From TikTok to tailgates, Trump and Harris woo young Michigan voters

• Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are both trying to appeal to young voters in a presidential election expected to be tight
• This includes campus bus tours, stops at football games and even appearing for interviews on podcasts or with social media influencers
• Whether this will drive voters aged 18 to 29 to the ballot box remains to be seen, with many not very enthusiastic about voting this November

On college campuses and social media feeds across Michigan, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaigns are trying to reach young voters ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.

But without the kind of central and unifying issue that motivated young voters in other recent elections, when marijuana and abortion rights measures shared the ballot, it’s unclear if their efforts will pay off in a state where polls suggest a neck-and-neck race.

“What they’re trying to do is obviously, pull people in but I think a lot of the time, they’re actually kind of making people a lot more wary about who to vote for or what their actual policies (are),” Victor Escobar, 18, a high school student in Detroit at Covenant Schools, told Bridge Michigan. 

Escobar, a self-described centrist who agrees slightly more with the right than the left, said he sees “terrible quality” memes from the Republican Party and his social media feed is full of ads he wishes he could skip. He is one of several voters Bridge interviewed this week about the role young voters could play in the election.

People under 30 years old accounted for about 1.3 million of Michigan’s 8.4 million registered voters in 2022. 

It’s a small voting bloc that is also highly unreliable when it comes to turning out for elections, said Corwin Smidt, an associate professor of American politics and research methods at Michigan State University.

Though Democrats have credited younger voters with helping them to sweeping victories in 2022, data shows 37.2% of the registered voters 30 and younger cast a ballot —  down from 42.2% in 2018. 

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That means nearly 60% of the nearly 1.4 million young people who were registered two years ago did not cast ballots in an election that decided whether the state would codify abortion rights in the Michigan Constitution. 

As of Oct. 1, there were nearly 1.5 million young people registered to vote in Michigan this year. How many actually cast ballots could make a meaningful difference in a state that Trump won by fewer than 11,000 votes in 2016 and Joe Biden won by about 154,000 votes in 2020. 

Now, young voters bring up abortion as a driving factor, but they also bring up the economy and high prices, which is consistent with recent polling. 

As of August, Michigan voters aged 18-29 had unfavorable opinions of both Harris and Trump, but they were even more sour on President Joe Biden, according to a survey by the Lansing-based Glengariff Group Inc.

Trump held a narrow lead among young voters at the time of the poll, but a majority of those same voters said Harris more closely aligned with their values and represented "change."

Neither presidential candidate is “super tuned in with the youth,” said Diego McIntyre, 18, an electrical trade school student in Madison Heights. Nonetheless, McIntyre noted he’s seeing lots of political content, even from a TikTok creator typically known for dances. 

McIntyre plans to vote for Harris, he said, because he thinks she will do a better job on the economy, abortion and human rights issues he values.

For Max Scheske, 21, a self-described “classic libertarian at heart,” who studies computer science at the University of Michigan, a vote for Trump makes more sense than a vote for Harris. 

Scheske said young people vote less “because us youth, we’re a little bit more arrogant and less willing to compromise,” Scheske said. “It’s a good thing, it’s a bad thing.” 

Campaigns turn to podcasters, YouTubers

Both Trump and Harris campaigns have organized events with online influencers, a relatively new move in politics to bypass traditional media sources and more directly connect younger voters through shows and celebrities they follow.

Harris recently appeared on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast, where she discussed abortion, her administration’s student loan forgiveness efforts and a plan to provide $25,000 for a down payment for first-time homebuyers. 

The podcast is not only one of the most listened to in the nation, but also ranks among the top ten most listened to podcasts by women this year.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has also made appearances at the University of Michigan and near Michigan State University, showing the campaign is “investing to reach, persuade, and engage young voters in every part of Michigan,” Eva Scott, a state youth vote and campus organizing director for Harris, said in a statement this week. 

Trump has made similar moves, appearing on shows hosted by podcaster and comedian Theo Von and Logan Paul, a controversial YouTuber turned professional wrestler. Both Von and Paul have sizable online followings, with Von’s show — “This Past Weekend w/Theo Von” — also making the cut for Top 10 most listened to podcasts nationally.

The Trump campaign put resources toward rallies and messaging events at college campuses in Michigan, said Victoria LaCivita, communications director for the Trump campaign’s Michigan arm. That includes hosting a bus tour stop at an MSU fraternity football tailgate and a debate watch party at a popular restaurant near the university’s campus. 

