Latest / Pod Save America / The Wilderness Chapter 4: Gen-Z Voters in Orange County

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The Wilderness Chapter 4: Gen-Z Voters in Orange County · Pod Save America

0:00
Speaker 1: Democrats like to point the finger at the Republicans and
0:02
Speaker 1: say those are the, you know, the old, the white,
0:05
Speaker 1: the rich, the dudes, right?
0:07
Speaker 2: We are the diverse party.
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Speaker 1: When it comes to age, I wouldn't point that finger
0:12
Speaker 1: so fast at the other side because we actually have
0:16
Speaker 1: a big problem with that in Congress.
0:19
Speaker 3: That's Katie Porter, a member of Congress from Orange County, California,
0:22
Speaker 3: talking about the Democratic Party's relationship with younger voters.
0:26
Speaker 1: It's not like the Democrats are, you know, running around
0:29
Speaker 1: on bird and lift scooters and the Republicans are in those,
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Speaker 1: I've fallen and I can't get up things.
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Speaker 2: I mean, come on. Like, it's pretty much all old.
0:37
Speaker 4: I'm 48.
0:38
Speaker 2: I am in the future forum for young people.
0:43
Speaker 5: I'm not young.
0:44
Speaker 1: I've had Botox multiple times.
0:46
Speaker 2: I am not young.
0:48
Speaker 3: As you can tell, Congresswoman Porter's a bit different from
0:51
Speaker 3: most of her colleagues, in the best possible way. She's funny,
0:55
Speaker 3: doesn't take herself too seriously, talks like a normal human being,
0:58
Speaker 3: and she's repeatedly gone viral for one of the most
1:01
Speaker 3: low-tech forms of communication imaginable. A whiteboard.
1:06
Speaker 1: Um, do you know what this number is?
1:09
Speaker 3: This is Katie at a 2020 congressional hearing about drug
1:12
Speaker 3: companies' price gouging. She's questioning Big Pharma CEO Mark Aulis
1:15
Speaker 3: while using a dry erase marker to write the number
1:17
Speaker 3: 13 million on a whiteboard.
1:19
Speaker 1: This was your compensation in 2017 for being CEO of Celgene.
1:23
Speaker 1: And that's a lot of money. It's 200 times the
1:26
Speaker 1: average American's income and 360 times what the average senior
1:31
Speaker 1: gets on Social Security.
1:33
Speaker 3: In just a day, the C-SPAN clip of this grilling
1:36
Speaker 3: is viewed more than 15 million times on Twitter. And
1:39
Speaker 3: that's just one of many Katie Porter whiteboard moments that's
1:42
Speaker 3: broken through. Her most popular TikTok videos have up to
1:45
Speaker 3: 5 million views, and she's got over 150,000 followers on Instagram.
1:50
Speaker 3: Many of them as young as her three children.
1:52
Speaker 1: My children constantly tell me, your stuff is so sus,
1:56
Speaker 1: which is short for suspicious. And so I'm like, I
1:59
Speaker 1: don't feel very hip because they're constantly telling me that
2:01
Speaker 1: I'm not. But when we looked at our social media accounts,
2:03
Speaker 1: whether it's TikTok, whether it's Instagram, even on Twitter, I
2:07
Speaker 1: have a lot of younger followers.
2:09
Speaker 2: It was a little bit of a puzzle to me.
2:10
Speaker 2: I mean, I drive a minivan. Like, I'm not the coolest.
2:16
Speaker 3: She must be doing something right. Katie Porter was probably
2:18
Speaker 3: the most progressive candidate to flip a Republican House seat
2:21
Speaker 3: in 2018, a race she won again in 2020. She's
2:25
Speaker 3: the first Democrat to ever represent California's 45th, a district
2:28
Speaker 3: which has become more diverse over the years with an
2:31
Speaker 3: electorate that's looking more like UC Irvine, the school where
2:33
Speaker 3: Katie used to teach law. In two close elections, young
2:38
Speaker 3: voters helped put her over the top. And that's been
2:40
Speaker 3: true for Democratic candidates all over the country. Between the
2:44
Speaker 3: 2014 and 2018 midterms, youth turnout more than doubled. And
2:48
Speaker 3: Democrats won more than two-thirds of voters between the ages
2:51
Speaker 3: of 18 and 29.
2:52
Speaker 6: Massive turnout coast to coast.
2:54
Speaker 3: Generation Z did show up to the polls. We are
2:57
Speaker 3: seeing a surge of first-time voters. Between the 2016 and
3:02
Speaker 3: 2020 presidential elections, youth turnout jumped from just under 40
3:05
Speaker 3: percent to 50 percent. And Joe Biden won three-fifths of
3:09
Speaker 3: these voters. Gen Z is now the most diverse generation
3:13
Speaker 3: in history. Nearly half are young people of color. And
3:16
Speaker 3: in a Gallup poll earlier this year, one out of
3:19
Speaker 3: every five identified as LGBTQ. There are now more young
3:23
Speaker 3: people registered to vote than ever before. And by 2028,
3:25
Speaker 3: Gen Z and millennials combined will make up just about
3:29
Speaker 3: half of all eligible voters in America. But that doesn't
3:33
Speaker 3: mean they'll always show up for Democrats or show up
3:35
Speaker 3: at all. Joe Biden actually did slightly worse with young
3:38
Speaker 3: voters in 2020 than Democrats did in 2018. And there
3:42
Speaker 3: are plenty of reasons for these voters to feel disconnected
3:44
Speaker 3: from politics right now. This is a generation that's come
3:47
Speaker 3: of age during multiple wars, the Great Recession, the Trump presidency,
3:51
Speaker 3: the pandemic, police brutality, climate change. It has been a
3:54
Speaker 3: brutal few decades. And a lot of young people have
3:57
Speaker 3: never had the experience of interacting with a government that
3:59
Speaker 3: actually cares about them.
4:01
Speaker 1: So when things go wrong in some of my seniors'
4:05
Speaker 1: lives— They pick up the phone and they call my office.
4:08
Speaker 1: Some of them call almost every day. Some of them
4:11
Speaker 1: call once or twice. Young people, when things go wrong
4:16
Speaker 1: in their lives, they get frustrated.
4:18
Speaker 2: They lose confidence.
4:19
Speaker 1: And that's because for a long time, and this area
4:22
Speaker 1: is a good example, there haven't been responsive representatives.
4:26
Speaker 3: Katie also recognizes that because the way young people get
4:29
Speaker 3: their news has changed, they're also a bit harder to reach.
4:32
Speaker 1: This is why I spend time, you know, along with
4:35
Speaker 1: dealing with insomnia on Twitter or on Instagram, like reading things.
4:39
Speaker 1: And if they're my constituent, we'll DM them.
4:41
Speaker 2: We'll reach out. We just introduced a bill based on
4:43
Speaker 2: something that happened to a constituent. I saw it on Twitter.
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Speaker 1: She didn't call my office. She took to Twitter to
4:48
Speaker 1: describe what had happened to her, how government had wronged her.
4:53
Speaker 1: And we reached out to her and we were able
4:54
Speaker 1: to create a bill and introduce it. It's bipartisan. We're
4:57
Speaker 1: bipartisan of the Senate. But I found her and that's
5:00
Speaker 1: part of my job.
5:01
Speaker 3: Of course, Katie Porter can't DM with all the hundreds
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Speaker 3: of thousands of young people she represents. And she's got
5:07
Speaker 3: another very competitive race in 2022. Thanks to the redistricting process,
5:11
Speaker 3: she's also got a new district and hundreds of thousands
5:14
Speaker 3: of new voters to meet. As do Democratic candidates all
5:17
Speaker 3: over the country in purple house districts just like Katie's.
5:21
Speaker 3: The question is, how do Democrats actually reach young people
5:24
Speaker 3: who might be disillusioned with politics and get them to
5:26
Speaker 3: show up in November? Because their votes could mean the
5:29
Speaker 3: difference between a Democratic Congress... and one controlled by MAGA crazies.
5:34
Speaker 3: I drove down to Orange County to find out. I
5:37
Speaker 3: went to Irvine, the one city in both Katie Porter's
5:39
Speaker 3: old and new district, and sat down with a diverse
5:42
Speaker 3: group of nine 20-something voters who all identify as Democrats
5:46
Speaker 3: and voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But they don't
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Speaker 3: follow politics too closely, and they're not too happy with
5:51
Speaker 3: many politicians in either party. Afterwards, I gathered another group
5:55
Speaker 3: of experts to help unpack what we heard from these voters.
