American gen Z voters share how they feel about Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, why they like or dislike her as a candidate and whether they think she could beat Donald Trump, as the vice-president races towards winning the Democratic nomination for November’s election.
‘I think she’s just what we need’
“I think [Kamala Harris] is the only one that makes sense. She will get the votes Biden couldn’t. She could get the Black, Asian, Latino, women’s, LGBTQ+ and youth votes. She stands more for progress and equality than an old white dude and if she wins it will be historic. The Democrats need a bold move and I think she’s just what we need.
“I hope the Democrats realize what an opportunity this is for them.” Will, 22, construction worker from Portland, Oregon
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Well said. Even if you are in a solid-whatever state, the degree to which that is true is important. A 5 point lead is different from a 10 point lead, is different from a 20 point lead. The closer you can make it, the more you force people to pay attention to you.
At the same time, if you know your candidate is going to win and you live in a shitty two-party system, then the only means you have to protest about the policies of the party you primarily support is to give them a no vote when they’re guaranteed to win.
Example, everyone knew the Labor party was going to win in the UK election, it was guaranteed after the 14 years of incompetence from the Tories. That being said, Labor really wasn’t promising much. The only party that were offering any real change were the Greens.
So what do you, knowing that Labor are going to win but not agreeing with their policies? You let them know by voting for other parties, and then Labor reassesses their policies on the votes they lost.
And then a bunch of people do that because “my guy is going to win anyway so it doesn’t matter” and you end up losing. Remember Brexit? never be too confident.
The only means? How about writing a letter? Attending a town hall? How about protest? We have far more influence than a single vote.
Also, I don’t think anyone in Labour is reassessing any policies on votes they lost to the Greens in this example, due to how few votes the Greens got. That said, I do believe people should vote for whatever they think will do the most good. If someone is a single-issue voter on environmental issues, voting Green is a sound way to support the policies they care about. Not to push dems, that is unlikely to happen, but to actually support the policies they care about.