“We’re focused on taking President Trump’s vision and agenda for an American economic renaissance directly to young voters wherever they are,” LaCivita said in a statement, “from TikTok to college tailgates to their doorsteps.” 

But whether that motivates young voters to cast ballots remains to be seen.

Smidt, the MSU professor, said he thinks the campaigns are attempting to replace the state’s youth vote from 2022. But that may be difficult, he said, without a “mobilizing issue that really gets to the young people” like abortion did two years ago.

A sense of apathy

Polls suggest Biden’s decision to drop out of the race could help Democrats with younger voters who were wary of having to choose between a 81-year-old president and a 78-year-old ex-president.

But some young voters who spoke with Bridge said they remain frustrated by their choices. 

Each election season feels like “I’m voting for the lesser of two evils … to make a point,” said Rachel Jansen, 27, of Lansing. Sometimes, that means voting for third party candidates, but doing so this cycle “does just feel like throwing away your vote entirely,” she said. 

Among Jansen’s bigger concerns is keeping access to reproductive health care in Michigan, which she said Harris is the better candidate for. But her other concern is lowering the cost of living, and Jansen said she doesn’t “see either candidate making a difference” on that front. 

Knowing that, Jansen said she’ll likely vote for Harris — mostly because Harris she’s “not Donald Trump, which is really the main thing.” 

“I feel like it came down to the same thing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump” in 2016, Jansen said, describing her mood as “apathetic” heading into the election. “I really don’t love either of them, but guess I would prefer her.” 

James Bradley, 22, an electrical student from Macomb County, told Bridge that he isn’t “big into politics” and doesn’t particularly care that the presidential campaigns are advertising on streaming platforms. 

“It doesn’t make me vote a certain way,” Bradley told Bridge. 

Kahlil Turner, a 23-year-old from Ypsilant and a graduate student at Michigan State University, said he plans to vote for Harris, but mostly because he feels the “societal pressure” to participate in the election. 

Though he defines himself as someone who doesn’t “get into politics,” Turner said he’s concerned about Project 2025, the sweeping conservative policy blueprint created by the Heritage Foundation. 

Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from the nearly-1,000 page document, but that hasn’t convinced Turner. As a Black man, with friends from Cuba and the Dominican Republic and many women in his life, what he’s read of Project 2025 “is what’s driving me to vote,” he said. 

Still, Turner said, he sees some appeal in the Green Party, given his concerns for the environment. 

Mustafa Alithawi, 20, of Canton, who studies at Wayne State University, said he is not sure if he will vote and doesn’t feel like he has a preference or information about the candidates with less than a month until Election Day. 

“My whole life, presidents have came and went and my life’s been pretty …the same,” Alithawi said, noting that he would feel more compelled to vote if ether major party candidate took a pro-Palestinian stance amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. 

For several young voters, high prices and the inability to afford a home is top of mind.

Bradley said he lived in his own apartment for two years but had to move back to his parents “because things were getting rough for me,” and Tamya Thompson, 18, said it feels like gas gets “pricier every day.” 

Excitement for some

For first-time voter and MSU student Reidun Johnson, thinking of November makes her excited. 

“Getting Kamala in” to the White House is “the first step to actually making more significant change” on policy fronts she cares about, said Johnson,19, of Ferndale. But to her, it’s also important “make sure Trump doesn’t get in” to the Oval Office a second time. 

That excitement, however, isn’t wholly shared by friend Ava O’Neil, 20, of Rochester Hills. She said she also plans to vote for Harris this November but that Election Day makes her “nervous.”

“November, voting season, it’s usually just high tension and high anxiety, especially around people with different opinions,” said O’Neil, who believes “things could get worse” if Trump enacted portions of Project 2025.

For Lukas Lunøe, 26, the election is consequential enough for him to leave Denmark and volunteer full-time ahead of an election he can’t vote in. 

“I think this election is the most important international election of my lifetime,” he said, noting the Russia-Ukraine war is a top issue for him, though it may not be for others. 

Lunøe said he hopes young people who are eligible to vote in the U.S. can see Harris is fighting for the middle class, “but I feel an exhaustion in the political system sometimes when I talk to people here.”

For Scheske, the libertarian at heart who plans to vote for Trump, he said now is not the time to stick his head in the sand.

“I feel fatigue, but not apathy,” he said. “I think everyone’s a little bit tired of talking about the same issues.”