Some of Chicago’s young voters talk 2024 presidential election at the DNC
ABC News
(CHICAGO) — Perhaps no demographic group has had more ink spilled about it this election year than young voters. Traditionally a Democratic group, 18- to 29-year-olds soured on Joe Biden’s presidency faster than many other groups — and that was before the war between Israel and Hamas touched off protests on college campuses and alienated young voters from Biden even further.
However, with Vice President Kamala Harris replacing Biden as the Democratic nominee, young voters seem to have returned to the Democratic fold. According to an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll from Aug. 9-13, registered voters under age 40 supported Harris over former President Donald Trump 57% to 37%. By contrast, in the previous ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, they supported Biden over Trump just 46% to 44%.
Of course, polls can tell us who voters support, but not necessarily why. So while in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention, we convened a panel of three young voters — one liberal, one moderate and one conservative — to see how they were thinking about the 2024 election.
Two of them said they were likely to vote for Harris, while one was likely to vote for Trump, mirroring young voters overall. Among the reasons they gave included the candidates’ economic plans, high prices, health care, crime and the war in Gaza. Interestingly, all three panelists cited the economy as one of the most important factors to their vote — just as polls show that the economy is the top issue for young voters nationwide — but that didn’t always lead them to the same conclusions.
Before Biden dropped out of the race, both panelists we interviewed said they were likely to support him, but they were feeling much better about supporting the Democratic ticket now that Harris is headlining it. This mirrors a spike in enthusiasm among Democratic voters that has shown up in poll after poll since Biden’s withdrawal.
All three panelists also hailed from Chicago, and they weighed in on what it meant to them that the Windy City was once again hosting a DNC and whether anything they heard at the convention could change their votes.
Although young voters are usually only a small slice of the electorate, they are an important part of the Democratic coalition, so any drop in support among them could be a problem for Democrats. Our discussion shed some light on how these voters are approaching the 2024 election.
Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) holds a campaign rally at Radford University on July 22, 2024 in Radford, Va. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The same week Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly minted running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are set to go on tour, hitting the battleground states in five days, vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance will be on their tail.
Vance will also conduct his own blitz in several of the battleground states, closely mirroring Harris’ campaign schedule for this week.
Vance, Harris and Walz will visit Pennsylvania on Tuesday — hours after Harris’ big running mate announcement.
The trio will visit Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday before that all head to North Carolina on Thursday.
Since being announced as former President Donanld Trump’s running mate three weeks ago, Vance has hit the ground running and has already made campaign stops in most of the battleground states.
But instead of holding traditional campaign events, Vance will use his events this week to speak to the media and is expected to use his time to attack Harris on several policy fronts, including immigration and the economy.
It’s likely Vance will also attack Walz — after the Ohio senator claimed Harris’ choice of Walz highlights how “radical” the vice president is.
“Obviously, the big news of the day is that Tim Walz has been nominated as the VP or is now the presumptive nominee, I should say, for Kamala Harris. My view on it is it just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is,” Vance said on Tuesday ahead of his rally in Pennsylvania.
Asked by ABC News if he had been in contact with Walz, Vance said he called Walz but the governor didn’t answer, so he left a voicemail.
“I didn’t get him, but I just said, ‘Look, congratulations. Look forward to a robust conversation and enjoy the ride,’ And maybe he’ll call me back, maybe he won’t,” Vance said.
In a Trump campaign fundraising email following Harris’ announcement, Vance wrote, “I HAVE THREE WORDS FOR TIM WALZ: Bring. It. On.” The email’s subject is “I will wipe the floor with Tim Walz.”
Vance has made it clear since being announced as Trump’s running mate that he would like to debate whoever the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee is.
“I really don’t care who it is,” Vance said of Harris’ running mate before the selection of Walz. “Certainly, I think we should debate. I’d love to have a robust debate. I expect that we will.”
Democrats are already pushing back against Vance’s upcoming visit to some of the battleground states, attacking him and Trump.
“JD Vance’s visit to our state will only serve as a reminder of Donald Trump’s long record of failures and broken promises,” Wisconsin Democratic Coordinated Campaign Rapid Response Director Kristi Johnston said in a statement on Monday.
(JACKSONVILLE, FL) — There’s a political storm brewing on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, just outside of Jacksonville.
