With the election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, the Harris campaign made one last push in La Crosse to get people who have not participated in early voting out to the polls.
Western Wisconsin is essential to the Harris campaign as La Crosse County is a swing county. In the 2020 election, Joe Biden won the county with 49.6% of the vote.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, held a rally in the La Crosse Center Monday morning a few streets over from Tim Walz who hosted a rally located at The Main.
University of Wisconsin-La Crosse student and UWL Democrats Treasurer Samuel Hayden, spoke prior to the event about why he is voting for Harris-Walz this election.
In an interview before the event, Hayden said how dire the Gen Z vote is in states like Wisconsin:
“The Gen Z vote is going to decide this election in all the major swing states, whether or not college kids turn out is going to decide if she gets over that finish line and into the White House.”
The campaign has had a huge focus on young voters. With celebrity endorsements playing a role in this election season for both candidates, Harris has used the phrase “brat” referencing CharliXCX’s most recent album “Brat summer.” This term brat has been transformed from a negative connotation to a term of empowerment which the Harris campaign has used frequently on their social media platforms. This speaks directly to young people on the internet, especially on TikTok.
The campaign’s TikTok, @kamalaHQ, which has accumulated over 5.2 million followers continuously references the term among other trends like edits, humorous clips, meme culture and content they think would be considered relatable to young Americans.
The campaign, which has posted 34 videos on @kamalaHQ in the last 24 hours, hopes to use this account to sway voters.
TikTok is the only social media platform that shows content to users without them having to physically follow the account. This allows for content to be shared to larger groups of users.
There are approximately 69.31 million Gen Z people living in the United States. Gen Z takes up about over 60% of users on Tik Tok.
According to a study done by the University of Oregon on Tik Toks impact on Gen Z’s political identity, most participants in the study indicated their political ideology shifted “A great deal” or “A lot” over the course of their regular use of TikTok.
Content creators on TikTok have also been essential in the Harris-Walz campaign. At the DNC in August, over 200 influencers were asked to participate in the event and were given credentials similar to journalists.
Among those content creators was La Crosse native, Cody Green (@schizophrenichippie), who specializes in mental health awareness. Green was asked today to make a video with Governor Walz prior to the event addressing the importance of protecting rural healthcare.
“It’s about making sure people are seen, heard, loved, and then making sure we get the providers out there,” Walz told Green during their interview .
Green, who suffers from schizophrenia and believes in accessible healthcare, supports the Harris-Walz ticket. He feels that content creators being involved in the campaign allows for them to advocate for others.
“We now have a space where we are being taken seriously as a voice for other people,” Green said.
Since content creators are not journalists, they do not have to remain biased when talking about politics. Content creators have the freedom to endorse who they choose, which motivates both Harris and Trump to use influencers in their campaigns.
Walz talked about healthcare, specifically addressing reproductive freedoms, arguably one of the most pressing issues Gen Z is concerned about this election.
“A story comes out every single day because of Donald Trump’s abortion ban that put 20 states under this ban, our daughters now, those people you’re thinking of, those loved ones that are in your minds right now, they have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers had,” Walz said.
Walz also touched on issues that would affect Gen Z in the coming years including a $25,000 down payment for first-time home buyers, and a child tax credit in order to raise children out of poverty.
Walz finished his speech by speaking directly to 18-25-year-olds in the audience, he said, “If you simply ask someone if they voted, and you say you have voted, the chance of them voting almost doubles.”
