Michigan’s state university system was key to keeping the state blue in 2020. In 2024, with the polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump running neck-and-neck, turning out state schools’ student body to the polls has taken on a new level of urgency for Democrats.
Democrats have been furiously campaigning in the state, particularly on Michigan State University’s (MSU) campus just east of the state’s capital. Many are warning of the “dangers” of a second term under Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump and pleading with students to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
Recent polling shows Trump closing in on Harris’ lead in Michigan, which has the power to shift the election. If Trump secures the battleground state of Arizona, Nevada, and North Carolina, a win in Michigan is enough to put him back in the White House.
“We know that Gen-Z has the power to keep Michigan blue,” Stella Camerlengo, communications director for the Michigan Federation of College Democrats, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We saw it in 2020 with young people having the largest turnout in Michigan, and we hope to see it again in 2024. Because the election is so close and we are in a swing state, we have flooded our campuses with Harris Campaign surrogates, voter registration efforts, and holding other events to make sure young people are voting blue this fall.”
Students have historically been one of the most reliable demographics for Democrats, however, increasing tensions on campus over the conflict in Gaza may be weakening their support for the party. Muslim Michiganders have already engaged in a concerted effort to deny Harris the vote.
“Given that Michigan had a 10k vote margin in 2016, then every little bit matters, including student turnout at the larger universities like MSU and UM,” Ken Kollman, a political science professor at the University of Michigan (UM), told the DCNF. “No one knows what will happen at this point, but neither campaign is taking chances. And given the more Democratic lean of educated younger voters, naturally the Harris campaign would feel a lot more comfortable with a strong turnout among college students.”
One of Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign visits to MSU’s campus in support of Harris was tainted by anti-Israel students condemning the governor for allowing activists to be arrested during a demonstration in the spring at UM.
“11 of my friends have been arrested by Attorney General Dana Nessel,” Jesse Estrada White, a student at the university shouted, interrupting Whitmer’s speech, according to MSU’s student newspaper, The State News. “Gov. Whitmer, condemn the actions of your attorney general; protect the right to peacefully protest.”
The Democratic Party has struggled to resonate with student activists, creating a persistent issue with President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign that Harris may not have shaken off. Harris has attempted to toe the line on the Israel-Hamas issue, a strategy that has alienated both supporters of Israel and anti-Israel advocates.
Trump meanwhile scored the endorsement of the Hamtramck, Michigan Mayor Amer Ghalib in September, whose city is represented by an all-Muslim council.
Whitmer’s Oct. 17 visit was meant to mobilize student voters in the tight race as part of the Blue Wall Bus Tour alongside Govs. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Wes Moore of Maryland and Maura Healy of Massachusetts, according to the State News. The group spoke at the university’s student union building, warning that students held the fate of the election in their hands.
The only time we’ll be asking Spartans to go blue.
pic.twitter.com/SDhO86TFVr
— Gretchen Whitmer (@gretchenwhitmer) October 18, 2024
“It was college students in Maryland that made sure we won that race,” Moore said of his 2022 gubernatorial race, according to The State News. “It will be college students who will make sure that Kamala Harris becomes the next president of the United States.”
Registered voters under the age of 30 still overwhelmingly support Harris over Trump, 53% to 33%, according to a national Harvard poll conducted in October. Among registered voters aged 18-29 in battleground states, 50% plan to vote for Harris compared to 41% for Trump.
“We have the power,” Whitmer said, according to the State News. “The way we vote is going to determine everyone’s fate, not just in Michigan, not just in this country, but around the world.”
The national student voting rate was 66% for the 2020 presidential election, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. At Michigan’s two largest universities, UM with 33,488 undergraduate students and MSU with 40,483 undergraduate students as of 2023, the voter turnout rate in 2020 was 78.1% and 76.6%, respectively.
Ingham and Washtenaw counties — in which MSU and UM reside, respectively — were instrumental in carrying the vote for Biden in 2020, CNN’s election results show. Washtenaw voted 72.6% in favor of Biden, the highest of all counties in the state, and Ingham came out at 65.2%.
“I think Michigan is a tough place for national republicans to win and has been for some time,” Michael McKenna, president of MWR Strategies, told the DCNF. “That said, it seems like Mr. Trump is going to win the state, despite, or perhaps because of, Vice President Harris’s repeated trips. The tricky part about young voters is that it looks like young women, who are more likely to vote for vice president Harris, are also more likely to vote compared to young men.”
“It’s a challenge for Team Trump,” McKenna added.
In her third visit to MSU’s campus in October, Whitmer joined Curtis Hertel, a House candidate for Michigan’s 7th district, at a Tuesday rally where she petitioned the students for their votes, telling them “I just do what the young people tell me,” according to the State News.
“This generation is gonna live with the consequences of this election longer than any of the rest of us are,” Whitmer continued, according to the State News. “You get the biggest stake in the outcome of this election.”
Hertel then led students in a march towards the campus’ early voting center, telling them “Your future is on the ballot as we head into the polls,” according to the State News.
“Michigan, as a whole, the youth vote is massive just because we’re such a swing state,” Liam Richichi, president of the MSU College Democrats, said according to the State News. “We want to make sure we’re all getting out. Especially in the seventh congressional district and in mid-Michigan where we’re super competitive. We’re the heartbeat of the state.”
In another plea for the youth vote, Whitmer appeared at the university on Oct. 8 when she spoke to the College Democrats and visited her former sorority, according to The State News. There the governor bashed Trump and told students to vote for Harris for her support of gun control and climate change initiatives.
“It is going to be a close election, as hard as it is to believe when you look at the two candidates on the debate stage,” Whitmer told the crowd of 250, according to the State News. “When you see the man who has bumbled through his life and was born on third and thinks he’s going to triple, or the woman who worked her tail off to get where she is, it’s hard to believe it’s going to be close.”
“What happens on this campus matters,” she continued, emphasizing the Democrats’ need for voters aged 18 to 22, according to the State News.
Due to the liberal lean of college students on campus, MSU College Republicans have mainly focused their outreach efforts off campus, Zayne Bratschi, the club’s vice president told the DCNF.
“There’s more Democratic voters [on campus],” Bratschi said. “The Democratic voters there are more vocal, they’re easier to reach, so it makes it easier for Democratic campaigns to reach out to them and try to get to them, and Republicans and conservatives have more focused on the easier routes that we have like going to a nearby town and door knocking. So that’s kind of what I’ve been seeing, is [Democrats are] focusing on campus because their voters are easier to reach that way.”
Other high-profile Democrats have attempted to make similar appeals to the student base.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, spoke in East Lansing Sept. 13 just north of MSU’s campus. The vice presidential nominee warned the crowd of students and supporters that abortion was a pivotal issue this election and painted Harris’ debate against Trump in September as a success, according to The State News.
The Midwest is Walz-ing on sunshine today for our honorary MSU Dem and next VP, @Tim_Walz!
— College Democrats at MSU (@MSUDems) August 6, 2024
On Oct. 6, Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd of about 800 on MSU’s campus, speaking mostly about climate change and student debt cancelation, according to the Lansing State journal.
“In the next four weeks, we have to work hard to see Kamala and Tim are elected,” Sanders said, according to the State Journal.
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