A voter guide falsely purporting to show a slate of endorsements by the local Republican party hit mailboxes in St. John’s County, sowing confusion just as the primary was about to kick off this month.
The latest salvo in what many say is already an overheated election cycle, the incident has brought attention to an intra-party slugfest being waged inside the local GOP, amid a fight for the future of how — and how fast — development should proceed in the area around historic St. Augustine.
“I saw the card, and I’m like, this is a real issue,” St. John’s County GOP Chair Denver Cook told ABC News. “I was in shock. I’m dealing with one of probably the most flagrant frauds on voters — the day before early voting. It became an instant train wreck.”
On the eve of the first ballots being cast last Friday, as the mysterious mailers began spreading, Cook said his phone began blowing up with perplexed messages.
According to Cook, the glossy handout had a thickness, color scheme and font like the official voter guides put out by the local Republican party in June. And though it purported to be the “official 2024 membership-approved endorsements” of the county Republican party, it had a very different list of candidates from the ones the party had announced support for.
The new mailers also lacked any legal disclaimers explaining who paid for them, Cook said. And in pictures of the envelope that one of the fake mailers came in, which were reviewed by ABC News, the postmark was dated Aug. 7 — timed to arrive just in time for Aug. 10th’s early voting.
Cook, who is also running for St. John’s clerk of courts and comptroller, didn’t know how widely the phony cards were sent, but one thing was clear: In this predominantly Republican area, whoever won the primary would likely be the victor in November.
“That’s why there’s such a fight,” Diane Scherff, president of local political action committee “Trump Club of St. John’s County” said.
“It is the battle for the soul of St John’s County,” said Scherff, whose PAC endorsed a list of candidates in the spring that bucks the local GOP’s.
So, the urgent question: Where did this pamphlet come from?
‘I wish I knew’
“I never thought anyone would go that far in the dirty trick universe,” Cook told ABC News. “When we’re talking about tight races, any illegal mailer like this claiming to be from the county party could alter elections.”
Cook says he has asked law enforcement to investigate the fraudulent pamphlets — and that he would pursue legal action against those responsible.
“Whoever did this knows the rules,” Cook said. “There’s a level of sophistication to this that isn’t cheap.”
Florida’s Republican party chairman, Evan Power, said in a statement that they “are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating.”
“No Florida voter should be misled by anonymous, phony groups pretending to speak for the GOP,” Power said.
Long before the mailers appeared, the St. John’s primary had already stirred up bad blood over the question of who truly champions Republican policies and principles. At issue: the speed of local land development in one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most influential areas, awash in campaign cash and high-dollar real estate deals.
Some local party Republicans criticize others for being in developers’ pockets; the other Republicans say their opponents are faux-conservative and accuse them of being Democrats in GOP clothing.
“Our local party has been taken over by Democrats, and Republicans using Democrats help to take a shortcut,” said Jamie Parham, vice chair of the St. John’s GOP board of directors. “If they’re MAGA, they should be supporting the people that Trump supports.”
Cook pushes back against jabs like that.
“I am a Republican, I support President Trump’s campaign, I have supported his past campaigns, and as chair of the St. John’s County GOP I continue to fight for the platform of our party,” he said.
While local party officials had thrown their weight behind a slate of candidates that included several challengers to the current incumbents, the Trump Club of St. John’s mostly endorsed the incumbent candidates.
Then Trump himself, in an early morning Truth Social post last week, endorsed three incumbent county commission members from the Trump Club’s list.
It was recognition that Scherff said she’d been seeking for years.
“I was so happy, after all the work I’ve done,” said Scherff. “I thought that would be all we needed.”
But the fake voter guides, printed with the official GOP banner, threw the race into turmoil: The guide’s endorsements were nearly identical to the slate of candidates endorsed by groups like the Trump Club.
Scherff said the resulting controversy enveloped the race — and that she had no idea where the bogus guides came from.
“I wish I knew, because then I could say to people, stop blaming me,” she said, worrying that the controversy has cast doubt on Trump’s support and undermined any momentum her group had.
“It’s been taken away,” she said. “As quick as I got it, it’s gone.”
On Saturday, the last day of early voting, Trump reiterated his support for the same candidates in another Truth Social post.
‘Freedom to speak out’
The back-and-forth has grown so contentious that at one point a sitting county commissioner faced criminal prosecution for raising the upcoming election at a meeting.
