With 41 million members of Generation Z eligible to vote in the 2024 election, voters aged 18-29 could play a decisive role in the outcome.
In this election, 8.3 million members of Generation Z will become eligible to vote for the first time, according to Tufts.
In the race to the Oval Office, a fall 2024 Harvard Youth Poll found that among likely youth voters, Vice President Kamala Harris leads former President Donald Trump by 28 points.
Young voters, however, are the least likely to vote, with record turnout among the demographic only reaching 50 percent in 2020.
Polls from The Wall Street Journal show a majority of men under 30 prefer Trump to Harris in office. Women under 30 have only shifted farther to the left, with data from the Harvard Youth Poll showing 50 percent of white women and 70 percent of non-white women preferring Harris as the next president.
With election results trickling in from Tuesday night, it’s too early to tell how much of a role young voters played. The Daily Iowan talked to a dozen young voters on the University of Iowa campus to hear their thoughts on the 2024 election.
Editor’s Note: The Daily Iowan interviewed the students referenced in this story before they cast their ballots.
Liam Halawith, Roxy Ekberg, Mia O’Connor-Walker, and Shreya Reddy contributed to this report. Illustrations by Amy Scott.
Brooklyn Roder
Roder sees abortion as a top issue and is primarily concerned with the way Roe vs. Wade was overturned and the effects that it had on several women across the country.
“Just seeing the effects, moral aspects aside, that this has had on the livelihood of women is something that is really scary, and people should have the right to choose what they do to themselves,” Roder said.
Roder sees the way that Harris talks about abortion and other issues as more positive and reflective of her own personal views.
“I don’t like Trump as a person, and I don’t think he handled a lot of the things he did while president well for our country. Harris aligns more with my values given her stance on the economy and a lot of the policy she proposes for middle-class people,” Roder said.
Roder disagreed with Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accords and how he handled the pandemic as well as the attitudes he brings to the table.
“His rhetoric — the way he talks about things aren’t really good for our country,” Roder said.
Roder sees the climate as an issue she aligns herself with along with immigration. For Roder, it is important that people not be separated at the border and that both candidates have talked about how they would improve the situation.
“It is important to talk about this [immigration] and humanize people who are coming in from other places,” Roder said.
CC Zachary
For Zachary, voting for the first time and waiting for the results is an exciting and nerve-inducing occurrence. Zachary pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and an increasing political divide as reasons for her nerves.
“I’m a little nervous just because of the state that we’re in right now, and how the two sides are just fighting — it’s become a very prominent split,” she said.
Abortion was the most important issue to Zachary in the 2024 election, and she planned to vote for Harris because of her stance on abortion access and reproductive health care.
“I feel like all of my rights have been kind of stripped away from me as a woman,” Zachary said. “As an 18-year-old, I’m a little nervous for the women in this country.”
The economy and immigration are also important issues to Zachary. She said she finds Harris’ stance on immigration to be more appealing and does not agree with the rhetoric pushed by Republican candidates, which makes the issue tense.
Zachary said America is founded by immigrants and she finds it contradictory that politicians are trying so hard to keep people out of the country.
Despite her concerns about election night, Zachary said she was glad to cast her ballot in the election.
“I’m kind of excited that I get a vote in this one,” Zachary said. “I get to be a part of it, that I actually get to use my vote for something.”
Delaney Waterman
For Waterman, abortion is her top issue this election and is why she planned to cast her ballot for Harris, who has campaigned on reinstating federal protections for abortion access.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, a federal precedent that protected a woman’s right to an abortion, Iowa enacted a near-total abortion ban. Waterman said she didn’t appreciate Trump’s role in overturning the protections.
Waterman said the choice has motivated her to vote this year.
“Donald Trump, he obviously like got rid of Roe v Wade, so now it’s a state issue instead of a personal issue,” Waterman said. “It’s up to Governor Kim Reynolds to decide whether or not I’m allowed to get an abortion, instead of it being my own personal choice, which is what Kamala Harris wants. She wants to reinstate Roe v Wade, which I’m in 100 percent support of.”
On immigration, Waterman said that while she appreciates the need to secure the border, she supports reforming the immigration system to make it easier to immigrate legally. Waterman said it also isn’t an issue that should be as big of a focus as it currently is in national politics.
“There are still people coming in, and I do think that we should be setting up a process that makes it easier for people to become citizens,” Waterman said. “I think it’s a hard process, and that’s why people are wanting to go at it in an illegal way.”
Ryan Cater
Cater does not consider himself political and said not much has changed for him since Trump’s presidency compared to Biden’s except for the economy.
