Sijamić: Election results could be decided by young voters, and Trump is looking for them where politics hasn't been a topic

By Armin Sijamić

US presidential elections are getting closer. Campaign teams are doing an incredible job, looking for even the smallest opportunities to improve candidates' positions. These calculations have now been reduced to minimal percentages, often less than one percent. The new target is young people, who have previously voted mostly for Democrats. Now, both Republicans and Democrats want their votes, and they have a plan for it.

The oft-repeated claim that the world rests on the shoulders of the young could finally come true. Thus, young people could choose what kind of world they want, provided that this is the offer in the November elections.

The campaign teams of presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are calculating that in the so-called "swing states," which change their party allegiance from election to election, young people will be the deciding factor.

Republican Turnaround

The Democratic Party perfected its outreach to young people in Barack Obama's campaign, culminating with Joseph Biden, a political veteran, who was supposed to "save democracy" and the America that Americans know, so that future generations could enjoy it.

American Republicans appeal to the more conservative segment of society, and young people as such were not a special target group. Republican voters are generally united around values that are not necessarily tied to the voter's age. But that changed with the arrival of Trump. The controversial businessman and cover-story entertainer shook up voters and won over some who were not previously Republicans.

Credit for this also goes to his team, which includes Tony Fabrizio, Trump's election strategist in the 2016 and 2020 elections. This experienced political strategist, for example, warned during the 2022 Senate campaign that J.D. Vance was heading for defeat and needed to change tactics, which he did and ultimately won. Vance is now a candidate for vice president.

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Fabrizio joined Trump's campaign in February. Trump's team is now trying to stop Kamala Harris, especially after Tim Walz was chosen as the vice-presidential candidate.

Fabrizio spoke about this recently. He claims that Harris's rise in popularity is a temporary phenomenon and that voters are dissatisfied with the state of the country and their lives. "We are witnessing a kind of out-of-body experience where reality has been suspended for a few weeks," he said at a press conference, adding that the "honeymoon period will end" and that Republicans "have enthusiasm," even though Trump's campaign raised "only" $138 million in donations in July compared to Kamala Harris's staggering $310 million.

Trump's team now wants to remind Americans of the reasons for their dissatisfaction, and the new target is young people in key election states, who make up about eleven percent of the population.

Who Are They and What Do They Want?

Surveys indicate that the people Fabrizio is targeting are undecided, mostly white men with moderate political views, and dissatisfied with the country's economic situation and their finances. Due to demographic trends, a significant number of them come from Latin America and Asia, and their numbers are higher in this category than in the overall electorate. Fabrizio says they do not follow traditional media or cable television. They get their information online, through streaming, and on social media.

"We are trying to reach a very narrow group of people," Fabrizio said. "There's a reason we do podcasts. There's a reason we do Adin Ross," he added, referring to the streamer who recently interviewed Trump. "There's a reason we do all these things. Do you know what these people pay attention to? MMA (mixed martial arts), Adin Ross," he said.

This approach is not accidental, especially since Trump is not favored by the majority of the most influential media. In recent weeks, Trump has become more active on social media, returning to his X profile and conducting an interview with the platform's owner, Elon Musk. Realizing the importance of social media, Trump founded Truth Social two years ago as a response to Twitter and Facebook at the time. Trump's struggle for influence on social media has been ongoing since he entered politics. He was banned from Twitter and Facebook, and then he tried to ban the Chinese social network TikTok.

TikTok has quickly become the favorite network for a large number of Americans, and due to concerns about data security shared by users with Chinese owners, official Washington is trying to ban it. Biden also joined Trump in attempting to ban TikTok during his term, and eventually, both opened profiles there in an effort to reach young voters.

Democrats Believe They Have an Advantage

The change in Trump's campaign was forced. Trump admitted this. Biden's late withdrawal from the race left the campaign without a target, and Trump's team is now targeting Harris. However, Republican Party officials have warned him not to attack Harris on the grounds of her being a woman or her ethnicity.

The new Republican plan is to portray Harris as a radical, either from the liberal or left-wing spectrum, as an important part of the Biden administration, which Trump has described as "the worst in history" for the United States. "There is much more information about her that they don't know they will hear. And we will make sure they get it," Fabrizio said in the aforementioned address to reporters.

In other words, Republicans want to present Harris as part of the problem, i.e., to steer the campaign back to the narrative it had when Biden was the candidate. Trump's idea, since he couldn't gain new supporters due to scandals and court rulings, was to campaign against a candidate. He portrayed Biden as corrupt and old. Meanwhile, Trump has been convicted of corruption and is the same age Biden was when he defeated him four years ago.

Harris's entry into the race has given Democrats additional energy. Her campaign headquarters says that about 200,000 volunteers have joined the campaign in just two weeks since her candidacy. Trump's response is to try to find new voters in the groups Fabrizio spoke about.

Dan Kanninen, a Democratic Party election strategist, says that "the reality is that Donald Trump and his people are late in developing a platform, and now they are struggling to catch up," but he expects the election result to be close and that Harris's victory will depend on "a disciplined ground operation and the ability to be in communities and build trust and relationships that we have already been building for months."

There is less and less time until November 5th, and the most important part of the campaign begins next month. From then on, the presidential and vice-presidential candidates will face each other in televised debates, and the party machines will work rapidly on the ground. The activation of celebrities supporting the candidates is also expected then. All the twists and turns in this campaign indicate that no one is certain of the election outcome, and counting on the support of even the smallest communities suggests that both sides believe that in addition to the claim that the world rests on the shoulders of the young, the saying that every vote counts also holds true.