‘The anti-war vote:’ Some Gen Z voters disillusioned by Democratic Party amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza

By Kallie Cox >>

In a contentious presidential election where the term “genocide Joe” was commonplace among Generation Z voters and at campus protests, Kamala Harris brought a wave of hope and excitement to voters appalled by Israel’s onslaught of Gaza.

When President Joe Biden dropped out as the party’s prospective nominee and Harris replaced him, young voters drowned the internet in memes and posts supporting her campaign.

Despite this momentary excitement — and the energy young voters brought to the Democrats with the “Brat-ification” of Harris and the coconut tree memes — that hope is dead for many and with it, their faith in the Democratic Party.

Now instead of the refrain “vote blue no matter who,” popularized by millennials in the 2020 election, some young voters told GJR that they aren’t going to make a decision until Election Day or will vote for a third party candidate.

The hesitance to vote Democrat does not in any way signal support for Trump, Gen-Z activists for Palestine are quick to point out. Instead, it is a matter of morality for a generation that argues it is watching a genocide unfold in real-time.

“This is not just an issue. This is a genocide, and it keeps, keeps us up at night,”a voter and uncommitted delegate, Michael Berg told Gateway Journalism Review.

While many young voters aren’t supportive of Harris because of her policy decisions and rhetoric on Israel and Palestine, it is likely they will still vote for her.

Harris holds a 31-point lead over Trump among voters under 30, according to the latest Harvard Youth Poll and as Tuft’s CIRCLE points out, younger voters aren’t typically single-issue voters.

No matter how young constituents cast their ballots this election, voting on other important issues — including Missouri’s abortion legalization amendment — is critical, says

Sonal Churiwal, a Washington University junior studying political science and women, gender and sexuality studies in St. Louis.

Multi-generational support for Palestinians

While the pro-Palestine movement is made up of all generations, Gen-Z has been especially vocal with encampments and protests on college campuses.

As a survey by the Pew Research Center found, voters under 30 are more likely to show sympathy for the Palestinian people than for Israel. The survey, published in April, found that among 12,693 U.S. adults: “A third of adults under 30 say their sympathies lie either entirely or mostly with the Palestinian people, while 14% say their sympathies lie entirely or mostly with the Israeli people. The rest say their sympathies lie equally with both, with neither or that they are not sure.”

Voters under 30 are also more likely to believe the U.S. should not be supplying military aid to Israel. “Only 16% of adults under 30 favor the U.S. providing military aid to Israel,” the survey found.

The pro-Palestinian movement sent 30 uncommitted delegates to the Democratic National Convention to make a statement.

Uncommitted

The uncommitted movement — whose slogan is “not another bomb” — was a grassroots campaign among voters to cast their ballots for “uncommitted,” in the non-competitive, Democratic primary in protest of Biden’s handling of the crisis.

The movement started in Michigan and spread to Missouri and several other states amounting to 30 electoral delegates.

Berg, one of Missouri’s three uncommitted delegates, described the Democratic convention as joyful with a sense of euphoria among constituents after Harris was announced as the nominee. 

The movement was enthusiastic about the change and was planning to send a representative on stage to officially endorse Harris, Berg said.

This speaker was prohibited from giving a speech, he said. That decision and Harris’ refusal to act on ending aid to Israel, cost her their endorsement and caused an impromptu sit-in at the convention.

“We did our best, but the Democratic Party, […] or the Harris campaign, for whatever reason, made a decision that giving us anything was not something they were going to do. It was not something they needed to do and therefore we were unable to endorse Harris,” Berg said.

While Berg himself is not a member of Gen-Z, his work as a delegate led him to interact with dozens of Gen-Z voters and activists. Many young delegates he encountered at the convention were very supportive of the uncommitted movement and several wore Keffiyehs in support of Palestine and signed on to a call for a cease-fire.

Despite the movement’s criticisms of Harris, it does not want another Trump presidency, Berg said.

