First time voters at DNC oppose US support to Israel

CHICAGO – AFP:

First-time voters at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago say they do not want “our tax dollars” to fund “what many of us in our generation see as war crimes”.

“Right now, we feel the crisis in Gaza very astutely as our generation. We’re seeing this crisis with fresh eyes. We don’t have the same connection to the Israeli state that our parents and our grandparents did,” said David Seaton, a DNC delegate from Massachusetts. “And we know that right now, the war in Gaza is not making Israel safer. It’s not making Gaza safer, certainly. It’s not making the world safer.”

Lake Liao, sophomore at Princeton University, said young voters are a lot more excited about Kamala Harris “because we believe she is more amenable to issues, all the issues like reproductive freedom and climate change . . . and most immediately, and urgently, saving lives by ending the genocide in Gaza.”

Jasmine Wynn, sophomore at Harvard College, said Kamala as a candidate is more reflective of young America. “We’re one of the most diverse generations. I mean, she’s also the child of immigrants, which is something that I feel like definitely resonates with a lot of Americans, a lot of my friends that are also immigrants and people of color. So I think she’s just genuinely a more exciting candidate to vote for than Biden was,” she added.

Seaton said the tides had completely turned in the opposite direction. “Our party is receiving a massive amount of positive attention on social media, especially on TikTok, from young voters,” he added. “Before, when Joe Biden was still our candidate, most of the TikTok videos that were about Joe Biden were negative. Now most of the TikTok videos that are about Kamala Harris are positive. And since that’s really how we get information, not from traditional news sources anymore, I think our generation is ready to get out there and vote for Kamala Harris,” he said.

Liao said transgender rights, climate change, and reproductive rights are issues that impact young people. “And I think that we grew up seeing them getting attacked under a Trump presidency. For example, the three Supreme Court justices that he appointed, slashing Roe v. Wade and making abortion illegal for millions of people around the country. These are things that we grew up seeing, and it made us really scared and want to fight back,” he said.