Getting out the vote is the key to winning the presidential election. If Vice President Harris can get the constituencies that strongly support her out to the polls in great numbers, she will be victorious come November. That is particularly critical in the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which will determine the outcome.

Forty-one million members of the Gen-Z generation will be eligible to vote in this year’s election.[1] Young voters under the age of 35 account for roughly 29% of the national electorate.[2] Today’s young people are among the most electorally engaged in recent decades.[3] They support Harris over Trump by 50% to 34%.[4] With a 16% margin in her favor, the Harris campaign must ensure that Gen Z has a huge turnout this election.

The issues that concern young voters the most are the economy, inflation and healthcare, including access to abortion.[5] With inflation now at 2.5%, the lowest level in three years,[6] and interest rates coming down 50 basis points for the first time in four years,[7] the Democrats could produce a big youth vote that would boost their chances this November.

Another very pro-Harris group is women. Harris leads Trump among women by 13 points (48% to 35%). Women favor Harris more than men across every racial and ethnic subgroup. On the other hand, Trump leads among men by only eight points (47% to 39%).[8]

The top three issues for all women in this election are the economy, healthcare/reproductive rights and the cost of housing.[9] Vice President Harris strongly supports a woman’s right to choose. In addition, she has reframed healthcare as an economic issue. She has proposed capping out-of-pocket drug costs for everyone at $2,000 per year and insulin copays at $35 per month, enhancing Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium support, speeding up Medicare drug price negotiation, and expanding efforts to cancel medical debt.[10]

Harris has addressed women’s concerns regarding the high cost of housing by proposing the construction of 3 million new affordable homes with tax initiatives for builders who create them. She would also provide $25,000 down payment assistance for 4 million first-time homebuyers.[11] With a consumer-friendly platform like that, Harris’s support among women can only increase, and hopefully, among men as well.

Regarding Black voters, Harris has a huge lead with 82% indicating they support her.[12] Black women, in particular, have her back. They are working diligently to bring more black men on board as well.[13] In the Hispanic community, Harris is favored by Latinos in Spanish-speaking and bilingual households by nearly 60% compared to 32% for Trump. In English-dominant homes, 51% of respondents supported Harris, while Trump stood at 38%.[14] Harris is strongly courting non-white communities.[15]

Overall, following the September 10^th debate, Harris leads Trump 50% to 45%, an increase of one or two points from prior to the debate.[16] The Vice President is addressing voters’ primary concerns, and, for the most part, they like what she is offering.

Of course, there are a few issues that are not so easy for Harris and the Dems to address. Like the Israeli-Hamas War and America’s reliance on non-renewable energy, esp. oil. So far, they have not impeded her expanding campaign to any significant degree.  

Every day it’s looking more like Kamala Harris will be the next president of the United States.

Bruce Berlin

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com. https://protectthevote.net/), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/.

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[1] https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/41-million-members-gen-z-will-be-eligible-vote-2024

[2] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-economic-concerns-are-shaping-the-youth-vote-in-2024/

[3] https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/gen-z-voted-higher-rate-2022-previous-generations-their-first-midterm-election

[4] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/poll-half-gen-z-voters-support-kamala-harris-one-third-back-donald-tru-rcna169025

[5] https://www.vox.com/2024-elections/24157594/young-voters-are-just-normies-poll-biden-economy

[6] https://www.bankrate.com/banking/federal-reserve/latest-inflation-statistics/

[7] https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/18/fed-cuts-rates-september-2024-.html

[8] https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/09/12/harris-holds-a-slight-edge-over-trump-and-its-driven-by-women-poll-finds/

[9] https://www.glamour.com/story/election-2024-the-state-of-the-union-for-women

[10] https://www.kff.org/from-drew-altman/harris-is-reframing-health-as-an-economic-issue/

[11] https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/9/18/what-housing-plans-do-us-presidential-candidates-trump-and-harris-offer

[12] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/09/09/harris-trump-biden-black-americans/

[13]

[14] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/harris-campaign-aims-bolster-latino-support-spending-blitz-rcna171113

[15] https://www.lemonde.fr/en/united-states/article/2024/09/19/harris-continues-to-court-minorities-after-saying-she-s-working-to-earn-the-vote-of-black-men_6726551_133.html

[16] https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4876880-harris-widens-lead-over-trump-in-post-debate-poll/