Who Are the True Youth Voters in 2024?

But maybe the actual focus should be on the other end of the age spectrum. Youth may be the “X factor” in this election — or perhaps we should call it the “Z factor.” Gen Z will be voting in the critical 18–24 demographic this November. These mostly new voters can’t be neatly tracked, categorized, or labeled. In an election so close that a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll shows Biden and Trump tied, these voters should prove critical. Who are they? Who will they vote for? Will they turn out? What does it mean for our community?

I can tell you who they aren’t: the protesters storming college campuses and inciting vitriol and monopolizing media attention. These college protesters are angry, anti-Israel, and hold radical left-wing positions. They aren’t voting for Trump. There are seemingly tens of thousands involved.

Based on the media coverage, one might think this vocal demographic speaks for all young people and that they represent a radical American youth obsessed with tearing down Israel. A new Harvard Youth Poll tells a different tale.

According to the poll, only 17% of respondents aged 18 to 29 expressed sympathy for Hamas, and when they were told Hamas is an Islamist militant group, support dropped to a lowly 13%. When asked about their top issues, only 2% said that the Israel-Hamas conflict was most important. These two findings alone indicate that what we are witnessing on college campuses is not reflective of the young people who will actually head to the polls in November.