Pro-Palestinian and pro-Gaza protesters interrupting President Joe Biden‘s public appearances have served as a reminder of his political problems with young people this election cycle.
But a possible upheaval of TikTok is the latest political development that could upend 81-year-old Biden’s appeals to the demographic before November.
Young people’s political power as a voting bloc has historically been downplayed because of a tendency not to turn out compared to other demographics, but not this year, according to pollster David Paleologos. That is because it is the one demographic, defined as people aged 18-34, or members of Generation Z and younger millennials, that is “dramatically different” in recent polls in contrast to previous election seasons, said Paleologos, Suffolk University’s Political Research Center director.
“In 2016, Hillary Clinton lost the Electoral College but won young voters by 19 [percentage] points,” Paleologos told the Washington Examiner. “In 2020, Joe Biden won young voters by 24 points. In today’s polling, if the polls are right, Biden trails among young voters.”
In Suffolk University’s poll this week with USA Today, former President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee, had a 6-point advantage over Biden among young people, 37% to 31%, with a “whopping 24 points going to third-party options,” such as the Green Party’s Jill Stein, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Cornel West, Paleologos added. In January, two months ago, Biden was at 26% and Trump was at 32%.
“Both Biden and Trump want to be present if/when the third-party candidates’ viability dissipates,” Paleologos wrote in an email. “That’s why both Biden and Harris appear to be micro-targeting issues like marijuana, student loans, inflation/economy, Israel–Hamas, fentanyl poisonings, immigration, abortion rights, climate change, and gun control. Many of these are traditional Democratic issues, but so far young people don’t feel a connection to Biden as much.”
Then the House this week passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, 352-65. Biden said he’d sign the legislation into law, while Trump has expressed recent objections to a TikTok clampdown.
Although the White House and Congress have underscored national security concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership, lawmakers have already encountered political repercussions regarding the bill, which would restrict access to the social media app if its owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, does not divest from the company, after its 170 million American users, many of them young people, were prompted by the app last week to contact their representatives and complain.
Simultaneously, Biden’s relationship with young people has been pushed and pulled in multiple directions by, as Paleologos mentioned, the Israel-Hamas war, student loan debt forgiveness, climate change, gun control, and even the legalization of marijuana. Vice President Kamala Harris, for example, this week became the first vice president to visit an abortion provider. On Friday, Harris will also convene a roundtable on marijuana reform with Grammy-nominated artist and philanthropist Fat Joe and people who have been pardoned by Biden for federal marijuana convictions.
For Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright, young people have always been politically important since “every major social movement in this country has been fueled by young folks.”
“I do think this time around, we’re starting to see young people lean in a bit more on policy and political accountability as it relates to things that they’re passionate about from an agenda perspective and a priority perspective,” Seawright said. “Then in a 24-hour news cycle and just how the world communicates, young voters are finding their voices in even more creative ways than they have before.”
To Seawright, Biden is not pandering to young people but is “responding to their advocacy.” Regardless, the strategist encouraged the president to “remind them what he promised, remind them what he’s done, remind them who’s fighting against those things,” whether online, on college campuses, or through other relational campaign tactics and trusted messengers.
Meanwhile, while Trump may not connect with more liberal young people either, his campaign is criticizing Biden for the country being “more expensive, divided, and dangerous.” Trump’s position on the TikTok bill has changed, contending it would “double the business” of Mark Zuckerberg’s “enemy of the people” Meta after reportedly speaking with Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass.
“President Trump will create a safe, prosperous, and free nation that helps young people achieve their American Dream,” Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
Biden campaign spokesman Seth Schuster countered, “It’s insulting Donald Trump thinks young people can be bought so easily when his agenda is designed to make their lives completely miserable. Young voters know the stakes of this election and that a Trump presidency threatens their economic and environmental futures, their reproductive rights, their freedom to love who they love, and their ability to live in a world free from the threat of gun violence.”
After the White House met with social media influencers, including TikTok creators, last week before Biden’s State of the Union address, his campaign this week announced Students for Biden-Harris, a national organizing program, and the endorsements of 15 young voter groups. The first Students for Biden-Harris event was also hosted by the campaign’s youth engagement director, Eve Levenson, with Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), the first Gen Z member of Congress, and actress Lexi Underwood, on Thursday night.
Frost has warned any TikTok ban would be a mistake. “There are First Amendment issues I see with taking away a platform that over 170 million” Americans use, Frost posted on X.
Meanwhile, the Biden campaign was scrutinized last month for launching a TikTok account for the president, while his White House continues to raise national security concerns about the video app.
“The campaign has created a TikTok account,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added last month when asked about possible hypocrisy between having an account and having national security concerns. “That is their strategy. I would let them speak to that. And we’ve said this before: We are going to try to meet the American people where they are.”
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The White House is urging the Senate to move on the House-passed bipartisan legislation.
“We’re still focused on continuing to work, providing some technical support and assistance to Congress as this bill, which just passed the House, moves on to the Senate,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday of the TikTok bill. “There’s an ongoing legislative process for that. We obviously want to see the Senate take it up swiftly. And we’re focused on making sure we’re providing them the context and the information we believe is important, so that this bill can actually do and address the national security concerns that we have with respect to TikTok.”
