In November, I will have the opportunity to vote in my first presidential election. It’s an exciting prospect, but given the strangeness of the current political climate, I’m torn. After Kamala Harris announced her presidential candidacy, the number of registered young voters has increased dramatically, and millions of Gen Z teens will vote for the first time in November. As a Gen Z-er, I’ve witnessed the Harris campaign’s efforts to engage young voters through social media outreach. And now that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is on the ballot, he’s getting in on the act, too.
In the video above, I responded to Walz’s “weird” attack line against Republicans, JD Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies,” and more. As the 2024 presidential campaign continues, the candidates’ social media activity may reveal who appeals better to Generation Z. So, how are they doing so far?
I feel like politics post-Obama has been forced to evolve into a more combative, less sophisticated version of itself. Politicians are using social media to appeal to younger audiences and appearing on Twitch streams to reach youth voters. On one hand, I’m glad politics is adapting to appeal to teens and finding ways to speak to them directly. On the other hand, this direct appeal feels targeted.
Politicians never seem tech-savvy, and their attempts to do so are usually out of touch with reality. Recent social media campaigns, like Harris’ use of images from Charli XCX’s album “Brat” on TikTok (after Charli XCX officially called her a “Brat”), seem less disjointed. But such campaigns are already being dismissed as a trend because they exploited out-of-style trends.
In Trump’s collaboration with streamers like Adin Ross or Logan Paul, I see a similar tension between a more exciting, populist political environment and clearly manipulative campaign tactics.
As much as Trump and Harris are trying to tap into the enormous energy of their young voters, it’s clear to me that they don’t really know how to appeal to young voters. For example, the Brat Summer that worked so well for the Harris campaign recently won Walz, a vote designed to appease middle-aged and middle-class white voters. Politicians aren’t in control of their Gen Z voters so much as they are exploiting trends they don’t really understand.
I admire the attempts to connect with young people, but it is impossible for a politician to really capture the spirit of the times – because politicians can never be cool.
No matter how hard their youth-staffed social media teams try, the closest a middle-aged politician of my generation has to a Brat Summer is the description their kids give them. And even then, chances are they don’t even understand it themselves. To meaningfully influence young people’s voter turnout, I recommend politicians share their political views rather than trying to spread them virally. To win my vote in the upcoming election, I want to hear what the future president will do about issues that threaten my future—like AI, climate change, or gun control. If it has to be packaged in bite-sized pieces and dressed in Brat green, that’s fine, too.
