Ann Arbor, Michigan CNN —
The campus museum also serves as a voting location. Voter registration tables seem to be everywhere. A campus coffee shop also has a message written on its sleeve: “Wolverines: Vote Early.”
So Jade Gray is a little upset about this theory. What would happen if Kamala Harris came within striking distance in Michigan, a battleground state?
“If she lacks support in Michigan, I don’t think it’s because of young voters,” said Gray, a former co-chair of the University of Michigan College Democrats who graduated in May. “I think it’s probably because we took too long to switch candidates.”
Voters between the ages of 18 and 29 are a key component of the Democratic Party’s coalition government. They were critical to Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in Michigan and the party’s dramatic state-level gains in 2022. But support levels among young voters will be a big issue heading into 2024, due to anger and disappointment with the Biden-Harris administration’s response. conflict between Israel and Hamas.
“I don’t think we should blame young voters, people of color, Muslim voters this election cycle. Frankly, I don’t want to hear much about that,” Gray said in an interview. “I think we have to put that on the campaign trail, and we have to put that on the officials who are running for office. I hope she doesn’t fail in Michigan because we have a lot of Because I don’t want to talk to young people about how they should have done more when they feel like they’re doing it.”
This was the third conversation between Gray and Anushka Jalisaggi, who was also co-chair of the University Democratic Party last year, in 11 months. Both are part of a CNN project called All Over the Map, which aims to track the 2024 election campaign through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in battleground states and are part of key voting blocs. .
In two previous conversations, both men said Biden’s age is a concern for many younger voters who feel little connection to the octogenarian president. Now that Harris is the Democratic nominee, the difference in energy and enthusiasm is clear.
Gray currently works as a digital organizer for a progressive group.
“We’ve noticed a big change in activity across the board,” Gray said.
Jalisatogi returned to campus as a first-year law student and just switched her voter registration to Michigan.
“A lot of my out-of-state friends are switching their registration to Michigan because it’s a battleground state,” Jalisatogi said.
While Mr. Gray and Mr. Jalisatogi move forward, the College Democrats are gearing up for the race. During our recent visit, Harris campaign officials stopped by a rally where, after receiving a pep talk from the state’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer, a crowded room of students spent time on phone banking. Ta.
“The work you guys are doing is so important and I’m heartened to see what’s happening in all the Democratic clubs on campus. You’re kicking the a**. So, I We just had to keep going,” Whitmer said via video link.
Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell stopped by to warn against overconfidence.
“I can look you in the eye and say, right now, neither candidate is winning in the state of Michigan.”
Ann Arbor’s campus is notable for its emphasis on registration and early voting everywhere you look.
One of the registration tables we stopped at on a recent visit looked familiar. It was the same campus path where students set up an encampment last semester to vent their frustrations with Israel, the Biden administration and school officials seeking divestment from businesses. These are people who do business with Israel.
Because schools do not allow new camps, it is difficult to gauge how much of last semester’s raw anger carried over into the new school year and into voting decisions.
“A lot of that energy can’t happen in a physical space, so it still occupies a lot of the online space,” Gray said.
Jalisatogi believes it was directed at university officials, not Harris.
“People are still very concerned that this issue is going on and that the university is complicit in it,” Jalisatogi said. “I’m seeing universities come out with a lot of new free speech guidelines and new regulations on how they want to curtail or regulate free speech.”
Ann Arbor College Republicans did not want CNN to attend a meeting they held during our recent visit.
Member Max Sheske, a third-year student, said attendance and energy have increased somewhat as the election approaches. But he also said the group is about evenly divided when it comes to enthusiasm for Donald Trump.
“We certainly have the idea that ‘Trump is basically the Jesus wing of the club,'” Sheske said. “But, you know, we have people who are very critical of Trump.”
Mr. Sheske describes himself as a libertarian and Mr. Trump as a populist. “So he’s kind of hit or miss for me,” Sheske said.
There are Harris Yards signs, posters, and placards all over Ann Arbor. Signs of support for Trump are much harder to find. Schieske said on campus that President Trump’s clear support for Israel makes it difficult to win support from Democrats critical of the Biden-Harris administration’s defense of the Jewish state.
“If it were up to me, he wouldn’t have been the Republican nominee,” Sheske said.
The biggest risk to Ms. Harris is that young voters will stay home and skip the presidential candidate line on the ballot or vote for a third party.
In May, Wayne State University student Summer Matkin moved to the third party. Biden was the Democratic nominee at the time, and she had concerns about both his age and the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
Despite her frustration with continued bloodshed in the Middle East, she calls Harris “the safest option.”
But when we stopped by a Wayne State Syrian Student Association meeting, there were signs of trouble for Harris.
The approximately 20 students in the room did not want their names mentioned or their faces photographed. But when asked if it would be difficult to vote for Harris, almost everyone in the room raised their hands.
Similarly, Wayne State University student Wabe Nuseibeh, 26, said he would not vote for Harris in 2024 after voting for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
“We feel betrayed,” said Nusseibeh, a Palestinian.
“I will not vote for Kamala Harris. I cannot in good conscience,” he said. In his opinion, his taxes paid for bombs shipped to Israel “to kill friends and family abroad.”
Nuseibeh is likely to choose a third-party option.
“Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy, a threat to our society,” he said in an interview at a predominantly Arab-American Yemeni coffee shop in a Detroit suburb.
Maya Siegman plans to vote for Harris, but she felt the answers in the vice presidential debate were too vague.
“She didn’t answer most of the questions directly, seemed to be skirting around the answers or unable to give real answers,” Siegman said. “And when the topic of the war between Israel and Hamas came up, there was no solid response as to how she would resolve it.”
Siegman is active in the Jewish organization at Wayne State University’s Hillel campus and just returned from a summer in Israel. There, she said, she was frequently asked questions about public opinion in the United States.
“The reaction was basically that Hamas and Israel are fighting a propaganda war, a social media war, a news war, and Hamas is currently winning,” Siegman said.
The situation on campus has been tense over the past year, and Siegmann is mindful that emotions could run high again in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and the upcoming U.S. election on Oct. 7. spoke. She is a proud Jew and an ardent supporter of Israel, but is also critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war efforts.
But such nuances can quickly disappear when passions run high, she says.
“We have a lot of different classes, including policy classes, so I’m worried that when it comes to discussion, it’s going to be an argument instead of a discussion.”
There is a large Arab and Muslim population on campus, and Siegman said he is working harder this semester to get to know his classmates better.
“These guys are going to be with me until I get my degree,” she said. “So we want to lay a solid foundation to build on that further.”
