University of Chicago junior Jennifer Aniede typically checks in on presidential election news only every few days or so, but she sees plenty of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign ads on TikTok in between.
“It’s very joyful and fun, which is cute. But we also want to hear the serious aspects,” the 21-year-old Dallas native says.
While Aniede’s vote for Harris over former President Donald Trump isn’t in doubt, the candidate’s social media feed hasn’t given her the full picture on how Harris would approach the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
“You can get the latest meme and the latest trend, but can you lay out a bunch of policies?” Aniede said. “The best to us as young voters is a balance of the two.”
She was among Gen Z voters who told the Sun-Times they appreciate the steps Harris and Trump are taking in their campaigns to reach out to the next generation. But beyond the TikTok videos, podcasts and Instagram stories, they say they’re looking for the same things voters of most ages are seeking: less mudslinging and more concrete policy proposals.
“The disrespectful nature of politics turns kids away,” said Christina Carris, the 20-year-old youth outreach director for her father Jim Carris’ Republican bid for a North Shore congressional seat. “When they’re not hearing a candidate just attack the other side — the moment they give us a say in our future, that’s what matters most.”
An estimated 41 million “zoomers,” born from about 1997 through 2006, are eligible to vote in the Nov. 5 election, according to the nonpartisan Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University in Massachusetts. That includes about 8 million voters who could cast their first-ever ballots.
No shame — and not ‘in one box’
It’s an increasingly diverse cohort of voters, with nearly half of eligible Gen Z voters coming from communities of color, and one that skews to the left politically, according to the Pew Research Center, which found about two-thirds of voters between 18 and 24 associate with the Democratic Party.
Illinois Republicans push back on that characterization.
Myles Nelson, the 26-year-old campaign manager for downstate Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, says the GOP is “chipping away” at the Democratic edge among younger voters, especially outside urban areas.
“I see more young people wearing red MAGA hats and supporting Donald Trump than I see supporting Kamala Harris,” Nelson said. “Whether people like it or not, we have to shift focus to Gen Z and millennial voters. We reach out to them like we do to all voters and show them the common-sense solutions Republicans bring.”
Carris advised against “putting Gen Z in one box… This is the generation with the most access to information and media. We can learn things much faster than generations before us.”
Misconceptions about younger voters come from both sides of the aisle, according to state Rep. Nabeela Syed, D-Palatine, who became one of the first two Gen Z members of the Illinois General Assembly in 2022.
“What I’ve often witnessed is condescension in the approach to engaging young voters, and assuming they don’t come out to vote. I believe it’s our responsibility to engage and excite young voters to give them a reason to vote,” said Syed, 25. “Sometimes that’s difficult, like it is for all age groups.”
Shannon Dye, co-chair of the nonpartisan student-led group UChicago Votes, said their organization is working to change that narrative of shaming younger generations to prevent a low-turnout cycle.
“You hear a lot like, ‘Oh, you young people, like you’re not getting to the polls, like you don’t care about whatever,’” said Dye, 21. “When you tell young people, ‘Oh, look at you. You’re voting so little,’ it almost gives people a pass.”
How to reach Gen Z
To get past that, campaigns need to speak to issues that matter most to younger people most.
“I think my friends and I’s biggest concern is women’s rights — rights to our bodies, rights to our reproductive systems,” said Mia Le, a 22-year-old DePaul University graduate.
That’s the message Democrats are campaigning on hardest among issues that resonate with Gen Z, along with climate change, inflation and the cost of living, according to Nick Roberson, youth outreach lead for the Democratic Party of Illinois.
“The issues aren’t all that different for Gen Z compared to older ones,” said Roberson, 30. But the ways to reach them are, he added. “It’s more about community building. Young people want to be part of something bigger than themselves.”
More often, those communities are online: Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and more web spaces where memes and influencers reign.
The Harris and Trump campaigns have gotten “pretty in tune” with that culture, according to Dye, who says the major parties are finally catching up on methods her group has been utilizing for years.
The group uses memes, funny and educational reels, and giveaways like stickers to remind students to register to vote. One of UChicago Votes engagement efforts is plastered on Dye’s water bottle: a sticker with a riff of Sabrina Carpenter’s hit song “Please Please Please” — with the added plea: “Remember to vote.”
While young voters still care about the issues discussed during the election season, prospective young voters can tell a genuine approach to “meme culture” spearheaded by one of their own, said Le, of West Rogers Park. “It does make a difference and seems less forced.”
Not that it’ll work in every election cycle, Dye said.
“In four years from now, you’re gonna have a whole new generation… becoming eligible voters. And we’ll probably have a whole different culture attached to that, and maybe social media won’t be as impactful. Things are constantly changing as far as pop culture, what grabs people’s attention.”
An election season like this one — one with the Harris campaign co-opting singer Charli XCX’s “brat” lime-green marketing era and Trump posting TikTok dances with Gen Z social media personalities — may not have been possible four years ago, Dye said.
“There was less of the goofiness, because you had the seriousness of the summer of 2020. It was COVID, it was Black Lives Matter movement. It wouldn’t make sense to make that time a meme culture.”
Kamala Harris’ entry in the race
But the shakeup in the Democratic nominee added to an “energy shift” this election cycle, she added.
Shaw Carlson, a U. of C. sophomore involved with campus Democrats, agreed “we are so much more energized at the possibility of seeing someone new in office, and also just younger in office.”
“I was not a fan of either [Trump or President Joe Biden] because of their age,” the Homer Glen zoomer said. “I am so excited to see someone who does not have gray in their hair.”