Cater planned to cast his ballot in favor of Trump because of his stance on the economy, an issue Cater considered to be the most decisive factor in the election. Concerned with taxes, inflation, and gas prices, Cater said he doesn’t have much of an opinion on issues that don’t affect him personally, such as abortion and border control.
“Obviously [immigration] is a massive thing, but whichever way it sways, it’s not realistically going to impact me in my daily life,” Cater said. “I think that it’s important for a lot of people, and it impacts a lot of people but doesn’t impact me, so I don’t really have a stance on it. I don’t think it’s not important or anything like that. It’s just not one of my key things I consider when I vote.”
As a Catholic and a first responder, Cater said he understands how important abortion care can be in a life-or-death response but also sees why elective abortions are considered wrong. However, Cater said candidates’ stances on abortion do not impact how he planned to vote.
Cater agrees with Trump’s stance on abortion and thinks it should be up to the states to decide whether abortion care is legal. Carer said abortion should not be an all-or-nothing type thing, and there should be exceptions for rape and the life of the mother.
Tim Ku
Ku said he was undecided about who to vote for in the Nov. 5 election. He said that he did not know enough about the candidates when The Daily Iowan spoke with Ku in October.
What Ku does know, though, are his priorities. His top voting issue is foreign policy, particularly regarding Taiwanese independence. Ku is also prioritizing policy that targets climate change and promotes sustainability and said that he’s concerned that, as industrialism increases, the world climate is in jeopardy.
In regard to the economy, Ku said he’s been paying particular attention to the rise of and the technological sector as a whole and emphasized the growing number of semiconductors being built. While he sees the tech sector advancing rapidly, Ku also thinks other areas of the economy are suffering.
On reproductive rights, Ku said both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s policies are on the radical end. Ku thinks somewhere in between each of the candidates’ views exists an approach to reproductive rights that is ethical and moral, which he thinks should be the end goal.
“The most important thing for me is ethics,” Ku said.
Katie Chriswell
Chriswell is excited to vote because it will be her first time — not because she’s particularly excited about the candidates.
“It’s my first election, so I’m excited,” Chriswell said. “I wish maybe I had better options. I’m not saying that Kamala’s bad. And I’m like it’s a lesser of two evils type situation. So, I’m not that stoked about it, but I’m excited for my voice to be heard, especially in this election.”
Chriswell said abortion is her top issue this election. She said the decision should be between a woman and her doctors.
“At the end of the day, no woman has an abortion because they want it,” Chriswell said. “They have it because there’s a situation of desperateness. “It’s not like, ‘Let me get an abortion because I want a car,’ or something. It’s not something like that. It’s like this is a life-or-death situation, financially, I can’t afford it.”
Chriswell said she’s not too concerned about the economy right now as the U.S. has a history of a strong economy, no matter how much it waxes or wanes.
On immigration, Chriswell said U.S. immigration policy should be more kind and let more people in legally.
Samantha Herrling
Herrling said she planned to vote for Trump this election because of his strong economic policies since she pins taxes as her top issue.
Herrling feels like the economy could be doing better than it is right now, and she believes Trump’s policies will help.
“I think he has policies that will grow the GDP instead of making it worse, along with increasing or decreasing the unemployment rate and things like that,” Herrling said.
Herrling said she thinks immigration is very important to society and is the foundation of the U.S. but would like to see stricter border control at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I think there needs to be stricter border control, whether that is implementing ways to process people that want to come here so that they can become legal citizens,” Herrling said. “I think there needs to be improvements in the processing so that people are more inclined to come over legally versus illegally.”
Herrling said she is pro-choice and that Trump’s current position on abortion lines up with her own. She said there should be limitations on abortion but that it should still be accessible.
“I think there’s been a little confusion on whether [Trump] is pro-life or pro-choice, but I think Vance cleared that up and said he is pro-choice,” Herrling said. “So I mean, I’m in line with that. I think he wants to set a certain term where you cannot get an abortion past a certain amount of weeks. And I agree with that completely.”
Sahir Badr
Badr’s decision to not vote in the election stemmed from his belief that both options have their pros and cons, and he did not believe in either one.
“I don’t believe in the Republican side or the Democratic side. They both have pretty bad connections,” Badr said.
For Badr, the ideal candidate would be someone who wants to help with issues at the state level before sending aid to other countries, including affordable health care, homelessness, and student debt.
Badr sees the state of the U.S. economy as “pretty bad,” citing the increase in gas prices and prices as a whole. Badr aligns more with the Republicans when it comes to the economy because he wants to see gas go down.
