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A month ago, I spoke to students at a UNC Charlotte political science class.
I talked about the Biden campaign pouring in resources in North Carolina; about how the state is essential to former president Trump’s chances; about how they — as students — are critical to whoever wins the state.
Their eyes were a bit glazed over.
Then we shifted gears.
Gaza, abortion, TikTok.
Most of the kids sat up straight. They were now dialed in.
On a scale of 1-10, interest in Gaza was off the charts. I would rank it a 10. Many said they would not vote for Biden because of his support for Israel.
Democratic Rep. Jeff Jackson’s vote to possibly ban TikTok (while being a TikTok user himself) ranked a six.
Abortion was a four.
A week later, I sat down with five of the most vocal students in the student union.
My conversation with the students — which took place before the recent eruptions of protests at college campuses — offers important insights about this year’s presidential race. It’s a small sample size, to be sure. But my discussions with the students give a window into some of the challenges facing Democrats, who will need a strong youth vote if they hope to win North Carolina.
‘You are asking me to stomach a little bit of genocide’
Three had softened their position. They still opposed Israel's conduct in the war, but said they would likely support Biden in the end. Two said they might look for a third-party candidate.
Emily Holiday works full-time and is a full-time student. She’s from Cleveland County and is in her 30s.
In the primary, she voted “No Preference.” She said she was “happy to not click (Biden’s) name because I have seen images of dead children on my phone for the last seven months.”
Holiday added: “I have a deep problem with the idea of the lesser of two evils (Biden vs. Trump). We are still building a border wall. It’s more humane discrimination, but it’s still discrimination. It’s still you are asking me to stomach a little bit of genocide instead of a lot of genocide. If you are telling me Biden is the more moral candidate, show me some moral behavior.”
But Holiday plans to vote for Biden, reluctantly.
Avery Amoah, a junior from Raleigh, feels the same.
He hates the war and turned off Instagram for a week because of all the gory images from Gaza. But said: “The idea of not voting is a non-factor for me."
“I’ve always said that Biden — despite all of his flaws — is a very progressive president,” he said.
He, too, says he’ll likely vote for Biden.
As progressives, none of the five would consider voting for Trump.
But two, Hasia Allen and Kayla Bittle, said they might look at a third-party candidate.
Allen, of Rutherford County, is a junior.
“I feel like as a person of color, I feel like not voting is something I don’t have the privilege of doing,” she said, adding that there’s an 80% chance she votes.
“But I don’t know if that’s towards the Democratic Party or independent,” she said. “It just depends on what I’m hearing and what they promise.”
Bittle is a senior from Charlotte. She might vote for someone other than Biden or Trump.
“I have to agree with Haisa,” she said. “As a woman of color, I don’t have the privilege of not voting. But I don’t like either one. If Biden continues to do what he’s doing and isn’t putting his foot to the ground to tell Israel to stop all the genocide that they are committing, they are doing, then Trump will win the election.”
I ask: Is that because young people won’t show up?
“Absolutely, yeah,” she said.
The Biden campaign is making abortion rights a key part of its campaign.
Of the UNC Charlotte students, Riss Mejia-Horton, of Raleigh, was the only one who put abortion rights as her most important issue.
She said she will vote for Biden.
But she said a lack of enthusiasm for Biden across campus goes beyond Gaza.
“People are concerned that they can’t buy a house when they grow up, they are concerned with gas prices, concerned that groceries are too expensive,” she said.
She added: “When we ask our friends, ‘Are you voting?’ They say, ‘We don’t like either.’”
What is the president’s best strategy?
I left the meeting with two thoughts/questions.
I was surprised that abortion was not more top of mind.
And I wondered what should the Democratic Party do about Gaza?
There are two schools of thought.
One is that Biden is blowing it, brushing off the concerns of Gen Z. Charlotte Observer columnist Isaac Bailey wrote in early April that “Joe Biden is squandering a chance to make North Carolina purple again.”
He said the president is “hurting his reelection chances by giving into the far-right in Israel.” He added that “Obama won North Carolina largely by energizing young voters — the very voters who are expressing, in no uncertain terms, their disdain for how Biden has handled Israel’s war in Gaza.”
In the Wall Street Journal last week, James Traub took the opposite view.
In an essay titled “Biden Needs to Learn From the Democrats’ Disaster in ’68,” he argued that Hubert Humphrey’s reluctance to distance himself from anti-war protesters cost him the election to Richard Nixon.
“The lesson of that tumultuous political summer is clear,” the story said. “The fireworks may be on the party’s left, but the votes needed for victory are on the right.”
The votes needed for victory.
Of the five students I spoke with, only one — Holiday — voted in March.
Though some college students vote in their hometown, plenty of UNC Charlotte students sat out the election.
There are 4,105 registered voters in the precinct that’s home to the university. In the March primary, just 90 people voted there in the presidential primaries.
That’s a turnout rate of 2%.
There is an idea that young voters just need to be mobilized, but that only works when people are willing to be mobilized.
If young voters are “meh” on the top of the ticket, pursuing them is like sweeping water uphill — a fruitless exercise.
Last week, after days of unrest at college campuses nationwide, Biden seemed to cast his lot with older voters.
“There’s the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos,” Biden said. “People have the right to get an education, the right to get a degree, the right to walk across the campus safely without fear of being attacked.”
