Michigan young voters enthused for Harris, but their level of support is still a big question

The campus art museum doubles as a voting hub. There are voter registration tables seemingly everywhere. Even the sleeves at the campus coffee shop have a message: Wolverines: Let’s Vote Early.

The campus art museum doubles as a voting hub. There are voter registration tables seemingly everywhere. Even the sleeves at the campus coffee shop have a message: “Wolverines: Let’s Vote Early.” So Jade Gray bristles a bit at this hypothetical: What if Kamala Harris comes up just short in battleground Michigan? “If she comes up short in Michigan, I don’t think it’s because of young voters,” said Gray, a former co-president of the University of Michigan College Democrats who graduated in May. “I think it’s probably because we waited too long to make a switch of the candidate.” Voters aged 18-29 are a vital piece of the Democratic coalition. They were crucial to Joe Biden’s 2020 Michigan win and in the dramatic state-level gains the party made in 2022. But young voters’ level of support is a big question for 2024 because of anger and disappointment with how the Biden-Harris administration has handled the Israel-Hamas conflict. “I don’t think there is any blame to put on young people or people of color or Muslim voters in this election cycle, and I quite frankly don’t really want to hear about that,” Gray said in an interview. “I think that you got to put that on campaigns, and you have to put that on the elected officials that are running for office. I sure hope she doesn’t come up short in Michigan, because I don’t really want to be talking to people about how young people should have done more when I feel like we’re doing a lot.” The conversation with Gray and Anushka Jalisatgi, also co-president of the College Democrats last school year, was our third in 11 months. Both are part of a CNN project, called All Over the Map, designed to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes and experiences of voters who live in battleground states and are part of crucial voting blocs.