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Speaker 7: My name is Cristina Censun Ramirez, and I run NextGen America,
6:01
Speaker 7: which is the country's largest youth voter mobilization group. Last election,
6:05
Speaker 7: we helped mobilize one in nine of the young folks
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Speaker 7: that turned out.
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Speaker 8: I'm Evangeline Panamaca. I'm a lead analyst at Data for Progress.
6:12
Speaker 8: Data for Progress is a progressive think tank and polling firm.
6:15
Speaker 6: My name is John Della Volpe.
6:16
Speaker 9: I am the director of polling at the Institute of
6:19
Speaker 9: Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School. I was a Biden
6:22
Speaker 9: pollster in the 2020 campaign focusing on the youth vote,
6:25
Speaker 9: and I am the author of Fights, How Gen Z
6:27
Speaker 9: is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America.
6:33
Speaker 3: We'll hear from Christina, John, Evangel, and nine Orange County
6:36
Speaker 3: voters after the break.
6:44
Speaker 6: Hello, everybody.
6:45
Speaker 3: Hey there.
6:46
Speaker 10: How are you?
6:47
Speaker 8: Good, John.
6:47
Speaker 6: Great, John. Good to see you, Christina. I was excited
6:50
Speaker 6: to see you on the list.
6:51
Speaker 3: I sat down with nine pretty disillusioned Gen Z voters
6:54
Speaker 3: in Irvine, California, about a week after the Supreme Court
6:57
Speaker 3: released the Dobbs decision, which ended the constitutional right to
7:00
Speaker 3: an abortion. As you'll hear, these young voters were outraged.
7:05
Speaker 3: In fact, there was an interesting anecdote from our recruitment
7:07
Speaker 3: process for this focus group. One of the things we
7:10
Speaker 3: screened for was whether the participant was likely to vote
7:12
Speaker 3: in the midterms. We wanted young Biden voters who weren't
7:16
Speaker 3: yet sure if they'd vote in November. Those kind of
7:19
Speaker 3: voters were fairly easy to find before Dobbs. After the decision, though,
7:24
Speaker 3: they actually became more difficult to find, at least in
7:26
Speaker 3: Orange County. Instead, we found more potential participants who told
7:30
Speaker 3: us they were very likely to vote. It's just one anecdote,
7:34
Speaker 3: and as you'll hear from these voters, Democrats still have
7:36
Speaker 3: a lot of work to do to make sure they
7:37
Speaker 3: cast their ballots in November. But clearly, something's happening out there.
7:43
Speaker 3: I talked about what it might be and what we
7:44
Speaker 3: heard from this focus group with youth voter mobilization expert
7:47
Speaker 3: Christina Simpson Ramirez, as well as pollsters John De La
7:51
Speaker 3: Volpe and Evangel Panamaca. Okay, so I started asking the
7:57
Speaker 3: group what issues affect them personally, what they care about,
8:00
Speaker 3: and what doesn't get enough attention. We'll get to the
8:03
Speaker 3: opening clip in a minute, but first I would love
8:06
Speaker 3: to hear from the three of you on this question.
8:09
Speaker 11: What are.
8:09
Speaker 3: Some of the most common misconceptions that pundits and politicians
8:13
Speaker 3: have about Gen Z voters. And what should the rest
8:17
Speaker 3: of us know about what they believe and want out
8:19
Speaker 3: of politics? Christina, start with you.
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Speaker 7: When people think about young people, I think they exclusively
8:23
Speaker 7: think of college kids. And what we have to remember
8:26
Speaker 7: is that the majority of Americans under age 25 actually
8:29
Speaker 7: don't have a college degree. So there are a lot
8:30
Speaker 7: of working class young people. And this is one of
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Speaker 7: the most diverse generations in American history. When you add
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Speaker 7: Gen Z plus millennials, this is the largest generational voting
8:39
Speaker 7: bloc that is the most diverse and the most progressive.
8:43
Speaker 7: And that while they are voting for Democrats, they overwhelmingly,
8:47
Speaker 7: they are not just trying to make changes on the margins.
8:50
Speaker 7: They want a disruption of the status quo. And so
8:52
Speaker 7: that's what you see young people voting for. And the
8:54
Speaker 7: last thing I would say is I think that people
8:56
Speaker 7: think of young people as apathetic. And I don't find
8:59
Speaker 7: that at all, especially in Gen Z. You find a
9:01
Speaker 7: generation that's very tuned in, that cares a lot about
9:04
Speaker 7: the future of the country, that's participating, whether it's in
9:06
Speaker 7: protests or voting, at higher rates than we've seen in
9:08
Speaker 7: a long time in American history.
9:11
Speaker 9: We have Donald Trump, if not for young voters, specifically
9:13
Speaker 9: in Arizona, in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia. We don't
9:17
Speaker 9: have a Democratic Senate. We don't have our first African-American president.
9:20
Speaker 9: women on the Supreme Court, and so many other things.
9:22
Speaker 9: So without young people, it's a very different country today.
9:26
Speaker 6: That's number one.
9:27
Speaker 9: Number two, I think, is unlike every other generation that
9:31
Speaker 9: preceded them, all generations have dealt with their fair share
9:35
Speaker 9: of chaos and trauma. This generation has uniquely been dealt
9:39
Speaker 9: a set of cards that have been incredibly traumatic from
9:42
Speaker 9: their first memories in school, hiding under a desk for
9:46
Speaker 9: red alert shooter drills, or their parents concerned about the
9:49
Speaker 9: Great Reception. They've dealt with so many of those issues.
9:52
Speaker 9: At the same time, John, they don't remember a time
9:55
Speaker 9: when America was truly united.
9:57
Speaker 3: There really are.
9:58
Speaker 8: Key issues that motivate this group of voters. Climate change
10:02
Speaker 8: is definitely a huge one that they want to see
10:03
Speaker 8: action on for future generations.
10:05
Speaker 3: Student debt cancellation.
10:07
Speaker 4: They are motivated by issues.
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Speaker 8: And so really honing in on what's going to mobilize
10:13
Speaker 8: them and what they're interested in, I think, is key.
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Speaker 3: Well, that's a great segue to the first couple of clips.
10:18
Speaker 3: I asked the group what issues most affected them and
10:21
Speaker 3: what issues they cared about the most. And here's what
10:23
Speaker 3: they said.
10:24
Speaker 12: I should say that minimum wage should increase a bit
10:27
Speaker 12: because living here in Orange County is very expensive, of course.
10:33
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely like rent and places to live.
10:37
Speaker 3: How many people have been affected by inflation, rising costs?
10:44
Speaker 3: Rising cost of gas.
10:45
Speaker 4: Gas, especially gas. I know, like, why did no one
10:47
Speaker 4: say gas? I was like.
10:49
Speaker 3: Pretty much, so pretty much everyone?
10:50
Speaker 4: Well, no one said it, but, like, it's right there, so,
10:53
Speaker 4: I don't know.
10:54
Speaker 3: Does anyone have student debt? How many people have student
10:58
Speaker 3: debt here?
11:00
Speaker 11: Three?
11:00
Speaker 13: Okay.
11:02
Speaker 3: How concerned are you about paying off student debt?
11:05
Speaker 14: Not that worried.
11:05
Speaker 5: Not that worried?
11:07
Speaker 3: What are some of the issues that are most important
11:08
Speaker 3: to you personally?
11:10
Speaker 10: I just want to have somewhere to live and not
11:12
Speaker 10: have to be able to share with other people.
11:14
Speaker 4: I want to be able to live on my own.
11:16
Speaker 4: It's really, really hard.
11:17
Speaker 10: I have a pretty decent paying job and I still
11:20
Speaker 10: can't afford to live on my own, so.
11:22
Speaker 4: Homelessness?
11:23
Speaker 15: Homelessness.
11:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, sure.
11:24
Speaker 11: When she said homelessness, I really like, I really felt
11:27
Speaker 11: that one because, you know, you see a lot of
11:29
Speaker 11: homeless people and the city is pushing them to different areas, but,
11:33
Speaker 11: you know, at some point there's not going to be
11:36
Speaker 11: a place for them to go, so. Yeah, I was
11:39
Speaker 11: going to say cost of living too.
11:40
Speaker 16: It's basically almost impossible for people to buy a house
11:45
Speaker 16: in California.
11:46
Speaker 15: I think the living situation, being able to afford buying
11:50
Speaker 15: a house on your own is a big concern of mine.
