The 2024 election will be the oldest presidential fight in history. How do young voters feel?

With two candidates nearly 60 years older than them, Gen Z voters tell Ariana Baio how they’re choosing to cast their ballot this election

Members of the youngest voting bloc are thinking carefully about who to vote for in 2024 as the nominees look increasingly like Joe Biden and Donald Trump (AFP / Getty / AP / Ariana Baio / Julia Saqui / iStock )

In a hotel ballroom situated between Raleigh and Durham in North Carolina, a sea of buzzing young liberals excitedly took selfies and exchanged Instagram handles. Wrists decorated with Taylor Swift bracelets hit against one another as baby-faced teens and twentysomethings dressed in business casual applauded their compatriots’ accomplishments. Some would call this a Republican’s worst nightmare, others: the Young Democrats of North Carolina convention.

Nestled among one of the many round tables was 21-year-old Sloan Duvall, the president of the UNC-Chapel Hill Young Democrats and, like many of her colleagues at the convection, a Biden supporter.

The same year that Duvall was born, Joe Biden celebrated his 60th birthday and was re-elected to the Senate for a fifth term. Now, more than twenty years later, the 81-year-old is counting on her and countless other Gen-Z voters to help him get re-elected as president.

“I know for a lot of people, he’s not the perfect candidate,” Duvall told The Independent. “I think our generation does not give him enough credit.”

Despite the skepticism of her peers, Duvall is one of the many young Democrats who believe in Biden’s vision and want to see him continue his administration come November. She’s also one of the 40.8 million members of Gen Z who are eligible to vote this year – eight million of whom are newly eligible.

Democrats are relying on the growing number of young voters to help them re-elect Mr Biden. In 2020, approximately 55 per cent of voters aged 18 to 29 voted and most of them cast their ballot for Mr Biden, helping hand him the presidency. With more young people leaning left than right, Democrats can’t risk losing their support.

But there are growing concerns that young people aren’t as interested in voting for Biden as they were in 2020.

Over the last four years, young voters have watched the president perform gaffe after gaffe, from physically tripping to forgetting names or places during speeches. Entrusting the nation to the same person that a recent special counsel’s report called an “elderly man with a poor memory” is not exactly the dream scenario for many young people.

Early polling from the Harvard Institute of Politics shows young Americans are less enthusiastic to vote this year and may defer participating in the general election as a result.

But that’s not the case for the politically-minded young Democrats who volunteer their time advocating for Democratic candidates to young voters.

“Even though he is older, a senior male, he has a lot of innovative ideas,” 27-year-old Christopher Braswell said.

Mary Margaret Barbee, a 21-year-old student, echoed Duvall’s statements about Biden not being the “perfect” candidate for young people. But she said that his policy record matches the wants and needs of Gen Z: “There’s so much on the line from LGBTQ+ rights to reproductive rights to affordable housing and education and really all of the issues that students these days find themselves struggling with are issues that are on the ballot.”

Sloan Duvall (left) and Mary Margaret Barbee (right) discuss the 2024 election at the Young Democrats of North Carolina convention (Julia Saqui )

Gen Z is the most racially and ethnically diverse generation with about 30 per cent of the group identifying as LGBT+. Equality issues are important to them and they believe in equal access to healthcare with an emphasis on reproductive and mental healthcare. They also care about climate change, reducing gun violence and student loan debt relief.

Unlike previous generations, religion and border security matter less to them.

And they seem to know that many more factors beyond the president’s age or appearance go into addressing those issues.

“The thing that I think people miss the most right now about what’s happening is there’s this narrative that young people are not engaged in politics,” North Carolina Democratic State Party Chair, Anderson Clayton, said. “[People say that] they don’t care. They’re not going to vote this year. And I’m like, ‘No, they are.’ Because young people are not stupid. They are a lot smarter than people give them credit for.”

Maxwell Frost (D-FL), the youngest member of Congress, pointed to young voters’ support of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign as evidence of their voting behavior.

“A lot of young people really loved Bernie Sanders, right? He’s also old. So it’s not really about age, but it’s about policies,” Frost said.

Senator Sanders, who was 78 during his presidential run, obtained nearly half of the youth vote in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries before suspending his campaign.

