (37:27):
I am thirty three years old, so I guess I'm
on the older side of the bell curve here, but.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Still count it as young. I still counted as young
in the middle right now, So go.
Speaker 20 (37:37):
Ahead, nice what I think that a lot of voters are,
especially like my age and younger where just jumping into
the economy again, your first job out of school, got students,
got to pay. You've got all these things going on
happening now. But people are forgetting the fact that, like
(38:00):
we're talking about Donald Trump here, a person that is
interested in getting back into office to make consequential changes
to the way that our democracy works. And I'm not
saying that our democracy right now is perfect, but I
do think that it's a terrible idea to vote someone
into office who has an interest in meddling in the
(38:24):
Federal Reserve's duty to preserve the balance of the economy.
And if you think that Donald Trump is well qualified
to do that and he's not going to make interest
rate cuts just to make himself look better, you end
up in a situation like they have in Turkey, where
Aroon and his administration get to control the economy and
(38:46):
they have driven that economy into the ground. So I think,
you know, for me, it's scary that, like we're ignoring
the fact that there's some interest that Donald Trump has
that hard hugely consequent Yeah, bigger than your immediate economic will.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Yeah, Scott, thank you very much for that call. Tolliver,
do you think I have to ask each person when
they call to give us their age first, or will
they just do it without me asking.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
I was just thinking, we're like carding all our listeners.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Must be this tall to ride the ride. Okay, let's
try Bevin in Saline, Michigan. Bevan, welcome to the middle.
Go ahead.
Speaker 21 (39:29):
Hi, I am twenty five, twenty three years.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
Old, twenty three Okay, great.
Speaker 21 (39:36):
I think that the issue between the two parties is
that sometimes they are saying the same thing with different language.
So a lot of the time, when the right will
say the elites, the left will say corporate greed or capitalists.
Speaker 22 (39:55):
But a lot of this is just pandering and and
neither party is addressing the issue that voters want to
be addressed. There's the two party system isn't really serving people,
and people need something that's not backside corporate interests to
make them excited to vote.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Bevin, that's a great point. I want to ask Aneil
about that. A couple of things there, but one of
them that I'd love to ask you about is are
the candidates talking to your generation? Do you feel like
they're pandering as we just heard there, or are they
are they talking with respect to younger voters.
Speaker 4 (40:38):
No, yeah, I mean it's important to remember that young voters,
you know, didn't just fall out of the coconut tree.
I mean, this is a pretty savvy generation. So I
think I think the radar for pandering is very strong
with this generation. And I think that growing up in
the digital age is digital natives. We're exposed to so
much content that is manufactured. So when something comes up
(40:59):
that is obviously you know, very polished and very pristine.
You know, eighteen nineteen twenty year olds grew up on
an Internet where photoshop is you know, a regular occurrence
where we know, you know, what an AI generated image
looks like because the fingers are off right. So this
is a generation that's naturally skeptical of any outreach from
you know, you know, people in power. But you know
(41:21):
that's that skepticism can actually be a benefit in many
cases because it forces you know, you know, candidates who
are wanting to engage with young voters to to engage
more critically and to you know, dig a little bit
deeper than you know a promise, you know, a campaign
promise or you know, a rally. It really forces candidates
to build relationships trusted relationships with these young voters over
(41:44):
time and as the race is reshuffled with you know,
under one hundred days left, there isn't a whole lot
of time to do that. So it really is, you know,
a supreme challenge to do that right now.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
Way under one hundred days. I think we're closer to
say days.
Speaker 4 (42:00):
Right now the first early ballots go out, and just.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
That is true, very very soon, the first early ballots
go out, I think in North Carolina, which is the
swing state at this point. Let's get to William, who's
in Nashville, Tennessee. William, go ahead, Hey.
Speaker 5 (42:15):
There I was.
Speaker 23 (42:17):
I just thought I would call in because I heard
a caller earlier talk about how they are holding out
for Kamala Harris to stop the violence in Israel and Palestine,
which I mean, I agree with I I want that
violence to stop. But I just don't see that ever
(42:43):
happening with a Kamala or Donald Trump, because I think
there's too much money involved with the with either party,
and there's global politics involved that obviously aren't gonna benefit
(43:06):
the Palestinian people.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Are you planning to vote, William? Are you planning to
vote in this election? And do you know who for,
because it sounds like you don't like either one.
Speaker 23 (43:16):
I don't really like either one. I would like to
vote for Kamala because I think that there's a chance
she will do something.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
About abortion.