11:54
Speaker 15: and also school.
11:56
Speaker 11: Definitely the student loan.
11:59
Speaker 17: I want to be a lawyer, so I know that's
12:01
Speaker 17: going to be really costly.
12:02
Speaker 14: It kind of ties in with everyone else, but poverty,
12:06
Speaker 14: having more resources for those living in poverty.
12:08
Speaker 3: How concerned are all of you about climate change? Is
12:11
Speaker 3: that something that you think about often?
12:12
Speaker 11: I feel like I should.
12:13
Speaker 12: 11 out of 10.
12:15
Speaker 3: 11 out of 10 for you.
12:16
Speaker 11: Self-consciously, I do, because, you know, it's pretty hot right
12:19
Speaker 11: now to me.
12:20
Speaker 15: Yeah, I do, because it can affect Our food, our water,
12:24
Speaker 15: our environment, our atmosphere, you know, little things that maybe
12:29
Speaker 15: we don't think about that can really affect our living
12:33
Speaker 15: situation or like our health as well.
12:37
Speaker 10: To be honest, I don't really think about it. I
12:39
Speaker 10: feel like right now it's not too bad. I'm by
12:40
Speaker 10: the pool like in the summer and I'm fine, you know.
12:46
Speaker 3: If you had asked me before this group which issues
12:48
Speaker 3: would come up most frequently, I'd have said, what Evangeline
12:51
Speaker 3: did in the last answer, which is student debt and climate.
12:53
Speaker 3: Both of those did come up. But were any of
12:55
Speaker 3: you surprised by how much these voters talked about cost
12:59
Speaker 3: of living issues, especially housing? Evangeline, does this track with
13:03
Speaker 3: your data?
13:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I will say.
13:04
Speaker 8: Nationally, inflation, you know, cost of living is definitely top
13:08
Speaker 8: on voters' minds across demographics. It's kind of, you know,
13:11
Speaker 8: overwhelming to see. It's even on the minds of, you know,
13:15
Speaker 8: younger voters, as some of the ones that we just
13:17
Speaker 8: listened to pointed out, especially in California.
13:20
Speaker 3: Christine and John, have you heard similar things too from
13:23
Speaker 3: young voters?
13:24
Speaker 7: I mean, I think that this is the first generation
13:27
Speaker 7: in American history to be worse off than their parents.
13:29
Speaker 7: So they look around at grotesque and runaway income inequality,
13:33
Speaker 7: and then they feel it in their own lives. They
13:34
Speaker 7: feel the fact that rent is going up, that they
13:36
Speaker 7: can't afford a house. So that doesn't surprise me at all.
13:39
Speaker 3: John, I know you've done a lot of polling around
13:41
Speaker 3: student debt relief. How important and motivating is that issue
13:44
Speaker 3: to young voters?
13:45
Speaker 9: The definition of the American dream for young people is
13:48
Speaker 9: is what your respondent said. It's to literally move out
13:52
Speaker 9: of their parents' house and feel some sense of independence
13:57
Speaker 9: in a job that they aspire to and not have
13:59
Speaker 9: to search on the back pages of the internet for
14:01
Speaker 9: seven roommates that they don't know.
14:03
Speaker 6: That's their definition of happiness.
14:05
Speaker 9: And I think understanding that, then we can put student
14:08
Speaker 9: debt into context in a couple of different places. One
14:11
Speaker 9: is the degree to which that's a barrier to achieving
14:13
Speaker 9: that dream, one. But also understanding I think in this
14:17
Speaker 9: cycle that student debt is almost shorthand for first-time voters'
14:21
Speaker 9: commitment to voting for President Biden in 2020.
14:25
Speaker 3: Christina, NextGen organizes around climate. What's the most effective way
14:30
Speaker 3: to talk about this issue and get young people mobilized
14:34
Speaker 3: around it in your experience?
14:36
Speaker 7: I think with climate, it can feel so big and
14:39
Speaker 7: so impossible. That can turn off a lot of young people.
14:42
Speaker 7: I think especially with young people, the messaging is often
14:44
Speaker 7: negative about like, you don't vote, you don't show up.
14:47
Speaker 7: And that has proven not to work. The messaging has
14:50
Speaker 7: to be honor people's pain, paint a vision of the
14:53
Speaker 7: future that they can build and tell them about the
14:55
Speaker 7: power they have to make it happen.
14:58
Speaker 3: I mentioned earlier that I did this focus group the
15:00
Speaker 3: week after the Supreme Court came down with the Dobbs decision.
15:03
Speaker 3: And when I asked about the decision, everyone was pretty angry.
15:06
Speaker 3: Let's listen. How do you all feel about the Supreme
15:10
Speaker 3: Court's decision last week to overturn Roe versus Wade, which
15:16
Speaker 3: ends the constitutional right to an abortion.
15:18
Speaker 10: It's awful.
15:19
Speaker 4: It's terrible.
15:20
Speaker 11: Like, what the fuck, Roe?
15:22
Speaker 10: I've been seeing so many just everywhere, like all over
15:25
Speaker 10: the news, all over TikTok, all over social media. I just,
15:28
Speaker 10: I've heard so many horror stories. There's people who get
15:31
Speaker 10: you know, raped and abused. And, you know, I saw
15:34
Speaker 10: this one story. This girl was sexually assaulted by her
15:36
Speaker 10: brother and got pregnant by her brother, and she.
15:38
Speaker 4: Had to get an abortion for that. So I think
15:40
Speaker 4: it's a huge setback to how far we've come already,
15:42
Speaker 4: for sure.
15:43
Speaker 11: It's going to ruin a lot of lives. Yeah.
15:51
Speaker 3: John and Evangel, are there consequences of this decision? Do
15:54
Speaker 3: you think enough to convince young people to vote who
15:57
Speaker 3: might have planned on staying home, Evangeline?
15:59
Speaker 8: So we had pulled this pre and post the Dobbs decision.
16:02
Speaker 8: And so pre-inflation across the board was the top issue. Post-Dobbs,
16:07
Speaker 8: we actually see about a 13-point shift in younger voters
16:11
Speaker 8: viewing abortion rights with greater importance, selecting this as our
16:15
Speaker 8: most important issue for 2022. It's important to think about
16:19
Speaker 8: how this can mobilize younger voters in giving them a reason,
16:22
Speaker 8: you know, We don't have Trump in this election to
16:25
Speaker 8: mobilize them. But I think having these rights taken away
16:29
Speaker 8: that they thought was guaranteed for them, I think can
16:32
Speaker 8: serve that purpose for why they should turn.
16:34
Speaker 4: Out to vote.
16:36
Speaker 3: John, what are you seeing in the data?
16:37
Speaker 9: I don't think there's a question that this will further
16:41
Speaker 9: energize young people to turn out. But I also think
16:45
Speaker 9: it taps into this broader theme that we've been hearing
16:48
Speaker 9: through Qualitative as well as Quantitative about this concern, and
16:52
Speaker 9: Evangel just mentioned it, about losing individual rights and freedoms.
16:56
Speaker 9: This was in the air well before, frankly, the Dobbs decision.
17:00
Speaker 9: And it's something that wasn't just reflective in talking to
17:03
Speaker 9: conservatives as it normally would be, but now with independents
17:06
Speaker 9: and Democrats.
17:07
Speaker 3: Christina, how are you all at NextGen mobilizing young people
17:11
Speaker 3: around protecting abortion access ahead of the midterms?
17:13
Speaker 7: The day the Dobbs decision came out, we had 10,000
17:16
Speaker 7: young people sign up and say, I want to take
17:17
Speaker 7: action on this issue. It was one of the largest
17:20
Speaker 7: days we've seen young people say, I want to stand
17:23
Speaker 7: up and do something and I'll pledge to vote. I'll
17:24
Speaker 7: do whatever I can. And that it's going to be
17:27
Speaker 7: a huge issue for this electorate. And, you know, I'm
17:30
Speaker 7: sure many of us were at the rallies that happened
17:32
Speaker 7: the day after Roe. I was in Austin, Texas, where
17:35
Speaker 7: there was it was just young people. It was thousands
17:37
Speaker 7: of young people and they were shouting, vote them out,
17:39
Speaker 7: vote them out.
17:47
Speaker 3: So, you know, as I mentioned, these were all first
17:49
Speaker 3: time voters in 2020. They all voted for Joe Biden.
