…

The new matchup between Trump and Harris is helping Democrats close the enthusiasm gap, in part by capturing the attention and interest of young voters who historically vote at lower rates than older generations. But the historic nature of Harris’ candidacy as the party’s first Black woman and South Asian presidential nominee, coupled with the rapid shift in the campaign’s tone, has young voters of all political stripes taking a hard look — some for the first time — at the role they could play in November.

…

If motivated, Gen Z voters could have a major impact on elections. Texas’ population has the second youngest median age of any state, other than Utah. And in 2020, there were about 1.3 million Texans ages 18 to 24 who were registered to vote. Those voters have historically turned out to vote at rates lower than any other age range, with voter participation rates increasing steadily as age ranges increase.

About 43% of young Texans aged 18-29 voted in 2020 — an eleven point increase from 2016. 66% of all eligible voters and 76% of eligible voters age 64 and older voted that same year.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1626·
    3 months ago

    Look at that. Young people excited to vote. It’s almost as though all the party needed to do was run a better candidate.

        • collapse_already@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          My Gen X butt got a late start so I will have to wait until 2028 to drag my future voter with me. The magats know that the demographics are against them - every day boomers be dying and Zs(Alphas now?) be turning old enough to vote.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        14·
        3 months ago

        Agreed. And us old folks have it easier on election day because we are either a) retired or b) have a good job that doesn’t care if we take a long lunch, come or go early.

      • EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        8·
        3 months ago

        One thing I’ve always hated about these articles (and by extension, this whole topic) is all the factors that are left out of the discussion. Like when people talked about Millennials not protesting like they did in the 60s, they conveniently ignore how things have changed for Gen X and younger - how more economically tenuous and unstable living conditions are, how senior jobs are still filled with Baby Boomers that would’ve retired a decade earlier had they been their parent’s generation, how job benefits have declined (like time off), etc. Older people vote more not just because “young people are lazy,” as so many of these discussions insinuate, but because they have better economic security, more time either through retirement or better job benefits, and more knowledge of the process. We won’t see major shifts in Gen X and younger voting turnouts until we can improve work/life balance, because the Boomers pulled the ladder up after them and left the rest of us to slave away for 50 hours a week with no vacation time.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        3 months ago

        For someone who hasn’t voted before, showing up in a primary with a random date is a lot harder than showing up on a single, nation-wide election day.

      • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
        81·
        3 months ago

        Why would you blame the youth when the southern establishment has repeatedly made it harder for them to vote in the first place?

        Also Texas youth voter turnout has only gone up since 2016, and was instrumental of the purpling of Texas during both 2020 and the previous midterm elections. You’re pulling the classic of blaming the younger generation for something that is not their fault.

        Eat some avocado toast while educating yourself maybe.

        • IHawkMike@lemmy.world
          44·
          3 months ago

          Where have I blamed anyone for anything? You and the other poster are tilting at windmills getting you knickers into a twist over things nobody has said.

          I’m just old enough to have heard all of this many times before. But sure, I’m the one that needs educating. 🙄

          I’m all for optimism and I truly hope Texas goes blue. But I bet you it won’t.

          • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
            34·
            3 months ago

            I’m just old enough to have heard all of this many times before. But sure, I’m the one that needs educating

            Here’s the thing though, what you’re “hearing” is a false narrative, and I linked you the numbers to prove it. The voter turnout for younger generations is on par or only slightly lower than other generations, and actually higher in the key battleground states. So why are you so defensive and pessimistic instead of acknowledging what you “heard” about youth turn out might be false and actually a systemic problem, not a generational one?

            I’m all for optimism and I truly hope Texas goes blue. But I bet you it won’t.

            Texas literally cannot go full blue unless there are several districts that are un-gerrymandered. It’s part of the Republican capture of battleground states. Again, a systemic problem that you imply are an individual’s fault.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        74·
        3 months ago

        You’re right. Fuck 'em. The only people who we should ever attempt to appeal to are decrepit conservative fossils. No one else will ever matter and boomers are immortal so we’ll never need anyone else, so earning the resentment of multiple generations is something we can get away with.

    • Catma@lemmy.world
      94·
      3 months ago

      If, and that is a huge if, Texas goes blue, Abbott and Paxton will 100% call it fraud and make Texas send Trump electors. There is 0 doubt in my mind on this. Things will get bad very quickly, because if Ttump loses Cruz lost in a blowout and a dem senator from Texas is paramount to heresy

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
      26·
      3 months ago

      IDK, every time I’ve thought the GOP was done, it clawed it’s way back out of the still open grave.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
        10·
        3 months ago

        You are right on one thing, it has been done. That is, it’s not the same party as before. If MAGA types had come up during Reagan, you better believe that the GOP would have denounced them. That party is dead, something new is here now. The question is really how long the party that uses the name GOP will survive.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
      201·
      3 months ago

      It’s a nice dream but sadly I don’t think one that will happen this election. Gerrymandering and vote suppression has already seen to that.

      • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
        241·
        3 months ago

        Gerrymandering doesn’t apply to most state’s presidential elections, it applies to congressional house maps, not electoral votes

        * technically Maine and Nebraska split votes by congressional district but they are kind of the exception here

        Other forms of voter suppression in the presidential election though are certainty going on there to be fair

        • Stovetop@lemmy.world
          8·
          3 months ago

          Fair, though there is more being voted on this election than just the president. A lot of other political offices and referendums are up for vote and gerrymandering contributes to the widespread mentality that minority votes in a given district don’t matter, even for the presidential election.

          2020 had the highest voter turnout in US history, but that was still only 2/3 of eligible voters showing up at the polls, so 1 in 3 people (and usually it’s more than that) decided it wasn’t worth it likely because of that sense of futility caused by gerrymandering taking their political voice away.

          • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
            8·
            3 months ago

            This is precisely why I felt the need to clarify what specifically gerrymandering impacts because people often use it as a reason to feel hopeless, but we need to remind ourselves that there are still winnable fights out there if we fight them

      • Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
        14·
        3 months ago

        Gerrymandering

        Gerrymandering can be pretty brittle. It relies on accurate models of who will vote and for whom. If the underlying assumptions are either wrong or change, then it can backfire. Here’s an extreme napkin-math example to illustrate the point:

        You have 3 districts. Candidate A is extremely unpopular. You split the voters to get 2 out of 3 districts for candidate A.

        District 1:

        Candidate A: 5%

        Candidate B: 50%

        Not Voting: 45%

        District 2:

        Candidate A: 20%

        Candidate B: 15%

        Not Voting: 65%

        District 3:

        Candidate A: 25%

        Candidate B: 20%

        Not Voting: 55%

        As you can see, even though if you add up all the voters for candidate B they heavily outnumber candidate A’s voters, by siloing them into one district you can win. But look at the margins for the other 2 districts. It doesn’t take many new voters who you assumed wouldn’t vote to upset your scheme. Depending on exactly how unpopular your candidate is, the margins for this might be pretty tight. It only takes an extra 10% of the voters moving from not voting to candidate B to cause a landslide 3 district sweep in this example.

      • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        3 months ago

        My friend’s neighbor rage moved to Texas because he was tired of Oregon politics.

        If Texas goes blue I am totally sending them a laughing emoji.

  • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
    68·
    3 months ago

    After Trump’s meltdown over not winning Georgia I would pay good money to see him react to Blexas.

  • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
    58·
    3 months ago

    I’ll say it again Harris needs to really campaign harder in Texas. If she beats Bidens last vote total (in Texas) by a million votes I think she’ll take the state and that’s basically a guarantee to win the whole thing. I think state leadership is also overconfident in our “leans red” status and they aren’t trying nearly as hard as other states to suppress votes. If the gap gets close but Trump still wins Texas I guarantee they’ll make the next four years about stomping out blue opposition.

    • Coelacanth@feddit.nu
      25·
      3 months ago

      I think it is possible both Texas and Florida are actually in play come the election. Conventional wisdom focuses on the battleground states, but conventional wisdom would have picked Shapiro over Walz and we see how that went. I think you are right, and I hope the Harris campaign is bold and ambitious here.

      Now bear in mind - actually flipping Texas sounds like an almost guaranteed constitutional crisis. But that’s a problem for the future.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        20·
        3 months ago

        We Floridians voted for Obama twice and we’re driving youth and women to the polling booths with abortion and weed on the ballot.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      3·
      3 months ago

      Given the above comments about the possible/likely constitutional crisis, it would be better to win those states but not rely on winning them to take the race. Best to assume that they are going to try pulling out all of the stops they can to steal this election and Florida and Texas are two states that are most likely to lean into that.

      So she should try to win them but not at the expense of anywhere else.

    • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      If she gets only 630,000 more votes than Biden, she will have beaten Trump’s votes in 2020. That’s less than 5% of the registered voters in 2020.

      Polls open Oct 21-Nov 1 and then one final day on Nov 5. If you vote early, there wont be a line! Polls will be open at least 9 hours the first week and at least 12 hours the second week and final day of voting. Check voter registration status, polling locations, hours, Election Dates, and more at

      https://www.votetexas.gov/

  • expatriado@lemmy.world
    42·
    3 months ago

    even if doesn’t flip, i’m all for turning red states into a bluer shade of purple, it delivers its own message

    • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      3 months ago

      Thank you! People think their vote doesn’t count if they lose. Even the dumbest politician can read an Excel sheet and see the gap closing in on them.

    • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
      1·
      3 months ago

      TX was super close in 2020. Biden only lost by 630,000 votes (less than 5% of registered voters). Biden received more votes in TX than he did in NY!

  • whyrat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    33·
    3 months ago

    This is great momentum; especially if it helps down ballot Colin Allred defeat Ted Cruz for the senate. Some polling has him within 5 points (or even tied in a few polls earlier this year). It’s a bit of a stretch; but Texas is notorious for it’s low voter turnout. Moving a few % of this non-voting population to feel like their vote matters & get them to show up would be enough to shift these races!

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    31·
    3 months ago

    Don’t do this to me. Don’t give me hope. I’ve learned to live without it. Adding it back in now could be dangerous to my body.

    • Sho@lemmy.world
      9·
      3 months ago

      It’s sad when this is the general vibe of some ppl, but I get it, I’m there too. Still voting, just not getting too excited until I see some actual numbers.

      • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
        4·
        3 months ago

        Yeah I feel the same. There’s just a lot of ways this could turn out.

        The polls could be inaccurate or we could have issues with turnout. It’s great to see the Dems being as popular as they are on socials right now but it makes me anxious that this could just be a trend that doesn’t lead into voter participation.

      • DokPsy@infosec.pub
        4·
        3 months ago

        Me every time someone with some decent backing runs against Abbott, Cruz, Cornyn, and the rest.

  • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
    20·
    3 months ago

    Technically 53% of eligible people cast a vote in 2020, which was 66% of registered voters.

    The difference between a red and blue TX in 2020 was less than 5% of registered voters going to the polls for Biden.

    Polls will be open Oct 21-Nov 1, with one final day to vote on Nov 5. If you procrastinate and go on the last day, there will be a line. If you go during the first 2 weeks of voting, there will be a 10 minute wait tops historically speaking. Polls will be open at leat 9 hours the first week and at least 12 hours during the second week and final day of voting (typically 7AM-7PM, though times will vary). Check your voter registration status, eligibility for ballot by mail, Election Dates, polling locations and hours (might not be up until October), and more at this site.

    https://www.votetexas.gov/

  • curiousaur@reddthat.com
    13·
    3 months ago

    I’ve been really excited for the hypothetical gerrymander backfire. If young people come out in enough numbers, they could turn all those counties blue.

  • HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    111·
    3 months ago

    Texas is a well-known blue state.

    EDIT: This comment intended to predict Texas will actually be a blue state in the election.

    • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
      35·
      3 months ago

      It’s a lot more purple than you’d believe, but the state is gerrymandered to hell and uses every voter suppression tactic in the book to make sure the final winner takes all vote goes red.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        112·
        3 months ago

        And our state Democratic party is only interested in making sure progressives are shut out.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
        2·
        3 months ago

        Looking at the 2020 results, there’s a pretty big gap: 52% : 46% of the total vote, is a lot to make up

  • index@sh.itjust.works
    416·
    3 months ago

    Then came the memes. In July, Caudle’s social media feeds were flooded with clips of Vice President Kamala Harris’ speeches overlaid with synth-pop beats and viral dance sequences. Pop star Charlie XCX declared “kamala is BRAT,” a key endorsement that rang out across her Generation Z fandom. In a nod to a now-viral speech where Harris quoted her mother saying “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree,” coconut emojis rained across TikTok. All of a sudden, the election was fun. Caudle says Harris’ ascendancy to the top of the Democratic ticket jump-started her excitement to cast her first vote this November — and encourage friends and family to get registered, too.

    I’ve been downvoted for pointing out memes that are straight up government propaganda. I hope one day you people can realize how much brainwashed you are and how much the government is fooling you.

    • Xeroxchasechase@lemmy.world
      71·
      3 months ago

      Pointing out that memes are government propaganda is government propaganda one day you’ll realize how much a government is fooling you

      • index@sh.itjust.works
        35·
        3 months ago

        Pointing out that memes are government propaganda is government propaganda

        Are you ok?

    • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      36·
      3 months ago

      Pop star Charlie XCX declared “kamala is BRAT,” a key endorsement that rang out across her Generation Z fandom.

      I legit thought charli xcx died in like 2015. That she is not only alive, has fans and that some of them aren’t 60 year old single men who confuse her with Sasha Grey is absolutely shocking. So anyone care to explain what “BRAT” is?