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Gen Z could decide the 2024 election. Here’s what they’re saying about Harris and Trump

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2 years ago

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Gen Z could decide the 2024 election. Here’s what they’re saying about Harris and Trump

By Allison Detzel

Veteran pollster Frank Luntz joined “Morning Joe” on Friday to discuss findings from a recent focus group he held with undecided Gen Z voters.

Luntz shared that, after watching the first — and likely only —presidential debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harrishe assumed a gap would open up in the polling between the two candidates.

“I had thought that Trump’s debate performance would disqualify him,” Luntz said. “I thought looking at the two candidates side by side, which the American people had been waiting weeks and months to see, that, just as Biden’s performance cost him the nomination, Trump’s performance would cost him the election.”

However, that wasn’t the case: Polls show Harris and Trump remain in a statistical dead heat.

“I had thought that Trump’s debate performance would disqualify him.”

Since the presidential race remains so close – especially in the seven battleground states that will likely decide the election – Luntz said undecided voters will be essential to either candidate’s path to victory, particularly young undecided voters.

“Make no mistake, we are on a pin’s edge right now and the essential key point of this is that who they vote for is the next president of the United States,” Lunz told the “Morning Joe” panel.

According to one young voter, Chris from Florida, Trump’s debate performance did impact how he plans to vote in November.

“I think I’m gonna vote for Kamala Harris,” Chris said. “I just can’t get over what happened in 2020 and what’s been reaffirmed in the debates and the general statements made during the campaign.”

“It’s not just the riot but the alternative slate of electors scheme is a bridge too far for me,” he went on to explain.

Another participant, Angelo from New York, said he was previously leaning toward Harris but is now floating the idea of writing another candidate’s name on the ballot.

“The more I look back into it, the more I watch the debate, the more I look into her campaign, I just cannot trust her,” he said. “I’m not gonna vote for Trump but the more I think about it, the more I just don’t know if I can vote for Harris.”

That wasn’t the case for Ayshah from Iowa, who told Luntz that if the election were held today, she would cast her ballot for Harris.

“I just want to see what she will do because I know she’s gonna have to run again later,” she said. “So, I’m hoping she will be an exemplary president for this term.”

Abigail from Virginia said the discussion with her fellow Gen Z voters influenced her to look further into both candidates. However, she also expressed hesitancy in supporting Trump due to his actions in the days and months after the 2020 election.

“Trump, if he wants to win, needs to say less,” Luntz suggested. “If Harris wants to win, she needs to say more.”

“Some people said some things tonight that motivated me to do a bit more research,” Abigail told Luntz. “But the thing is, I do not want to vote for someone, I do not want to tell my children I voted for someone, that threatened democracy.”

“I need to analyze and think a little more before I just vote for Trump,” she said.

Reflecting on his conversation with the group, Luntz offered advice to both campaigns on how they can appeal to Gen Z voters in the closing weeks of the election:

“Trump, if he wants to win, needs to say less,” Luntz suggested. “If Harris wants to win, she needs to say more. They don’t like who Trump is but they agree with him on inflation and immigration. They do like what Harris represents but they still feel like she hasn’t been sufficiently forthcoming.”

“If she loses, it’s going to be because she didn’t answer the questions that voters had wanted her to answer,” Luntz said. “And if he wins, it’s because he finally realized he needs to say less, not more.”

Allison Detzel

Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for BLN Digital.

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‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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12 hours ago

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September 6, 2026

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‘We are winning elections’: Bernie Sanders on Democrats’ progressive wing

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Trump wants the Postal Service to radically overhaul mail voting. But ballots are already going out.

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2 days ago

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September 4, 2026

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President Donald Trump’s controversial demands for the Postal Service to overhaul and monitor millions of mail ballots hit another snag on Friday, when North Carolina became the first state in the nation to start sending out ballots for the November election.

In March, Trump signed the initial executive order, which aimed to crack down on mail-in voting — which he regularly alleges without evidence is a vector for widespread voter fraud — and assert an unprecedented amount of federal control over the upcoming elections.

Under this order and the subsequent rule drafted by the U.S. Postal Service, the USPS would refuse to deliver ballots to states that failed to provide lists of eligible mail voters or did not adhere to an approved envelope design style.

Since then, the order has faced legal challenges, and it remains paused by a federal judge’s orders. But the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to allow the new rule to proceed — something current and former election officials from both parties say would be both a legal nightmare that oversteps the federal government’s traditional role in elections and a logistical one that is happening far too close to the November election to implement even if they agreed with it.

