Joe Biden is losing young voters over Israel. Can party progressives win them back?
WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is on shaky ground with young, progressive voters over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war, with student protests blowing up on college campuses nationwide. As a result, left-wing lawmakers are facing a challenge: Rallying their base behind the president heading toward November.
But the Democrats' support, these lawmakers warn, isn’t a magic bullet to turn out the young Americans who were essential to Biden’s 2020 victory and who are at risk of jeopardizing his reelection bid.
“There’s no question in my mind we want the president to continue to be the president,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told USA TODAY. But for progressives to sell the White House’s message to voters who are increasingly disenchanted with Biden, “the conditions need to be good” on pivotal debates, she said.
Progressives are warning the White House there has to be a “shift” in its approach to issues such as Israel’s war in Gaza and the southern border. These lawmakers told USA TODAY the administration must go beyond messaging and take solid steps to court younger progressives before Election Day.
Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, a member of “The Squad,” a small coalition of House Democrats’ most progressive lawmakers, told USA TODAY he talks to voters “every day” who are skeptical of supporting the president – even if it means potentially handing former President Donald Trump the White House. Those voters, Casar said, have to know “what there is to be excited about.”
“I think it’s very clear. He’s the most pro-worker president in my lifetime. We’ve worked with the administration to advance some of the most important work we’ve ever done in Congress on jobs, holding big corporations accountable and on climate” Casar said. “I talk about those all the time.”
At the same time, Casar said a change in approach from the White House would certainly make the sell more enticing for their followers.
“To win elections, you want everyone to do their part. We’re ready to do our part,” Casar said. “But it’s easier to do our part when the White House stands up for progressive ideals.”
'Nobody wants a Trump presidency'
Among some of the pain points for progressives has been the president’s recent rhetoric on the crisis at the southern border. Biden has indicated he’s willing to take aggressive actions and issue executive orders to stymie the flow of migrants, vowing that he’s ready to “shut down the border." Liberal leaders have pushed back on the president's position as harsh and unnecessarily strict.
Progressives acknowledge that the president’s actions have significantly lowered voter enthusiasm for the president, especially among young Americans whose turnout was essential to Biden’s victory in 2020.
In a head-to-head matchup, Biden leads Trump by just one percentage point among young voters aged 18-29 at 46%-45% according to a poll conducted earlier this month by the New York Times and Siena College.
And in Biden’s handling of foreign policy, just 19% of those voters said they approve of the president’s job on the issue.
Other data shows Biden still has an upper hand against Trump among young voters. Biden leads Trump 50%-37% among registered young voters and 56%-37% among likely young voters, according to a Harvard Youth Poll conducted in March. The president's advantage though, may not be as potent compared to how it was in the 2020 election, where 60% of likely young voters supported Biden compared to 30% who supported Trump in the last election.
The issue has already appeared to turn away Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., a progressive Squad member and one of Congress’ most outspoken critics of Israel's government. The second-term lawmaker from St. Louis told USA TODAY the president must “listen to the majority of the people who want a ceasefire.”
Bush has not formally endorsed the president’s reelection campaign so far and only touched on the 2024 election by saying “nobody wants a Trump presidency.”
For other progressives who aren’t as cold toward Biden, it’s a matter of convincing young Americans to simply come out and vote. Biden’s handling of these and other issues isn’t turning a slice of younger voters toward Trump, but it is turning them away from voting altogether. Fourteen percent of young voters, according to the New York Times poll, would opt not to vote at all if the presidential election were held today.
"While Trump runs on his anti-youth agenda and does nothing to reach the voters who will decide this election, our campaign is working tirelessly to earn the votes of young voters – investing earlier than ever and leveraging every opportunity to connect with young voters and meet them where they are on the full set of issues," Biden campaign spokesperson, Mia Ehrenberg, said in a statement.
Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., another Squad member, told USA TODAY she needs “deliverables” to mobilize progressives behind Biden’s reelection campaign. Expanded work permits and a stronger push for a ceasefire in Gaza could be two solid steps.
“If you want people to feel motivated enough to leave their home and go vote for this president, they have to have something that we are giving them that makes them feel so compelled to actually vote,” she said.
'My credibility's on the line'
At the same time, Ramirez’ own authority is at risk if she is going to try to turn out young progressives to reelect the president: “When I’m gonna be campaigning for the president, I recognize that my credibility’s on the line if I’m campaigning for someone that is not listening to things that my district needs.”
“We have a ton of equity,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., said of his and his fellow progressives’ role in Biden’s reelection campaign. But the New York Democrat also warned of low turnout among young voters given the war in Gaza, despite the “domestic policy and domestic wins” Democrats may have notched during the president's three years in office.
For Biden's part, the president has been more forceful against Israel’s conduct in Gaza in recent weeks.
After an Israeli strike killed seven World Central Kitchen staffers, the president said in a statement that “Israel has not done enough to protect aid workers trying to deliver desperately needed help to civilians,” in Gaza. He has also said the Israeli government has also not done enough by itself to “protect civilians” as the bloody war has raged on for over six months.
Those are steps in the right direction, Bowman said, but there must be something more “concrete.”
When – or if – that could happen might not come as soon as progressives would like. Biden on Wednesday signed into law a massive foreign aid package that includes $15 billion in military aid to Israel. The legislation includes $9 billion in humanitarian assistance that partially goes to Gaza, but that has done little to assuage progressive critics of Israel's leaders. Thirty-seven House Democrats ended up voting against the package’s Israel aid portion.
Biden’s verbal shift on the war in Gaza shows the president is flexible and amenable towards progressive concerns, said Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., a rising progressive star in the Democratic Party who also sits on the Biden campaign’s national advisory board.
Along with touting the president’s agenda and legislative wins, Frost told USA TODAY that the key to turning out young voters is drawing a stark contrast between Biden and Trump to voters who are inclined to stay home.
“I send a letter to Joe Biden about something on gun violence, it’s gonna be read. I’m gonna get a response. A lot of times there’s gonna be action on it and if there isn’t, the work will be on something else,” Frost said, saying Trump wouldn't even look twice.
The president’s relationship with progressives on Capitol Hill was on display at an Earth Day event Biden held on Monday, joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., among other progressive lawmakers.
“I learned a long time ago, listen to that lady,” Biden joked about Ocasio-Cortez, adding the two were to “talk more about another part of the world too,” referencing the war in Gaza and protests that have sparked on Columbia University and other colleges.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests,” Biden told reporters after the event. “I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden, losing young voters over Israel, will need party's left-flank
