Gen Z and Kamala Harris: is the meet-cute enough to bring her to the White House?

On the morning of the election, as the group made a final push to get out the vote, news broke that Harris, to their delight, had chosen the progressive midwestern governor Tim Walz as her running mate. From the trenches of a hard-fought campaign, they spared a moment to celebrate what felt like a win.

That night, Bush lost her re-election bid in a primary contest decided by fewer than 7,000 votes.

The defeat stung. Pop had run a scrappy campaign: its volunteers collectively placed 120,000 phone calls and knocked on more than 20,000 doors. But they were up against a torrent of outside spending, primarily by pro-Israel groups, that transformed the race into one of the most expensive House primaries in US history.

In interviews with dozens of activists, organizers and candidates working to build youth political power on the left, a portrait emerged of a generation fed up with the status quo in Washington but eager to flex its electoral might this cycle. Many are genuinely enthusiastic about the prospect of a Harris presidency. Others hope she will be a bulwark against Republican extremism, if not the transformational figure they crave.

Approximately 41 million members of gen Z will be eligible to vote in November, including millions who were too young to vote in the 2020 election. Their participation could be decisive: the presidential contest is deadlocked, probably hinging on tens of thousands of votes in a handful of swing states, and the battle for control of Congress is as close as ever.

Gen Z has lived through tumultuous times, from the worst recession since the Great Depression, which saw millions of American families lose their homes, jobs and savings with almost no consequence for those who caused it, to a pandemic that closed their schools and their polarized communities.

There is virtually no doubt that Harris will win more young voters than Trump in November, but the margin will matter greatly.