Speaker 23 (43:28):
Abortion issues, which is I think another super important thing
that's being glossed over kind of. But I also kind
of don't I wouldn't be surprised if if nothing was
able to be done in that sense either, because I
feel like the Democrats have been holding abortion over our
(43:48):
heads as like a campaign point for years and years
and years, and Donald Trump and the Supreme courte that
he elected took it away from the American people and
now it's just another like it's like an added AMMO
(44:09):
for a Democrat.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
Yeah, you know, yeah, William, thank you for that. And
Carolyn de wait, it brings up a point because William
sounds like it doesn't really like either side. There you've
said Rock the Vote is a nonpartisan organization. I do
want to ask you though, after the after the twenty
sixteen election, you released a statement from Rock the Vote
(44:34):
saying this is a jarring day for millennial voters who
voted overwhelmingly for Secretary Clinton and for progressive candidates. Down
the ticket. How do you keep Rock the vote nonpartisan
when in many cases, as I'm sure in twenty sixteen,
a lot of the people who you're representing basically are
going to vote one way as opposed to sort of
split down the middle.
Speaker 10 (44:54):
Yeah, so ever, since, thanks for the question, and honestly
for all the color, I'm really impressed by all the.
Speaker 1 (45:01):
Callers who have Yeah, they're always impressive.
Speaker 10 (45:04):
But the you know, since Rock the Boat was founded,
it was founded on an issue. It was founded on
the censorship of hip hop and rap artists who had
something to say about what they were experiencing in their
day to day lives and the frustration and frankly, the
anger and of how a system was set up and
(45:26):
democracy and the censorship of their lyrics and their stories.
And so since it's founding over thirty years ago, we
have stayed true to that that we reflect what young
people care about. And so when young people care about
the issues of you know, abortion, climate change, gun violence,
the things that they're experiencing, we honor that. Frankly, we
(45:51):
don't shy away from that because these aren't issues that
one party has to represent. Both parties can be dealing
with them. Right can be a dressing them. It doesn't
have to be one. And we know that there are
people on both sides of the aisle, and I won't
just limit it to the two parties, but that there
are multiple individuals through the several different parties that do
(46:16):
actually exist, who are trying to address these issues. So
that is it's these We just uplift the issues. And honestly,
any candidate who speaks about the issues and tries to
address them in the way that young people want them addressed,
which is frankly, boldly and urgently are going to be
the party that wins wins the generation. And frankly, there's
(46:38):
no path forward to the White House for the candidate
that does not write that does not fit the generation.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
Well yeah, generations, ze I think is the biggest generation
right now. Let's get one more caller squeezed in here,
Henry and Dallas, Texas. Henry, go ahead, briefly.
Speaker 24 (46:56):
All right, thank you so much. I'm twenty five, so
I don't have a ton of memory of many previous elections,
but going back to rewatch old debates that they met
Romney and Barack Obama or even watching the you know,
George Bush correspondence dinners unstruck by just how professional people
running to the highest office seem to have used to
(47:16):
Ben and I don't know how we return to that
level of civility and substance focused electoral politics that even
with a very short memory as a younger voter, I
still remember.
Speaker 17 (47:29):
I don't know how we get back to that. I
would very much like to.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
That is such a great point, Henry, a great point
to end on, and a Neil Kako kar Let me
just ask you. I actually am really disappointed when I
see now the debates happen and they don't shake hands
anymore because they just hate each other. It seems like
so much. But what do you think about the civility?
Just briefly as a final question to you.
Speaker 4 (47:51):
Absolutely, I mean, this is a serious election in you know,
many cases that in many cases has taken an unseerious tone,
and for young voters, particularly this new cohort that's aging
into you know, the electorate for the first time, we
don't remember anything other than you know this, you know,
lack of civility. When when Donald Trump, for example, we're
(48:12):
going to talk about Mitt Romney and George Bush has
sort of you know, predecessors to Trump. I don't remember
Bush and Romney as candidates. I was in seventh grade
when you know Trump ran in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
Yeah, well they were. I could that, I can tell you.
I want to thank my guest, anil Ka Kukar, who
is a student at the Harvard Kennedy School that helps
conduct a national poll of young voters ahead of this election,
and Carolyn DeWitt, President and executi director of Rock the Vote.
Thanks so much to both of you.
Speaker 10 (48:41):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Thanks, And next week we're going to be bringing you
a special edition of the Middle right after the presidential
debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Tuesday. Then
we're back at our regular time with an episode about
the media tolliver.
Speaker 3 (48:53):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
We want to know if you think media companies and
social media companies like ex and Meta have too much
sway in this election, and you can call in at
eight four four four Middle that's eight four four four
six four three three five three or right toosa Listen
to the Middle dot com.
Speaker 1 (49:06):
The Middle is brought to you by Longnok Media, distributed
by Illinois Public Media in Urbana, Illinois, and produced by
Harrison Patino Danny Alexander, Sam Burmastaws, and John barth. Our
intern is Anikadeshler. Our technical director is Jason Croft. Thanks
so much to all of our young listeners for calling
in this hour, what a great treat that was, and
thanks to the more than four hundred and ten public
(49:27):
radio stations making it possible for people across the country
to listen to the middle. I'm Jeremy Hobson and I
will talk to you twice next week.
Speaker 8 (50:00):
These schools
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