“None of us […] want Donald Trump as president. Donald Trump was a disaster, and will or would be, or could be a disaster if he’s chosen again,” Berg said. “There’s absolutely no indication that he would do anything except continue just the mass murder of Palestinians and support for Israel.”

Undecided

With just under a month left until election day, young voters remain “undecided” on Harris and are unsure of whether they will vote as their conscience dictates, or for what they describe as 

“the lesser of two evils.”

Penelope Thaman, a junior studying anthropology and women, gender & sexuality studies, has been extremely active in the movement for Palestine and in organizing calls for Washington University to divest from Boeing. She is an activist and organizer and last year served as the spokesperson for the university’s encampment.

“It’s been such a year of grief and anger,” Thaman said. Seeing the horrific videos coming out of Gaza and observing Israel’s humanitarian crimes in real time has had a profound impact on her politics.

Thaman said she will not decide who to vote for until election day.

“Too much has been frequently happening for me to confidently say — even now that we’re just under a month out — ‘Oh yeah, I’ll definitely vote one way,’ [or] ‘I’ll definitely vote third-party’ or ‘I definitely won’t vote,’ I find there’s too much change happening,” Thaman said.

While Thaman said there was a spark of political genius from the Democrats and hope among Pro-Palestine activists after Biden dropped out, this was crushed when the party refused to interact with the uncommitted delegation.

“It shattered the illusion of the Democrats actually teaming up and being a large umbrella party for all these different groups of people. Because what does it mean if you want to include Republicans in your delegation and your convention, but not an elected Democrat representative representing Palestinians,” Thaman said. “They are losing all these people who feel like they can’t vote with Democrats because of the [party’s] support of genocide.”

Churiwal, a political science student, said institutional repression is thriving and is impacting protests and politics and shows a weakened democracy.

“When I think about what a democratic election and campaign looks like, that is a two-way street that involves political candidates telling constituents what they’re voting for, but it also goes the other way, where constituents are voicing what they want and need,” Churiwal said. “I think the almost complete neglect of calls for a ceasefire, calls for divestment by candidates at every level has really shown how weakened our electoral system has become in taking newer views into consideration.”

Despite Churiwal’s disappointment in the Democratic party, she still views voting as a complicated and deeply personal act.

“I think signaling a premature commitment to vote one way or another, in some ways deprives us of our ability to truly be pressuring candidates to give us the policies that we want,” she said.

Aaron Neiman was a professor at Washington University during the April 27 protest where over 100 activists were arrested on the school’s campus. He was arrested and suspended and says he too sees a disenchantment with Democrats among Gen-Z voters.

Neiman said young voters cannot be counted on as a reliable voting bloc for the Democrats as they would have been in the past.

Harris “has done so little to make any kind of meaningful overture to young people who do care about this, quite a bit for […] because it’s the most horrifying thing they’ve ever seen and they’re astonished by the silence of the authority figures around them as we all are,” he said.

“Gen Z feels like a distinct generation from mine. I think they are broadly following the trend that came before them, which is waning support for Israel and for Zionism,” he said. Neiman is a millennial voter. “Part of it, I think, has to do with the fact that a lot of the violence that Israel does cannot be hidden anymore. Everyone has a phone and everyone, especially young people, are inundated with horrifying images.”

While many young voters aren’t supportive of Harris because of her policy decisions and rhetoric on Israel and Palestine, it is likely they will still vote for her.

Churiwal argued that other critical elections — like the St. Louis primary that ousted Cori Bush, a strong supporter of Palestine — deserve attention.

“The recent elections have really underscored the importance of looking not just at presidential elections and general elections, but looking at local elections and primaries, because all of these are important to make sure that we continue to have voices that are advocating for Palestinian liberation and abolition in every part of our government system,” she said. “I think as far as the Federal Election goes, it’s really disappointing to be in college in an environment where most people would consider themselves progressive, but see a lot of rhetoric that is ‘vote blue no matter what.’ And I think this is almost a disgrace to what progressive politics looks like.”

Kallie Cox is a freelance journalist who previously worked for the Riverfront Times.