Walking into class on Wednesday, September 11, I was shocked by the number of my fellow students who had watched the presidential debate that had taken place the night prior. I was surprised by the amount of students that had watched it, because the presidential debate on June 27 wasn’t very well received by Generation Z (USA Today). However, the viewership increased immensely, even across the nation. According to CNN, 67.1 million others were also viewing this important political event, which is nearly 20% more than the Biden v. Trump debate (Forbes).
The question is, why is there a significant increase in viewership across all age groups and why is there an increase in viewership from Gen Z? First, we need to understand the events that have occurred over the last few months and how they have shaped this bizarre election season.
It has been an eventful summer for the 2024 Election. Before the last school bell rang on June 12, former President Donald Trump was working to become the Republican Party’s candidate over former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. At this time, it was made apparent that current President Joe Biden would be the Democratic Party’s candidate. However, concerns about Joe Biden’s health and age started to increase.
A presidential debate between Trump and Biden took place on June 27. The Biden administration’s goal was to help tip the scales in favor of Biden. It did the opposite. Headlines the following day were filled with negativity. A headline the following morning said, “Biden’s poor performance and Trump’s lies” (The Guardian) which sums up the debate. According to CNN, Trump lied over 30 times, with topics ranging from the events on January 6, Taxes and Regulations, Climate Change, Abortion, Migrants, and the economy, to name a few.
While Trump was making false claims, Biden was left stumbling with his words, along with not taking the right opportunities to put himself ahead in the debate. Along with the lying and poor performance, the debate then took a turn from policies, when Trump started insulting Biden’s golf game. All in all, the debate left Democrats very worried for the incumbent and considering having him suspend his campaign.
A question looming over many voters was if Trump would even be able to run for president. Trump currently has 34 felonies against him. His cases were sent to the Supreme Court. On July 1, the Supreme Court in a 6-3, ruled that presidents have “definitive ‘absolute immunity’ from prosecution for core official acts and said presidents should be presumed immune for a much more expansive list of acts” (CNN). This means, Trump would have full immunity from his 34 felonies if he were to become president. This ruling questions democracy. It is allowing a president to commit whatever crime he wishes to commit, and have no punishment for those actions. It also pushed back Trump’s court dates again to after the election in November, confirming that he would be running for president.
This confirmation from the Supreme Court gave the green light to the Trump campaign as they continued holding rallies across the United States. In Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13, Trump was shot in the ear in an assassination attempt. He was on stage during his rally, when Tomas Crooks fired multiple shots towards the stage. Trump was shot in his left ear and was quickly rushed off the stage. The life of Corey Comperatore was taken while he was protecting his family. Two others were critically injured. Trump’s near assassination resulted in condolences from all sides of the political spectrum. It also resulted in an increase of support for the Trump administration, 70% of Trump supporters were more enthusiastic about him (Wall Street Journal).
Just two days later, was the Republican National Convention. Trump was officially the Republican candidate. He also announced that his Vice President would be Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Vance originally didn’t consider himself a “Trump guy”, but throughout Trump’s presidency (2016-2020), he changed his tune.
Two days following the convection, reports came out that Biden had tested positive for Covid. He had said a few days prior, that “he would drop out of the presidential race if he developed a medical condition that prevented him from running” [NBC]. At this time as well, former Speaker of the House, Nacy Pelosi (Dem.) was encouraging Biden to drop out of the race. The polls were showing that Biden’s chances of beating Trump were growing weaker. She also said that he “could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning the House in November” according to Today News. Along with Pelosi’s concerns, many senators, representatives, and government officials were suggesting Biden step out of the race.
Four days after testing positive for Covid, Biden listened to what his advisors had been saying and announced that he would be dropping out of the race for president. He endorsed Vice President, Kamala Harris.
There was an immediate increase in support for Harris. Harris managed to raise $81 million, in just 24 hours after Biden’s endorsement. On August 1-5 the Democratic National Committee was held, making Harris the official democratic candidate. Harris also announced that her Vice President would be Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz.
Generation Z is said to have a big impact on the 2024 election, according to NPR. One way that the Harris campaign has been connecting to Gen Z has been through social media. Recent memes of Harris saying “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?” out of context have surfaced. Along with that, Walz is being considered “America’s Dad”. Not only are there countless memes about this presidential duo, but Harris’ social media team has created a TikTok account. On this account, they have been creating videos related to various TikTok trends, but featuring Harris. Music artist Charli XCX called Harris her signature phrase “Brat” (a positive phrase meaning slightly messy, but powerful), and Harris’ social media team has taken off and ran with it. More memes and posts surfaced calling Harris “brat” have sent the internet wild. Trump has also turned to TikTok in hopes of capturing some Gen Z votes but hasn’t been as successful as Harris.
This brings us back to the debate. One of Harris’ main goals was to help citizens get to know her better. Typically presidential candidates start planning their campaign years in advance, while Harris has only had 3 months so far for people to get to know her. Many undecided voters have said they don’t necessarily agree with Trump’s policies, but they feel like they don’t know Harris enough according to the LA Times. Along with getting people more familiar with her and her policies, Harris’ other goal was to get under Trump’s skin. This she did successfully. Harris brought up Trump’s rallies and claimed that people leave Trump’s rallies early out of boredom and exhaustion, Trump immediately took the bait, instead of talking about Harris’ weak spots such as border control, Trump spent most of the debate talking about his crowd sizes at rallies and spreading proven false conspiracies about illegal immigrants in Springfield eating household pets. According to The Hill, over half of America believes that Harris won the debate.
So, what does this mean? It is way too early to tell what the outcome is in November, but with the help of Taylor Swift’s endorsement for Harris, it appears that Harris is gaining support from some undecided voters. Vitists to vote.gov increased by 400% according to CBS. However, there are still a significant number of undecided voters and it is very hard to say which way they will lean at this point. The outcome is still a toss-up, but there is still nearly a month and a half of campaigning ahead of us and if it is anything like what we have experienced this summer, we are in for an eventful next few months. On the right side of the political scale, we have a former president who helped the economy, decreased the unemployment rate to 3.5%, and helped create jobs. On the left side, we have a progressive woman, who grew up in the middle class and wants to help. She is extremely progressive and is fighting for women’s rights, abortion rights, gun control, and LGBTQ rights. The American people need to make sure they cast their votes and fight for the America they envision.