17:53
Speaker 3: I asked them why. Every single person said that the
17:56
Speaker 3: primary reason they voted for Joe Biden was to get
17:58
Speaker 3: Donald Trump out of office. I then asked them for
18:01
Speaker 3: words and phrases to describe the Republican Party. And here's
18:05
Speaker 3: what I got. Mean, entitled, racist, greedy, closed minded, self-centered.
18:10
Speaker 3: So no Trump fans in the group. No Republican fans
18:13
Speaker 3: in the group. But none of them thought that things
18:16
Speaker 3: were going well in the country today. And when I
18:18
Speaker 3: asked why, here's what they had to say.
18:21
Speaker 11: For sure, the abortion thing, like racism and stuff like that.
18:26
Speaker 11: That's still alive and well. I still see cops and
18:29
Speaker 11: all that, you know, being unfair to civilians. And that
18:33
Speaker 11: still bothers me a lot.
18:35
Speaker 14: Yeah, I stay concerned because after Roe v. Wade was overturned,
18:40
Speaker 14: The Supreme Court now wants to go to gay marriage.
18:43
Speaker 14: They want to do birth control, so I don't know
18:46
Speaker 14: when they're going to stop. Like, what more rights can
18:49
Speaker 14: they take away from us? That's why I'm concerned.
18:52
Speaker 13: Like, I kind of just felt super sick of this country.
18:56
Speaker 13: It is not, like, going in a good direction for
18:59
Speaker 13: a majority of people, but it seems like nothing is
19:02
Speaker 13: really being done about it.
19:04
Speaker 16: The world is changing really fast, and there's a lot
19:06
Speaker 16: of people that are, like, especially the ones that are
19:08
Speaker 16: in power are, like, of the older generation that are
19:11
Speaker 16: basically stuck in their ways and, like, thinking that this
19:14
Speaker 16: is the only way that things should be slash have
19:16
Speaker 16: to be to be, quote-unquote, right. And so, of course,
19:20
Speaker 16: they're going to press their ideals on a new and
19:21
Speaker 16: changing world, which don't make sense now, the days.
19:24
Speaker 18: I have to agree with him. We do have, like,
19:27
Speaker 18: a big issue with, like, different generations. Politically, we have
19:32
Speaker 18: an older generation in power. They're just getting new people
19:36
Speaker 18: like AOC and, like, Beto O'Rourke.
19:38
Speaker 4: Coming up and there's going to be a clash.
19:41
Speaker 18: There's going to be disagreements.
19:43
Speaker 10: So I just think considering like ever since just pandemic 2020, BLM,
19:50
Speaker 10: this is just like a huge step back considering everything
19:53
Speaker 10: that we've been through. I think it's also really messed
19:55
Speaker 10: up that they're also, I've heard talk of them trying
19:57
Speaker 10: to go back on the LGBTQ community and trying to like,
20:01
Speaker 10: you know, put laws against gay marriage and everything like
20:04
Speaker 10: they were saying too. the fact that we have a
20:06
Speaker 10: lot of older people who are from a completely different
20:08
Speaker 10: generation with different thoughts and opinions in different ways that
20:10
Speaker 10: they were raised, that they're in office.
20:13
Speaker 4: I just, I don't agree.
20:14
Speaker 10: I think their mindset is completely different than ours and
20:17
Speaker 10: they're not seeing what's changing.
20:21
Speaker 3: So this is probably one of the most frustrated and
20:24
Speaker 3: disappointed groups of voters I've spoken to. And it does
20:27
Speaker 3: seem like their central problem with politics isn't necessarily partisan,
20:31
Speaker 3: but generational. Christina, as an organizer, How do you keep
20:36
Speaker 3: these kinds of voters from giving up on politics altogether?
20:40
Speaker 7: I've always said that voting is the most basic thing
20:43
Speaker 7: you must do, but it is not the only thing
20:44
Speaker 7: you should do. And I think that young people understand
20:47
Speaker 7: that that is simply one tool for change. I think
20:49
Speaker 7: where young people get frustrated is when they're told that
20:51
Speaker 7: it's the only tool to make change. And what I
20:54
Speaker 7: heard from and see from young people is that they
20:56
Speaker 7: are repulsed by the Republican Party, but they're also determined
20:59
Speaker 7: to remake the Democratic Party. I remember the Democratic Party
21:03
Speaker 7: when it was in the same place that the Republicans
21:05
Speaker 7: were on criminal justice reform. I remember the time when
21:08
Speaker 7: the Democratic Party was where Republicans were on tax policy.
21:12
Speaker 7: So we have come a long way in pushing the
21:14
Speaker 7: Democratic Party to answer better to the diverse and changing
21:17
Speaker 7: demographics of this country and its deep-rooted working class elements.
21:22
Speaker 7: I think we have to keep hitting those messages and
21:24
Speaker 7: tell that to young people.
21:26
Speaker 3: Evangeline, how do you think the Democratic Party should bridge
21:29
Speaker 3: what is clearly a generational gap I think another.
21:31
Speaker 8: Thing that we can look to is ways that local
21:35
Speaker 8: issues and state politics and voting down ballot really does
21:38
Speaker 8: make an impact where nationally the structural changes that need
21:42
Speaker 8: to take place are so deep rooted. And I can
21:46
Speaker 8: understand why voters feel disillusioned about the change that can
21:49
Speaker 8: take place. But there are local races and state-based races
21:54
Speaker 8: that really can have an impact on these voters' lives
21:56
Speaker 8: as well.
21:56
Speaker 3: John, what do you think?
21:57
Speaker 9: The challenge for Democrats, they need to throw out the
22:00
Speaker 9: old playbook. To encourage a young person to participate, you
22:03
Speaker 9: need to do two things. The first thing you need
22:05
Speaker 9: to do is, as you mentioned, you need to build
22:08
Speaker 9: some trust and some faith in the system, in politics,
22:12
Speaker 9: that it's actually worth their time to participate. So it
22:15
Speaker 9: doesn't mean they're apathetic. It's that they don't always see
22:18
Speaker 9: the tangible difference that politics can make. Once you do that,
22:22
Speaker 9: then you need to position to the messenger to be
22:25
Speaker 9: the kind of the agent of change or progress.
22:29
Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about the messenger. In that last clip
22:31
Speaker 3: you heard, a young woman named Alejandra mentioned AOC and
22:34
Speaker 3: Beto O'Rourke. I wanted to know more about what kind
22:37
Speaker 3: of political leaders and candidates this group liked and who
22:39
Speaker 3: their dream presidential candidates would be, especially since the group's
22:42
Speaker 3: unanimous opinion was that Joe Biden is too old to
22:45
Speaker 3: run for president again. Here's what they said.
22:48
Speaker 13: So you know Bernie Sanders?
22:50
Speaker 11: Mm-hmm. Him.
22:51
Speaker 3: That's it.
22:51
Speaker 11: Bernie Sanders.
22:52
Speaker 13: Nothing else.
22:52
Speaker 3: Bernie Sanders. A couple Bernie Sanders?
22:55
Speaker 11: He's perfect.
22:55
Speaker 4: I'll say that.
22:56
Speaker 3: And his age would not be a concern?
22:57
Speaker 11: No, it would.
22:59
Speaker 3: It would, yeah.
23:00
Speaker 11: It would for.
23:01
Speaker 16: A type of Bernie Sanders kind of person at like 50.
23:03
Speaker 4: The AOC.
23:06
Speaker 15: AOC?
23:07
Speaker 12: Yeah, she's... I like how determined and passionate she is
23:11
Speaker 12: when she speaks. There's a lot of things that I
23:14
Speaker 12: like about AOC.
23:16
Speaker 4: I thought Michelle Obama was great. She's just a very
23:19
Speaker 4: smart woman. I feel like she has a good mind.
23:21
Speaker 15: Yeah.
23:22
Speaker 4: It probably brings some peace, but who knows?
23:24
Speaker 15: I think our Gavin Newsom has been doing a good job.
23:29
Speaker 15: He makes a lot of things happen.
23:31
Speaker 3: How many of you think Gavin Newsom is doing a
23:32
Speaker 3: good job as governor?
23:33
Speaker 10: What he just did for all the people, like for
23:37
Speaker 10: Roe v. Wade, he's making California like a safe haven
23:40
Speaker 10: for people to come over here and get abortions without
23:42
Speaker 10: any consequences from the other states.
23:44
Speaker 17: He also signed that every household that makes, like combined,
23:50
Speaker 17: like $ 150, 000... Or if you're an individual and you make
23:54
Speaker 17: 75K or under, they give you a gas card. And
23:58
Speaker 17: you can use it for gas and food.