“Sure, you might get a three percent increase at your job, but everything else has also increased, so three percent does not really feel like a raise,” Badr said.
On issues like abortion and immigration, Badr finds common ground with Democrats, believing that anyone who wishes to come to this country should be able to do so legally, without having to risk their lives.
“Women should have their own choice over their body. I really don’t think other people should have control over that,” Badr said.
Jacob Martin
Martin, a seasoned voter, cast his ballot for Kanye West in the 2020 presidential election.
He believes former President Trump’s policy issues, particularly about border security and abortion, align more with his political views than those of Harris.
“It is necessary for a sovereign country to know who we are letting in, because then all the good people that deserve to be here and want to come here the right way, can’t,” Martin said.
Martin sees abortion as a right that should be left up to the states and believes that abortion is “morally wrong.”
“We [Republicans] don’t view it [abortion] as a reproductive right. We view it as the right of the child,” Martin said.
Martin voted for West because, at the time, he did not want to vote for former President Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.
“I knew I was throwing it [his vote] away, but I didn’t feel morally like voting for Trump,” Martin said.
Martin voted for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds back in 2022 and planned to vote for Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, this year. Martin said not voting would mean giving a vote to the candidate that is “worse.”
“In my mind, there is clearly one option, and so I have taken the lesser of two evils stance,” Martin said.
Tanvi Khadiya
As a first-time voter, Khadiya’s excitement to vote was stunted because it is difficult for her to find a candidate who supports Palestine. Khadiya marks the Israel-Hamas war as the biggest issue in the election.
Khadiya is in support of Harris’ stances on reproductive rights, immigration, and gun control reform. However, she said she is wary of Harris’ support of Israel.
Leading up to the election, Harris opened up the discussion, urging for a two-state solution. Khadiya said she hopes Harris will continue the conversation if she is elected.
Immigration is also a large concern for Khadiya. She supports immigration but also thinks the number of people coming in should be lowered so capacity and resources aren’t stretched thin.
“I do think we need to control [immigration] but in a much more humane way,” she said. “Treating them more like humans and less like illegal aliens or like political pieces in a game.”
Khadiya said the current immigration process needs to be reformed, as many people who cross the border are in life-or-death situations. She supports speeding up the legal process of immigration.
Khadiya said social issues outweigh others like the economy because of where she is in life.
“Because I’m a student, the social things are more important to me,” Khadiya said. “I’m sure once I get into the professional setting, then the job market will become a bigger concern for me.”
Sophia Connolly
Connolly’s key voting issue is reproductive rights, and she feels these rights are currently being threatened. She is fearful of a future where women will not be able to access reproductive health care and emphasized reproductive health care extends beyond abortion and into other health services.
Connolly believes Harris is the candidate who would best protect these rights and thinks Harris could break the cycle of men dominating the policy decisions surrounding reproductive health.
“As a woman, it would be nice to have a woman in office who has that perspective on reproductive rights, personally,” Connolly said.
Beyond reproductive rights, Connolly also wants to see more ethical border security practices.
While believing that it’s important for the country to have a secure southern border, Connolly thinks current border security practices are unnecessarily harmful to those trying to enter the country. Connolly wants to see border security that functions efficiently without causing harm.
“There’s a certain way to deal with border security that isn’t racist, that isn’t putting people in cages,” Connolly said. “I think that the country should be more secure, but there’s a way to do it that isn’t hurtful to people.”
Editor’s Note: Sophia Connlloy is a former staff member at The Daily Iowan.
Samantha Sutton
Sutton, who immigrated to the U.S. from the Caribbean, hopes to make a difference with her vote.
She identifies strongly with Harris, whose experience she believes is necessary to have, particularly when talking about immigration.
“She has parents who were immigrants and understands the struggles of being the child of an immigrant. It is easy to talk about immigration and be completely far away from the issue when you as a person have never had to adhere to these rules,” Sutton said.
Sutton said she understands the issues people have with illegal immigration and that changing the requirements for coming into the country is important.
To Sutton, Kamala Harris has the political experience and qualifications to be the next president of the U.S.
“I appreciate that she is a woman of color, and I feel like she relates to Americans more based on her upbringing,” Sutton said.
Harris also reflects Sutton’s views on abortion. To Sutton, abortion means not forcing people to do what other people think is right for them.
“It is a free country, so I feel like you should be free to do what you want with your body, and it shouldn’t be public knowledge. It should just be,” Sutton said.