Florida’s Gen Z-led Democratic Party organization says that while the party’s presidential candidate will change, it won’t mean fewer young voters will turn out to vote in November’s election.
President Joe Biden has formally withdrawn from the 2024 presidential race. He, along with many others in his party, including Florida Democrats, have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor.
Harris, meanwhile, said it is her intention to seek and win her party’s nomination.
She is currently endorsed by three groups of politically active young Democrats in Florida: Florida Future Leaders, Florida College Democrats and Florida High School Democrats.
So are national Gen Z political organizations Voters of Tomorrow and Dream for America.
“Young voters consistently supported and voted for President Biden in historic fashion because he has always been on our side on every issue, whether it be gun violence, climate change or the Republican attack on our right to bodily choice and autonomy,” Jayden Donofrio, president of Florida Future Leaders, said in a statement.
“Now, at this historic crossroads, young people will vote en masse to support Kamala Harris as the first woman president of the United States and protect and expand the right to choose across America. The contrast could not be clearer for our generation: vote for the young and ever-determined Kamala Harris, or watch the promise of our future crumble at the hands of a 78-year-old convicted felon and sex offender who is on the front lines of the Republican Party’s war on the rights of young people.”
Alexa Matos, vice chair of the College Democrats of Florida, said the group “fully supports” Harris’ presidential bid.
“This change does not alter the work the College Democrats of Florida are doing to mobilize students and take back Florida,” she said in a statement. “It only underscores the need for us to come together as a voting group for progress in opposition to Donald Trump and Project 2025.”
Tomorrow’s Voters, which works to mobilize young voters through more than 20 million in-person, phone and text contacts, thanked Biden for his “courageous announcement” on Sunday and said in a statement that the group stands ready to bring young voters to the polls for Harris.
“As vice president, Kamala Harris has been one of Gen Z’s fiercest advocates. She has traveled across the country to engage young people in the fight for reproductive rights, economic justice, climate action, voting rights and LGBTQ+ equality. She oversaw the Office of Gun Violence Prevention and worked hard to improve funding for mental health care in schools,” the group said.
“Vice President Harris has laid out a clear vision for our future that will undoubtedly inspire young people in this election to defeat Donald Trump. Together, let’s elect Kamala Harris this November and continue the progress of the most youth-friendly administration in our country’s history.”
Dream for America said Biden will be remembered as “one of the most transformative leaders of our time” and that passing the baton to Harris ensures the country continues to be in capable hands of leadership.
“Vice President Harris understands that the path to a strong America at home and abroad starts with an economy that grows from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down,” the group said. “Throughout her career, she has always made it clear whose side she is on: the side of young people and ordinary Americans. She will continue this fight over the next four years to provide visionary leadership on the most important issues of our generation.”
In the last presidential election, Biden led Trump 59% to 33% among voters under 30 who did not participate in the previous two elections, according to the Pew Research Center. Overall, Gen Z and millennial voters supported Biden over Trump by about 20 points in the 2020 election, while Gen X and baby boomers were more evenly split.
Tufts University projected in October that 41 million Gen Z members will be eligible to vote in this year’s election, 8 million more than two years ago.
Near-record youth voter turnout across the country helped stave off a wave of Republican gains in 2022. Democrats gained seats in the Senate but lost nine seats in Congress, the biggest of which was in Florida.
At the state level, it was a bloodbath: Florida Democrats lost their only Cabinet seat and gained four and seven seats in the House and Senate, which were already heavily outnumbered.
A Tufts University analysis of voter turnout in the midterm elections reveals why: Florida has the ninth-lowest voter turnout among 18-29 year olds among all states in the nation, and only 22.4% of Florida’s Gen Z voters showed up to the polls in 2022, a 9.1% decrease from two years ago.
The decline has disproportionately hit the Democratic Party and progressive causes, which young voters support more than most of their peers: Gen Z adults now make up one in six eligible voters, and of those, 43% identify as liberal, the highest share of any generation, according to a Public Religion Research Institute survey.
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Editor’s note: This report has been updated to include endorsements from Voters of Tomorrow and Dream for America.
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