24:00
Speaker 3: 50-year-old Bernie Sanders, AOC, Gavin Newsom, and Michelle Obama. Does
24:08
Speaker 3: anyone want to take a shot at what those political
24:10
Speaker 3: figures all have in common? Or why they all have
24:13
Speaker 3: qualities or records that this group of voters admires?
24:16
Speaker 11: John?
24:17
Speaker 9: Often, I think, around those qualities of trust, and values
24:22
Speaker 9: and getting things done and having some urgency. This is
24:24
Speaker 9: not a normal time. When I talk to younger people,
24:27
Speaker 9: young activists, that's the first thing they say. These are
24:29
Speaker 9: not normal times. They appreciate that, but they believe that
24:32
Speaker 9: Washington is acting like they always ask without the urgency
24:35
Speaker 9: that perhaps Gavin Newsom on the West Coast is showing
24:39
Speaker 9: as brought up by that young woman.
24:41
Speaker 3: Evangeline, what do you think?
24:43
Speaker 8: I think they all are showing voters that they will
24:45
Speaker 8: take action on the issues that impact all of our lives.
24:49
Speaker 8: And they really center the struggles that voters face in
24:52
Speaker 8: giving tangible solutions. I think the other thing, too, is
24:55
Speaker 8: just how they communicate to voters. And I think AOC
24:58
Speaker 8: has really nailed this in the Instagram post she does
25:02
Speaker 8: after these major events that happen, taking the time to
25:05
Speaker 8: answer voters' concerns, build that trust, and show how you.
25:10
Speaker 4: Can be impactful.
25:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, Christina, I was sort of surprised by the specificity
25:16
Speaker 3: with which She remembered Gavin Newsom's actions both on Roe
25:20
Speaker 3: and on the gas rebate card, because this is also
25:23
Speaker 3: a group of voters that doesn't pay super close attention
25:25
Speaker 3: to politics in the news. What do you think all
25:27
Speaker 3: those figures have in common that were cited?
25:29
Speaker 7: Ultimately, what young people care about is delivery of the
25:33
Speaker 7: policy issues that they care about. I saw people that
25:36
Speaker 7: they mentioned that they felt like were fighting and standing
25:38
Speaker 7: up for ordinary people. But it feels like a lot
25:41
Speaker 7: of times in politics, people are not standing up for
25:43
Speaker 7: ordinary people. Like Bernie Sanders had a villain and you
25:47
Speaker 7: always need a villain in the story, which was just billionaires.
25:50
Speaker 7: I think what Republicans made clear and what the Supreme Court,
25:53
Speaker 7: the ultra right made clear to young people is, yes,
25:55
Speaker 7: many of them went and voted against Trump because they
25:58
Speaker 7: saw fascism on the ballot. And they just made clear
26:02
Speaker 7: that fascism is on the ballot again in 2022 and
26:04
Speaker 7: that they have the power to stop it. And I
26:06
Speaker 7: think that young people are going to turn out to
26:07
Speaker 7: stop it again.
26:10
Speaker 3: After the break, we'll find out what Gen Z voters
26:12
Speaker 3: in Orange County think about the upcoming midterms and where
26:15
Speaker 3: they actually get their news. Plus, more Katie Porter. Welcome back.
26:28
Speaker 3: After the voters in Orange County talked about which issues
26:30
Speaker 3: mattered most to them, I wanted to find out what
26:32
Speaker 3: they thought about the upcoming election and whether they'd actually vote.
26:36
Speaker 3: All right, let's get to the midterms. So we've talked
26:38
Speaker 3: about how one challenge for Democrats with young voters in
26:41
Speaker 3: 2022 is inspiring them. But I found out with this
26:43
Speaker 3: group that another challenge is simply educating them about the
26:46
Speaker 3: election itself. Take a listen. How many of you plan
26:50
Speaker 3: on voting in the midterm elections this November?
26:54
Speaker 4: What is that?
26:56
Speaker 3: You got three here, four.
26:59
Speaker 11: I could.
26:59
Speaker 13: I filled out a ballot like a couple of weeks ago.
27:04
Speaker 13: Was that for the November election?
27:06
Speaker 11: I don't even know.
27:06
Speaker 3: I believe there was a primary.
27:08
Speaker 11: Okay.
27:09
Speaker 3: So there was a primary election. Okay. I'll just do
27:13
Speaker 3: what I did again.
27:13
Speaker 11: Do that again.
27:16
Speaker 3: Who is your member of Congress, and do you think
27:20
Speaker 3: they're doing a good job?
27:20
Speaker 4: I don't know anyone in Congress.
27:27
Speaker 3: Okay, that's totally fine. Does anyone know who their member
27:30
Speaker 3: of Congress is?
27:31
Speaker 11: No, stop. Stop.
27:36
Speaker 3: Can you help people understand who are listening, like why
27:39
Speaker 3: a group of young people who were politically engaged enough
27:41
Speaker 3: to vote for Joe Biden in 2020 might not know
27:45
Speaker 3: what a midterm election is or who their member of
27:48
Speaker 3: Congress is? John, what do you think?
27:50
Speaker 9: Number one, I hope every single Democrat within the sound
27:52
Speaker 9: of our voice listens to that focus group, John, and
27:54
Speaker 9: appreciates all the votes that are being left on the table,
27:57
Speaker 9: because this is a unique opportunity that may not come again, right?
28:00
Speaker 9: That you have an opposition party that is not just
28:04
Speaker 9: not making an effort, but openly hostile. to the values
28:07
Speaker 9: of which we've been talking about for this entire conversation.
28:10
Speaker 9: And yet you had nine good people who could articulate
28:13
Speaker 9: the issues, what matters to them and what matters to
28:15
Speaker 9: the community. And they're unsure, frankly, because of a lack
28:18
Speaker 9: of a civics education. We talk often about the role
28:21
Speaker 9: of social.
28:22
Speaker 6: Media and the internet.
28:23
Speaker 9: And one of the ways in which dozens of young
28:26
Speaker 9: people tell me personally, and we can see in our surveys,
28:28
Speaker 9: that they're trying to create some measure of self-care is
28:32
Speaker 9: to turn away from the daily repetition of the negativity
28:37
Speaker 9: of the news. Rather than watching on a day-to-day basis,
28:41
Speaker 9: they choose to check in when it's comfortable for them.
28:44
Speaker 9: They are not checking in now during the summer. They
28:47
Speaker 9: know what's happening with the Supreme Court. I think they
28:49
Speaker 9: will check in as the fall approaches.
28:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, Christina, clearly these voters care deeply about important political issues,
28:57
Speaker 3: but they couldn't be more disconnected from politics itself. What
29:00
Speaker 3: are some strategies that that you all use at NextGen
29:03
Speaker 3: to bridge this gap?
29:04
Speaker 7: There's a cyclical problem with young voters, which is most
29:08
Speaker 7: candidates look at, who are my regular midterm voters? And
29:10
Speaker 7: that's all they focus on. And where Republicans and right-wing
29:13
Speaker 7: strategists are so much stronger than progressives, they look at
29:15
Speaker 7: the map and say, where can we expand? And with
29:18
Speaker 7: young voters, we can only expand and grow. But the
29:20
Speaker 7: number one reason they will not go vote is because
29:22
Speaker 7: they'll say, I don't know who to vote for and
29:24
Speaker 7: no one contacted me. I can't tell you how many
29:26
Speaker 7: young voters say, and it's their super competitive race that
29:29
Speaker 7: they live in in their district, and they're registered to vote,
29:32
Speaker 7: they're eligible to vote, and no campaigner candidate has come
29:35
Speaker 7: and spoken to them.
29:36
Speaker 3: You know, you both brought up media. So I want
29:38
Speaker 3: to end on that because getting through to these voters,
29:41
Speaker 3: we have to go through the media. So I asked
29:43
Speaker 3: questions about their media habits and their views of the media.
29:46
Speaker 3: And here's what they said. I want to talk a
29:48
Speaker 3: little bit about media. How often do you follow the news?
29:52
Speaker 4: Pretty often every day.
29:53
Speaker 10: A lot.
29:54
Speaker 11: A lot.
29:55
Speaker 4: It just follows you. Like it's, it's just there.
29:57
Speaker 3: The news follows you.
29:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, it does.
30:01
Speaker 3: I'm like Serena.
30:01
Speaker 4: The news finds me.
30:02
Speaker 11: Yeah, I agree.
30:05
Speaker 4: It just follows you especially.