“The highest youth voter turnout we’ve ever had in our country’s history was in 2020. Who did they vote for? Joe Biden,” Frost added.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden waves as he departs the stage during a drive-in campaign rally at Riverside High School on October 18, 2020 in Durham, North Carolina. (Getty Images)

In 2020, 26 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 voted. In the 2022 midterms, 28 per cent of people aged 18 to 24 voted – the highest youth voter turnout for a midterm of the four previous generations.

Why are these young people, notoriously the voting group least likely to vote, motivated to vote? It may lie in Gen-Z’s philosophy on voting: policies over people or parties.

Gen Z is the most politically active generation. But unlike their older counterparts, they’re less likely to identify and remain loyal to one political party. Instead, they’d rather remain independent and just lean toward one party over the other.

This means Republicans and Democrats need to fight for Gen Z’s vote because they can’t rely on them to vote along party lines down the ballot, the same way many Gen Xers and Baby Boomers do.

Ellie Edmonston, a 21-year-old student, gave a confident “yes” when asked if she plans to vote for Biden. But her demeanour changed when she was asked if she was excited to vote for him.

She paused for a moment: “I’m excited for a Democrat to win.”

Anderson Clayton speaks with a Progressive Democrat leader in North Carolina while handing out flyers to potential voters (Ariana Baio )

Ms Edmonston felt more strongly about the policies of Democrats winning than the actual candidate. That rings true for those voting for Biden to prevent the likely Republican candidate, Donald Trump, from being re-elected.

“He’s better than Trump, that’s why I’m voting for Joe Biden,” 20-year-old and first-time general election voter, Mathew Robson, said. “I mean, the alternative is the destruction of democracy. And I’d rather vote for practically anyone than Donald Trump.”

It may actually be the prospect of a second Trump presidency that drives a majority of young people to vote for Biden.

Trump’s campaign has aired advertisements highlighting Biden’s verbal gaffes over the four years of his presidency – insinuating something “happened” to the president to make him less capable. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson called Biden unfit for the presidency after Special Counsel Robert Hurr’s report. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has referred to Biden as an “old fart”.

Matt Hughes wears Joe Biden merchandise (Julia Saqui)

But Trump himself has not directly attacked Biden’s age, perhaps because he himself is only three and a half years younger than the current president.

And when it comes to how young Republicans feel about Trump’s age, the consensus isn’t that different from how young Democrats feel about Biden.

Emily Stack, the 29-year-old chair of the North Carolina Federation for Young Republicans, said that while young Republicans may prefer a younger candidate, they will ultimately support whoever the Republican National Committee (RNC) nominates.

“I mean, young Republicans, right? They would like to see some younger blood in there,” Stack said. “They would just like to see someone that’s a little bit less bombastic.”

Stack’s perspective is polished and professional when speaking about Trump – a deviation from the red hat wearers often associated with Trump’s fanbase. She cites the economy, inflation and affordability as top issues young Republicans want addressed in a potential Trump presidency.

“I think most of [the young Republicans] are like, ‘Hey, if this is the nominee, this is who we’re going to support’ because at the end of the day, we’re Republicans and we need to get behind each other and stop all this infighting,” Ms Stack said.

Emily Stack, the chair of the North Carolina Federation for Young Republicans (Ariana Baio )

While Gen Z is not the largest voting bloc, their turnout in 2020 showed how powerful they can be. Early polling indicates this year’s election may be close with one recent Quinnipiac poll putting Mr Biden at 50 per cent and Mr Trump at 44 per cent. Another SSRS and CNN poll puts Mr Trump at 49 per cent and Mr Biden at 45 per cent.

Neither Biden nor Trump have the margin to lose the youth vote with polling numbers neck-and-neck.

And lucky for Biden, Duvall and many others intend to turn out for him – even if he is the oldest president in history.

“I mean, look at his record,” Ms Duvall said. “He has canceled student loan debt. He’s made the largest investment in climate. He has put on our Supreme Court the first African-American woman, he’s given us our first Black woman vice president. He passed the first piece of bipartisan gun safety legislation in decades. These are all issues that matter to our generation.”

“And, you know, we’ve got to realize that, you know, maybe he’s not the perfect candidate for you, but he’s the perfect candidate for this moment because he has and he will again defeat Donald Trump.”