The fight for the youth vote in Pennsylvania intensifies as momentum shifts toward Harris

Johnstown, Pa. (CNN) — Eian Anderson was dreading coming back to campus this fall.

“I was thinking, how can I convince some 18-year-old, fresh out of high school, ‘Hey! Come spend the whole day talking to people you don’t know over the phone for Joe Biden’?” the 22-year-old University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown student explained to CNN in a recent interview.

“Hard sell. Not easy,” concluded Anderson, who leads UPJ’s College Democrats.

But when Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democrats’ new nominee for president, Anderson said the energy flipped.

“It’s definitely changed,” he said with a smile.

As the November election nears, the campaigns of both Harris and former President Donald Trump are working hard to energize younger voters.

But while polls showed Trump gaining ground with this powerful voting bloc when he was running against Biden, momentum among younger voters appears to have shifted back to the Democrats with Harris at the top of the ticket.

A New York Times/Siena College poll released Thursday found that 58% of nationwide likely voters aged 18-29 supported Harris, while 37% backed Trump in a two-way race.

The same poll conducted back in July – before Biden dropped out of the race – found that 48% of that age group supported Biden and 45% backed Trump.

“I was not, I would say, as invigorated as I feel today,” said Mariam Bangurah, the secretary of UPJ’s College Democrats.

A daughter of immigrants, Bangurah said Harris’ background and relative youth have galvanized younger voters, but she knows Harris supporters can’t become complacent.

“We are doing well, but we really need to keep that energy and that’s what I’m worried about. I’m worried about our energy dropping,” said Bangurah.

Some Republicans are seeing the shift in momentum too.

“I think she’s helping young voters get out, and for that I am grateful, regardless of who you are voting for,” said Electra Janis, a commissioner in Washington County, outside Pittsburgh.

But the 28-year-old Republican told CNN that while Harris might have momentum among younger voters now, Trump can still chip away at that support by sticking to issues such as the economy.

“In this particular case, I will say when I’m voting for President Trump, I’m not voting for a person, I’m voting for his policies,” said Janis, explaining her pitch to younger voters.

“(The Trump campaign’s) volunteer base has grown in Pennsylvania significantly, and I think what they need to do is get the young, passionate, motivated individuals out there seeking other young individuals to do the same,” she added.

The campaigns

The Trump campaign is relying on social media and volunteers on the ground to reach out to young voters.

“Young voters across America feel increasingly disillusioned as the American Dream of homeownership and financial stability has become just a pipe dream under Kamala Harris,” said Kush Desai, a Pennsylvania spokesperson for the Trump campaign.

“That’s why we’re focused on taking President Trump’s vision and agenda for an American economic renaissance directly to young voters wherever they are in Pennsylvania – from TikTok to college tailgates to their doorsteps,” he said.

Steven Kail, a 33-year-old service technician, told CNN he volunteered for the Trump campaign after he witnessed the attempted assassination of the former president during a rally in Butler, roughly 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.

“Before that, I wasn’t doing much volunteer work at all,” said Kail. “(But) after what I saw in Butler … what I saw that day, I just wanted to help out.”

As a “Trump Force 47” volunteer, Kail goes door-knocking as he looks to turn out voters for Trump – with younger voters, he tries to stay on message.

“I start off by talking about the economy, their cost of living, especially if they’re in college, paying higher prices for gas, utilities, groceries,” he said.

While the Harris campaign is also leaning on social media and the power of influential celebrity endorsements from the likes of Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish to mobilize young people, it is laser-focused on college campuses to get out the vote.

On National Voter Registration Day last week, the Harris campaign touted holding “more than 130 events focused on registering young voters” across battleground states, centered on college campuses.

Campus competition

On a recent Friday afternoon in a heavily trafficked dorm on the main campus of the University of the Pittsburgh, the College Republicans were handing out Trump buttons and bumper stickers.

Once their shift ended, the College Democrats went up with their stand across the hall, with Harris signs and stickers.

“Are you guys registered to vote? Do you want a Kamala Harris sticker?” yelled a chorus of College Democrats called out to students passing by.

As the College Republicans packed up, many students happily took stickers for Harris from the opposing stand.

“With Biden as the nominee, it was … very difficult for us to get excited, for young people to get excited,” said Sam Podnar, co-president of the university’s College Democrats.

“I think that we very much wanted a stronger candidate, and we got that. And it has just been a very monumental shift in terms of energy,” she said.

Josh Minsky, who leads the College Republicans on campus, acknowledged to CNN that it’s been an uphill climb motivating his fellow students to support Trump.

“I don’t know if that’s necessarily doable, to get people extremely excited about Trump who are my age,” said Minsky.

“But I do think it’s possible to get people to understand that you don’t have to like someone to vote for them,” he said. “And I think a lot of people fall into that category.”

Either way, both groups are making themselves heard on one of Pennsylvania’s largest college campuses – hopeful to move the needle in a state where the presidential margin is expected to be razor-thin.

“We have events, we have canvasses … we knocked 1,000 doors last weekend,” Podnar said.

“We’re just working on building student power and on transforming a lot of that enthusiasm into actual actionable things.”

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