30:07
Speaker 17: I think I get most of it from TikTok. I
30:09
Speaker 17: don't specifically go on news channels.
30:14
Speaker 3: What's your primary source of news?
30:19
Speaker 4: Usually I'll go on Twitter.
30:20
Speaker 18: If not, I'll go through WC Register for local news.
30:25
Speaker 4: CNN. TikTok, Snapchat, Daily Mail.
30:29
Speaker 10: Instagram, any form of social media, but mostly like Daily
30:32
Speaker 10: Mail for some reason.
30:33
Speaker 15: Daily Mail.
30:34
Speaker 4: I feel like they post a lot on there. That's
30:36
Speaker 4: how I keep up.
30:38
Speaker 12: I like Associated Press and.
30:42
Speaker 4: The Guardian.
30:43
Speaker 13: Just Twitter and TikTok pretty much.
30:46
Speaker 3: Anyone on Facebook?
30:49
Speaker 2: Sorry.
30:52
Speaker 5: ABC7?
30:52
Speaker 11: TikTok?
30:53
Speaker 3: Who's on TikTok?
30:53
Speaker 11: Yes, TikTok.
30:54
Speaker 3: Everyone on TikTok? Yes. What makes you more likely to
30:57
Speaker 3: trust something you see on social media?
31:00
Speaker 11: The more you see it.
31:01
Speaker 4: Yeah.
31:01
Speaker 11: Repetition.
31:02
Speaker 10: I guess, like, the amount of people that interact with
31:04
Speaker 10: it and stuff, too. Like, if it's on your For
31:06
Speaker 10: You page, obviously it's important.
31:08
Speaker 3: What frustrates you most about the media?
31:11
Speaker 4: Too much Kardashians.
31:12
Speaker 2: Too much Kardashians.
31:13
Speaker 10: I feel like media doesn't cover a lot of, like, who's, like,
31:16
Speaker 10: in the Senate or Congress or anything like that because
31:18
Speaker 10: I have no.
31:19
Speaker 4: Clue who those people are. I could vote.
31:21
Speaker 10: I could look at that paper and I could see
31:23
Speaker 10: a bunch of names.
31:24
Speaker 4: I'm like, who is this? What, like, I don't know.
31:26
Speaker 10: I need to see, like, put a face to it,
31:28
Speaker 10: see what they've done, who they are. Like, I feel
31:30
Speaker 10: like we don't have, like, the tools to, I mean,
31:34
Speaker 10: I guess we do, but, like, it's not put in
31:36
Speaker 10: front of me.
31:36
Speaker 4: Like, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like
31:38
Speaker 4: I don't know enough about them.
31:40
Speaker 3: How do you think the different ways that young people
31:42
Speaker 3: consume political media, which is primarily through social media, particularly
31:46
Speaker 3: TikTok and Instagram and Twitter, affects their views about politics?
31:51
Speaker 11: John?
31:52
Speaker 9: I was trying to think somewhere there's going to be
31:54
Speaker 9: like a sweet spot in the spectrum between too much Kardashians.
31:57
Speaker 17: Right.
31:58
Speaker 6: And a perfectly curated political Twitter sphere.
32:01
Speaker 3: Not there yet.
32:02
Speaker 15: Right.
32:02
Speaker 9: We're not that we're not there yet. But what they're
32:04
Speaker 9: asking for is I think it said the news finds them.
32:08
Speaker 9: And I think they're getting more news than they may
32:11
Speaker 9: appreciate because they're talking about these issues. I think, you know,
32:15
Speaker 9: multiple times a day or multiple times a week, homelessness,
32:18
Speaker 9: the cost of living, etc.
32:20
Speaker 6: What we collectively need.
32:22
Speaker 9: To find are the more AOCs who can figure out
32:26
Speaker 9: how to check in appropriately through Snap, through Instagram, who
32:30
Speaker 9: everything she does isn't a fully slick produced piece.
32:33
Speaker 3: Can I ask you all, because we've all mentioned AOC
32:36
Speaker 3: a number of times as an example of a really
32:38
Speaker 3: effective communicator.
32:42
Speaker 5: People don't really know what capitalism is. Most people don't
32:46
Speaker 5: even know what socialism is. But most people are not
32:50
Speaker 5: capitalists because they don't have capitalist money. They're not billionaires.
32:55
Speaker 3: What is it about how AOC communicates via social media
32:59
Speaker 3: that makes her so effective?
33:02
Speaker 7: I mean, I think that she's authentic. I think she
33:04
Speaker 7: helps them understand policy in layman terms and what it
33:07
Speaker 7: means to their lives. And also one thing I think
33:10
Speaker 7: she's also really good about answering people's questions is on
33:13
Speaker 7: all different kinds of topics and opening and that authenticity
33:16
Speaker 7: speaks to young people. You look at Gen Z for Change,
33:18
Speaker 7: these young TikTokers that have organized and coalesced and now
33:21
Speaker 7: have a reach of like 500 million young people that
33:24
Speaker 7: they can reach at a, you know, one video post
33:27
Speaker 7: that they can all do on a certain topic. I
33:30
Speaker 7: don't think that candidates have to go recreate. They just
33:32
Speaker 7: have to go work with the authentic voices of young
33:34
Speaker 7: people that are already online and have huge followings.
33:37
Speaker 3: Christina, Evangel, John, thank you so much for your time.
33:41
Speaker 3: This was great.
33:42
Speaker 11: Thanks.
33:43
Speaker 2: Thank you.
33:43
Speaker 6: It's great to be with you. It's such an important subject.
33:45
Speaker 10: Thanks.
33:50
Speaker 3: A lot has happened since our Orange County focus group
33:53
Speaker 3: and panel discussion that might have an impact on what
33:55
Speaker 3: young voters do this November. Republican politicians proposing abortion bans,
34:00
Speaker 3: Democrats passing the most sweeping climate bill in history, and
34:03
Speaker 3: Joe Biden for giving up to $ 20, 000 of student debt.
34:07
Speaker 3: So a few weeks ago, I checked in with one
34:09
Speaker 3: more political expert you heard from at the beginning of
34:11
Speaker 3: the episode, who actually represents the young voters we heard from.
34:15
Speaker 1: I'm Katie Porter. I'm a congresswoman from Orange County, California.
34:18
Speaker 1: I'm a single mom of three lightly supervised children, and
34:22
Speaker 1: I love oversight.
34:24
Speaker 3: I didn't interview many politicians this season because usually they're
34:27
Speaker 3: not allowed to be that interesting, especially when they're in
34:30
Speaker 3: a tough race. But again, Katie Porter's different. And instead
34:33
Speaker 3: of just chatting with her, I thought it might be
34:35
Speaker 3: useful to play Katie a few clips from the focus
34:37
Speaker 3: group and get her reaction in real time. I started
34:41
Speaker 3: with the clip where the young voters talked about why
34:42
Speaker 3: they thought the country's going in the wrong direction and
34:45
Speaker 3: which issues matter most to them. She, of course, immediately
34:48
Speaker 3: started taking notes. What's your first reaction listening to all that?
34:56
Speaker 1: I think young people are paying attention to what's going
34:59
Speaker 1: on in this country. That was a very good list
35:03
Speaker 1: of things that are on people's minds at all ages.
35:05
Speaker 1: So things like inflation, things like concern about rising hatred
35:10
Speaker 1: and extremism, things about rights being taken away. That actually
35:14
Speaker 1: is some of the really important things that's happened in
35:17
Speaker 1: this country. So my first reaction is kudos to to
35:19
Speaker 1: these young people for paying attention.
35:22
Speaker 2: I think they do.
35:23
Speaker 1: Know what's going on. Some of what's going on is
35:25
Speaker 1: not good, and it's okay for us to acknowledge that.
35:28
Speaker 1: We can't be credible unless we're honest about some of
35:31
Speaker 1: the things that are going wrong. The Dobbs decision and
35:34
Speaker 1: losing a fundamental right, that is a terrible, scary thing.
35:38
Speaker 1: And so what we're hearing from these young people is
35:40
Speaker 1: that they think that that's a terrible, scary thing. And
35:43
Speaker 1: I would say, good, let's listen to those voices and
35:46
Speaker 1: let's respond to them politically.
35:48
Speaker 3: Do those responses track with what you've been hearing from
35:50
Speaker 3: young people in your district?
35:52
Speaker 2: Yes, definitely.
