Young voters may hold the key to this year’s election and could very well play a decisive role in who is next to occupy the Oval Office.
That’s why both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are actively working to court young voters, especially in key battleground states where polls consistently show the two in a neck-and-neck race.
The bottom line: Both Trump and Harris are fighting for every vote they can secure.
If you believe the polls — and the fact is polls must be taken with a grain of salt — Harris may lead with young voters overall, but her support is splintered by race and gender.
And, if you talk to young voters, what sways them is a candidate’s stance on the issues. If you talk with young Black voters, for example, you’ll find there’s a generational moment that provides a further challenge for Harris. They’ll tell you they don’t think “the Democrats have done enough for Black people.”
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As for Trump’s influence on the young vote, perspective is a wonderful thing. For many, the former president is the only candidate they have ever known. And, good or bad, it may have shaped their worldview.
NBC News did a story about young voters born in the mid-to-late 90s. It bears out that point. The segment of the electorate only knows a Republican party led by Trump. And when it comes to a “normal election,” well that idea is foreign to them.
Because of the rhetoric, allegations, and misinformation they appear to be tired of it all. Not to mention cynical.
Again, that just reinforces the point that they could not care less about party labels and more about the issues confronting the nation: the economy, immigration, abortion, and the Middle East.
Just because they’re exhausted and cynical doesn’t mean they’re not going to show up at the polls. That’s exactly why Trump and Harris are actively courting them.
That leads us down this path. The latest “hot button” news about Trump is that his longest-serving chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, warned that the Republican nominee meets the definition of a fascist and that while in office his former boss suggested that Nazi leader Adolph Hitler “did some good things.”
That builds on a series of warnings from former Trump officials as the election enters its final phase.
Trump, of course, pushed back and referred to Kelly on Truth Social, as a “lowlife” and a “total degenerate.”
The question is, how will all this resonate with the rest of the electorate who may have an impact on the outcome of this tight presidential contest -- the undecided voters in the swing states?
Will they see Trump, as Harris puts it, as someone who wants “unchecked power”? Or will they just dismiss it as many in his political base do and say it’s Trump being Trump?
Political analyst Daniel Cronrath joined me to discuss the youth vote on Tuesday’s episode of Path to the Polls.
Watch our encore presentation at 7 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+ or on demand any time on News4JAX.com, News4JAX+ and YouTube.