“Why the hell are you rocking the boat this late in the game?” said Stephen Richer, a former Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Arizona, who has clashed with Trump allies for defending the security of the 2020 election.

Still, election officials are trying to project a sense of normalcy for voters, particularly in North Carolina, which serves as a test of whether established local election systems can operate normally amid intensifying federal scrutiny.

“I want to emphasize this point because there has been a lot of outside noise: Our county workers are ready,” Sam Hayes, a longtime Republican lawyer in the state and now executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in a Thursday afternoon press conference.

He added, “All we can do is what we’re doing. … It is business as usual as far as I’m concerned.”

Despite the legal challenges, the Trump administration has continued to press the courts to let it proceed. The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to lift an order from a Massachusetts judge which temporarily prevents the USPS from enforcing their rule. It is the second time the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to step in, after winning an earlier victory in which the high court dismissed an earlier hold on the rule as premature.

“The uncertainty is coming from a single activist judge who continues to try and obstruct President Trump from implementing commonsense measures to protect the security of mail-in ballots and ensure only Americans vote in American elections,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “These safeguards for mail ballots were proposed months ago giving election officials ample time to prepare for the 2026 election.”

The USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Election officials said that if the rule goes into effect this close to November, it would cause chaos and place added strain on the USPS and election officials. And an anonymous federal whistleblower said in a report circulated earlier this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the USPS was moving forward in a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed process” to try to implement the new system ahead of the midterms.

In the coming weeks, states across the country will follow North Carolina’s lead. Nine other states will begin mailing ballots in the next two weeks, according to a tracker from the National Conference of State Legislatures — with the biggest day for mailing coming 45 days before the election in mid-September.

“It would be so outrageous to try to let this go into effect. It’s hard to even imagine,” said Ben Hovland, a senior fellow for democracy at the progressive think tank Center for American Progress and former Democratic commissioner with the Election Assistance Commission who was fired by Trump in July.

He added, “It would be a break-glass moment for our democracy.”

The rule would require meticulous changes to ballot handling and tracking practices that Hovland said are impossible to implement before Election Day in about two months, effectively disenfranchising millions of voters.

“Ballots are printed. Envelopes are printed. You can go on and on with all the practical reasons that show that implementing something like this at this time is not feasible,” he said.

Richer said he doubted the new rules would bring about more security. Even if the USPS received lists from the states, according to the postal service’s final rule, it would not do any additional vetting of the list, Richer said.

“It’s just that the mail ballots have to be on that list, and I don’t see what added value for election integrity that does,” he said.

He added, “It creates a lot of administrative burden, and I think it creates a lot more opportunity for error.”

While a decision looms in the courts, election officials and experts cast doubt on the likelihood of the rules going into effect before November. A more pressing issue, they said, is the confusion and uncertainty surrounding mail-in ballots, which could subvert and change the behaviors of voters.

“It makes things seem messy or difficult, and it can dissuade people from participating or coming out to vote,” Hovland said. “It certainly also helps establish a pretext to make bad faith claims about election results.”

Hovland said that while none of these claims of voter fraud are backed up with facts, they could cause Americans to lose faith in the voting process.

Still, some current officials contended they were well-prepared for whatever happens — and that they’d be able to communicate effectively with voters who have become increasingly buffeted by dramatic rhetoric about the once-unmentioned nuts and bolts of actually running an election.

“There’s always a lot of noise around elections, that’s not going to change, and it can be hard to differentiate that from what’s actually going on on the ground,” said Jason Tyson, director of external affairs for the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

As Election Day approaches, Tyson and election officials said they urge voters to check their registration status and make a plan to vote.

He added, “I think we’ve got a really well-trained, solid staff who are ready, and who have gone through all of the checks and balances and points of contact that we need to do to get to where we are.”

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Missouri Supreme Court pauses GOP gerrymander, likely netting Democrats 1 House seat

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3 days ago

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September 3, 2026

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Missouri’s Supreme Court suspended a congressional map that state Republicans drew last year that would have netted the GOP an additional House seat, likely keeping the seat in Democratic hands this November.

The court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a referendum petition organized by Democrats to put the new congressional maps to a vote was incorrectly deemed insufficient by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, and ordered that the gerrymandered map be put to a vote in the fall.

Voters will ultimately decide the fate of the new lines in November. But in the meantime, it cannot be in place for the midterms, meaning Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s original Kansas City-based district will likely stay in Democrats’ hands this fall.

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