35:52
Speaker 1: I mean, I obviously meet with a lot of different
35:54
Speaker 1: kinds of young people. I have my own three children
35:57
Speaker 1: who are my three worst constituents, I just want to say.
36:00
Speaker 2: But I think that that largely tracks.
36:02
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not the only concerns, but I think
36:04
Speaker 1: all of those are things that I have heard before.
36:06
Speaker 2: And then the one I would like to talk a.
36:07
Speaker 1: Little more with you about, which I think is so important,
36:11
Speaker 1: is the cost of living and the ability to have
36:13
Speaker 1: a home. The inability to afford a home and to
36:17
Speaker 1: build the solid financial footing that comes with homeownership is
36:21
Speaker 1: one of the biggest anxieties facing people around this country,
36:25
Speaker 1: not just in high cost of living areas like here,
36:28
Speaker 1: but in every part and pocket of this country. So
36:31
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled that you heard this, and I hope everybody
36:34
Speaker 1: in Washington and every political consultant is listening. Because housing
36:37
Speaker 1: is a defining issue. The party that figures out how
36:40
Speaker 1: to solve this problem and talk about this problem is
36:43
Speaker 1: going to be the party with the enduring majority for
36:45
Speaker 1: the next 20 years.
36:47
Speaker 3: So I obviously did this before Biden's student loan announcement.
36:50
Speaker 3: What's the reaction been in your district from your constituents
36:54
Speaker 3: over the last week? Do you think this is something
36:56
Speaker 3: that will motivate young people to vote who might otherwise
36:59
Speaker 3: have stayed home?
37:00
Speaker 1: So I would say that student loans are probably one
37:04
Speaker 1: of the most divisive issues. Student loan forgiveness, one of
37:06
Speaker 1: the most divisive issues right now in Orange County. I
37:08
Speaker 1: get a lot of strong reactions one way or the other,
37:11
Speaker 1: and a lot of powerful, compelling stories, frankly, in both directions.
37:16
Speaker 1: So when I get a question from somebody who's hostile
37:19
Speaker 1: to student loan forgiveness... I try to say, let me
37:21
Speaker 1: give you some facts that might help you. You said
37:23
Speaker 1: you think students should be able to pay off what
37:27
Speaker 1: they got. They got a degree, they ought to pay
37:28
Speaker 1: that off. 40% of people with student loan debt didn't graduate.
37:33
Speaker 2: That's a problem.
37:34
Speaker 1: So who you think of as a student loan debtor
37:37
Speaker 1: actually isn't necessarily who's a student loan debtor. Oh, you
37:41
Speaker 1: worked your way through school? You flipped burgers? So did
37:44
Speaker 1: my dad at his state university. You cannot flip enough burgers.
37:49
Speaker 1: You can't forego enough lattes to afford state university today
37:56
Speaker 1: because the costs are so much different. And so today,
38:00
Speaker 1: about half of public school, public university graduates have student loans.
38:05
Speaker 1: So that's actually a lot of what we're talking about here.
38:08
Speaker 1: And so for the same people who say like, we
38:10
Speaker 1: should forgive it all, 10,000 is not enough. I try
38:12
Speaker 1: to back that out and say, look, The $ 10, 000 is
38:16
Speaker 1: going to go a long ways toward helping the people
38:18
Speaker 1: with the lowest incomes. They actually tend to also have
38:22
Speaker 1: the lowest loans. The people with the highest incomes, generally,
38:25
Speaker 1: there's exceptions.
38:27
Speaker 2: But generally... If you have a lot of loans.
38:29
Speaker 1: Some of those people, not all, but some also got
38:32
Speaker 1: graduate degrees and tend to have higher income. So the $ 10, 000
38:35
Speaker 1: does a lot to address some of the racial wealth gap.
38:38
Speaker 1: It does a lot to try to correct that. So
38:40
Speaker 1: I would say, as I've explained and given facts to people,
38:43
Speaker 1: I don't think I've convinced everybody one way or the other,
38:46
Speaker 1: but I do think I've slowed them down a little bit.
38:49
Speaker 1: I've taken the temperature down a little bit and they've thought,
38:52
Speaker 1: maybe I'm not as right as I thought I was.
38:55
Speaker 1: So maybe I shouldn't be as righteous.
38:58
Speaker 2: One way or the other.
38:58
Speaker 1: And that, I think, is part of how we build
39:01
Speaker 1: policy conversations on difficult topics like this.
39:06
Speaker 3: So the clip I really wanted to play for Katie
39:08
Speaker 3: is the one where some of the young voters didn't
39:10
Speaker 3: know what or when the midterms were, and none of
39:13
Speaker 3: them could identify their member of Congress, who, of course,
39:15
Speaker 3: is Katie Porter. I realize this would probably offend or
39:18
Speaker 3: at least surprise most politicians, but I figured Katie would
39:21
Speaker 3: have a more insightful reaction. She didn't disappoint. I think
39:25
Speaker 3: I believe there was a primary. So granted, we intentionally
39:29
Speaker 3: selected a group of people that doesn't pay close attention
39:31
Speaker 3: to politics, but they did vote for Biden. So like.
39:34
Speaker 3: How do we get them to turn out for you?
39:36
Speaker 3: These are mostly your constituents and other Democrats.
39:39
Speaker 1: So, you know, I think that this reflects one of
39:43
Speaker 1: the real challenges that we have with younger voters, which
39:46
Speaker 1: is partly because of housing costs, partly because of school.
39:50
Speaker 2: They move a lot.
39:51
Speaker 1: And then redistricting added a whole bunch of confusion to this.
39:54
Speaker 1: So I'm spending a lot of my time getting to
39:57
Speaker 1: know the roughly half a million new humans that Santa
40:00
Speaker 1: Claus brought.
40:01
Speaker 2: Brought me for Christmas.
40:02
Speaker 1: You know, I asked for diamonds, John, and I got
40:05
Speaker 1: half a million new potential constituents. It wasn't the best
40:07
Speaker 1: Christmas I've ever had, but I'm excited to meet these
40:10
Speaker 1: new folks. You know, there's also a timing issue here,
40:13
Speaker 1: which is whenever people say, oh, nobody knows what's going on,
40:17
Speaker 1: no one knows. These students, they're trying to get through
40:20
Speaker 1: their day. They're trying to go to their job. They're
40:23
Speaker 1: trying to pay off their loans. They're trying to save
40:25
Speaker 1: up for a house. This is one of a bajillion
40:28
Speaker 1: things that it means to be a successful American. And
40:32
Speaker 1: the person who said, my ballot comes, I fill it out,
40:34
Speaker 1: I mail it in.
40:35
Speaker 11: A plus!
40:36
Speaker 1: That's the entire project, buddy. Like, if you're doing that,
40:39
Speaker 1: I give that an A. Okay, maybe you're not a volunteer,
40:41
Speaker 1: so I give you an A, not an A plus,
40:42
Speaker 1: but that's a pretty good answer. So I think it's
40:45
Speaker 1: really incumbent on me to make sure we reach these voters.
40:49
Speaker 1: I think what's been wrong with politics too long is
40:50
Speaker 1: my colleagues think they're too important. We're not that important
40:53
Speaker 1: to most people. It's our job to find these folks
40:57
Speaker 1: and to connect with them. It's not their job to
40:59
Speaker 1: find us. Their job is just to find their ballot.
41:01
Speaker 1: It's my job to make sure I find them.
41:03
Speaker 3: I mean, one way that you have broken through, certainly
41:10
Speaker 3: as a member of Congress, is we should talk about
41:13
Speaker 3: the whiteboard.
41:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
41:14
Speaker 3: Like, why do you think that in this very noisy
41:18
Speaker 3: political environment, that you hauling out a whiteboard breaks through
41:23
Speaker 3: all the noise?
41:24
Speaker 1: I've thought about this a lot. I've asked some young people.
41:26
Speaker 1: And basically, the answer is, you get.
41:30
Speaker 1: That we don't have confidence and you're actively, you're trying
41:35
Speaker 1: to show us that government doesn't always work. You're not
41:38
Speaker 1: assuming that we all believe in you. And so I
41:41
Speaker 1: think this goes to this kind of disillusion point, which is,
41:45
Speaker 1: you know, is anyone really going to fix anything? What
41:47
Speaker 1: difference does it make who my congressperson is? So the
41:50
Speaker 1: whiteboard is just a tool, but the point is to
41:53
Speaker 1: really show people in an accessible way what I'm doing
41:57
Speaker 1: in Washington. What do Congress people do? What questions are
42:02
Speaker 1: we asking? Are we asking the questions that you have
42:05
Speaker 1: on your mind? So I think the visuals help, particularly
42:09
Speaker 1: in a world where people are watching things on their
42:10
Speaker 1: phone with the sound turned off. They help invite people
42:13
Speaker 1: into the dialogue. But I think at the end of
42:15
Speaker 1: the day, it's the willingness to kind of hold power
42:18
Speaker 1: to account. And those whiteboard moments are just evidence of
42:22
Speaker 1: something happening that they think should happen a lot more.
42:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's so interesting because So there were other parts
42:27
Speaker 3: of this group where I got into politics, and I
42:30
Speaker 3: heard a couple times from different participants. They would talk
42:33
Speaker 3: about people in Washington or the people in politics, they're
42:36
Speaker 3: just an older generation and they don't get it.
42:39
Speaker 1: I don't think young people necessarily only want young representatives.
42:44
Speaker 1: Young people want representatives who are willing to look hard
42:48
Speaker 1: at the realities of the economy and the society they're
42:51
Speaker 1: living in. And, you know, I'm not just elected to
42:55
Speaker 1: represent the people who vote for me. I'm also elected
42:57
Speaker 1: to represent the 12-year-olds who can't vote and the 2-year-olds
43:01
Speaker 1: who are coming down the pike and the 22-year-old who
43:05
Speaker 1: changed addresses twice and therefore doesn't ever get their ballot
43:07
Speaker 1: in time. I represent all those people, and I need
43:09
Speaker 1: to be thinking about all of those people. So when
43:11
Speaker 1: we talk about diverse leadership, multigenerational has to be one
43:16
Speaker 1: of the things. We're talking about diverse leadership based on race,
43:19
Speaker 1: based on life experience, based on class. Based on generation
43:22
Speaker 1: is part of that. But it's not just being of
43:25
Speaker 1: the generation. It's also seeing the experiences of people whose
43:29
Speaker 1: life experiences are different than yours.
43:31
Speaker 3: There's obviously a lot to worry us about the state
43:34
Speaker 3: of democracy. What is making you hopeful right now about
43:39
Speaker 3: the state of democracy and about the fact that hopefully—
43:42
Speaker 3: This generation of people that I was just talking to
43:46
Speaker 3: will lead us to a better place.
43:47
Speaker 1: This is a very nerdy answer. I'm guessing this is
43:49
Speaker 1: not what people usually say.
43:52
Speaker 2: Ready for this?
43:53
Speaker 1: It's Biden's competition policy. So let me connect the dots
43:59
Speaker 1: for you. President Biden and his team. are fundamentally tackling
44:04
Speaker 1: the problem of monopoly in virtually every part and pocket
44:08
Speaker 1: of this economy, whether that's technology, whether that's agriculture, whether
44:13
Speaker 1: that's banking. He has put people in office who understand
44:18
Speaker 1: that in order to have a healthy democracy, here's the
44:20
Speaker 1: democracy connection, in a capitalist society, you have to have
44:24
Speaker 1: a healthy economy. If you don't give people means and
44:27
Speaker 1: opportunities to buy houses, to have wealth, to contribute, to
44:31
Speaker 1: go out in their lives, to get degrees, you're not
44:34
Speaker 1: going to have a vibrant democracy because people are going
44:36
Speaker 1: to feel like, what's the point?
44:37
Speaker 2: I'm oppressed. I'm oppressed economically. I'm oppressed politically.
44:40
Speaker 1: They're connected for most people in their daily lives.
44:44
Speaker 3: It's so important that you made the connection between the
44:47
Speaker 3: healthy democracy and the healthy economy because, again, I think
44:50
Speaker 3: one of the big divides that keeps coming up in
44:53
Speaker 3: all these focus groups is you've got Democrats in the
44:56
Speaker 3: media and we're focusing on January 6th as we should
44:58
Speaker 3: and the threats of democracy and Republicans are going to
45:01
Speaker 3: overturn democracy and all that's very scary. You talk to
45:04
Speaker 3: voters and they're like, well, I just I need to live.
45:07
Speaker 3: I need to I'm worried about the cost of housing.
45:10
Speaker 3: And I do think like if you want people to
45:13
Speaker 3: get into the work of saving democracy, you have to
45:16
Speaker 3: convince them that democracy is worth saving. And to convince
45:19
Speaker 3: them democracy is worth saving, you have to convince them
45:22
Speaker 3: that it works for them and that it actually makes
45:24
Speaker 3: their lives better.
45:25
Speaker 11: Yep.
45:25
Speaker 1: So here is democracy by electing a president willing to
45:30
Speaker 1: stand up to corporate power. actually creating more economic opportunity.
45:36
Speaker 1: And as these people see their economic opportunities.
45:39
Speaker 2: Multiply, they think, how did this happen?
45:41
Speaker 1: Oh, it's because we voted for this guy, Biden, who
45:44
Speaker 1: cares about working people as opposed to Trump, who only
45:47
Speaker 1: cares about himself.
45:48
Speaker 2: Like, look, maybe I'll vote again.
45:50
Speaker 1: Things got better in my life. And so I do
45:52
Speaker 1: think they are intertwined. They get that, and we as
45:56
Speaker 1: Democrats better figure it out.
45:58
Speaker 3: Katie Porter. You are the best.
46:00
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
46:01
Speaker 3: I always make rule for the wilderness, but especially this season.
46:04
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't think we want to talk
46:05
Speaker 3: to politicians because we bring politicians on. They do a
46:07
Speaker 3: lot of talking points. But I kept telling the team,
46:10
Speaker 3: I was like, Katie Porter will be perfect for this episode.
46:14
Speaker 2: My team did give me talking points. I just didn't
46:17
Speaker 2: use them.
46:19
Speaker 1: Instead, I did what I think elected officials need to
46:22
Speaker 1: do a lot more, which is I listened to what
46:25
Speaker 1: the voters said, what these folks said, and then I
46:29
Speaker 1: tried to be responsive to it.
46:30
Speaker 2: I mean, that actually is the job. It's not talking.
46:34
Speaker 2: It's listening.
46:37
Speaker 3: Katie talked about how a vibrant democracy requires a healthy economy.
46:41
Speaker 3: How Democrats need to prove they're the party of working
46:43
Speaker 3: people by standing up to corporate power on behalf of
46:46
Speaker 3: voters who struggle to pay for basic necessities like housing.
46:49
Speaker 19: We were one of those people where the owner sold
46:52
Speaker 19: right from under us. And there was no weeklies for
46:55
Speaker 19: us to go to. We were hotel hopping. And that's
47:00
Speaker 19: 70 to 100 and something dollars for us to go
47:02
Speaker 19: to a decent hotel. And I had to do that
47:04
Speaker 19: for three months before we got our house.
47:08
Speaker 3: Next week, we'll talk to some people who know that
47:10
Speaker 3: struggle well when I sit down with seven working class
47:13
Speaker 3: Latino voters in Las Vegas, Nevada. Voters who may have
47:17
Speaker 3: supported Democrats in the past, but are much more up
47:19
Speaker 3: for grabs in November. I'll see you there. The Wilderness
47:39
Speaker 3: is an original podcast from Crooked Media. Season 3 is
47:42
Speaker 3: produced by Dust Light Productions. I'm your host, Jon Favreau.
47:46
Speaker 3: From Crooked Media, our executive producers are Sarah Geismar, Katie Long,
47:50
Speaker 3: and me. Special thanks to Allison Falsetta and Andy Taft
47:53
Speaker 3: for production support. And to Mike Kulishek from Benenson Strategy Group,
47:57
Speaker 3: who helped us with our focus groups. From Dust Light,
48:00
Speaker 3: our executive producer is Misha Youssef. Arwen Nix is our
48:03
Speaker 3: executive editor. Stephanie Cohn is the senior producer. Tamika Adams
48:07
Speaker 3: is the producer and Francesca Diaz is the assistant producer.
48:11
Speaker 3: This episode was sound designed by Francesca Diaz with help
48:14
Speaker 3: from Stephanie Cohn. Valentino Rivera is our senior engineer. Martin
48:17
Speaker 3: Fowler is the composer. Thanks to our development and operations
48:21
Speaker 3: coordinator at Dustlight, Rachel Garcia, and to Chrissy Marin for
48:24
Speaker 3: archival legal review. If you want to learn more about
48:27
Speaker 3: how you can take action in the fight for our democracy,
48:29
Speaker 3: head over to votesaveamerica.com slash midterms.