Krista Joseph, the county commissioner for St. John’s District 4, describes herself as an often-lone dissenting voice on the five-person governing body.
“I’m definitely a thorn in their side. I’ve voted with them when I think it’s right, but I don’t look at this as winning and losing. I’m representing,” Joseph said. “It’s not that I’m anti-development; I’m anti what they’re doing to develop.”
Joseph is not up for reelection this year — but last November, at a commissioners’ board meeting, she wanted to remind everyone who was.
Joseph told members of the public that if they’re “sick of the traffic” and “overcrowding in schools” and if they’re concerned that that “developers are controlling the boards,” they had a choice coming up.
“There’s hope,” Joseph said from the dais. “Less than nine months, we have an election.”
Several commissioners whose seats would be up were sitting with Joseph as she spoke.
In a 4-1 vote less than a month later, the board censured Joseph, led by two of the incumbents who would go on to seek reelection — both of whom would be endorsed by the Trump Club, and Trump.
Outside counsel decided Joseph had violated election law by speaking out during a meeting, and noted the matter could be referred to local prosecutors for possible criminal charges, according to court documents.
After a monthslong legal battle, U.S. District Judge Harvey Schlesinger ruled in Joseph’s favor, finding her First Amendment right to free speech was protected, even at a county meeting.
“Simply because a person is an elected official, such as a County Commissioner, this rightful freedom to speak out so as to inform the electorate cannot be restricted,” Judge Schlesinger wrote in his July 10 decision granting a preliminary injunction. “The threatened prosecution is chilling Commissioner Joseph’s political speech in the last months of the primary election when this speech is most meaningful.”
‘Different factions’
“The local Republican party has been splitting off into different factions,” explains incumbent commissioner Christian Whitehurst.
Whitehurst, who has been endorsed for reelection by the Trump Club and the former president, said he wants to make sure local government can keep up with all the development.
“It’s virtually impossible to stop all the growth,” Whitehurst said. “We have a lot of people moving into not just St. John’s County but the state of Florida. Of course with the sharp increase in growth comes the challenge to keep up in terms of infrastructure and services.”
His primary challenger, Ann-Marie Evans — who was endorsed by the local GOP — criticizes Whitehurst on her campaign website as overseeing “the most overdeveloped area” and “STILL approving new homes by the thousands.”
“I am not opposed to all growth; I am opposed to exponential growth that does not keep pace with the need for infrastructure,” Evans’ site says.
Whitehurst says characterizing him as in cahoots with developers is unfair. “We have voted to deny many projects,” he said.
Whitehurst said he does not know who was behind the fake voter guides, and condemned “any attempt to mislead anybody.”
Parham, of the St. John’s GOP board, said it wouldn’t make sense for the current officeholders to be involved.
“It doesn’t benefit the incumbents if they sent it, because then they’re the bad guy for committing election fraud,” he said.
But Parham also decries the official endorsements made by his own local party.
“The Republican Party should not endorse candidates in the primary,” Parham said. “As a voter, you should figure out which group you most identify with, and that should be your voter guide.”
ABC News’ Will Steakin and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Project 2025, a 922-page playbook of controversial policy proposals intended to guide the next conservative administration, is gaining attention as the presidential election campaigns heat up.
Project 2025 has been authored by at least two dozen members of Donald Trump’s administration and allies, organized by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and is backed by more than 100 additional groups.
Democrats say the plan is a warning of what is to come under a second Trump term, while Trump has tried to distance himself from the policy proposals: “They are extreme, seriously extreme,” said Trump in a July 20 rally. “I don’t know anything about it. I don’t want to know anything about it.”
Project 2025 officials told ABC News that it does “not speak for any candidate or campaign.” However, Trump’s official campaign plan called Agenda47 aligns with several proposals in Project 2025.
So, what is in Project 2025?
Some of Project 2025’s goals
The project suggests disbanding federal agencies like the Department of Education — an idea Trump has supported — and the Department of Homeland Security. It recommends privatizing others, including the Transportation Security Agency, and would expand presidential control over the executive branch.
“The modern conservative president’s task is to limit, control and direct the executive branch on behalf of the American people,” the project reads in its first section titled, “Taking the Reins of Government.”
On health care, the project recommends withdrawing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market and stopping the drug from being mailed, eliminating mandated insurance coverage for the week-after pill, prohibit funding for patients traveling across state lines for reproductive health care and prohibit funding for health care centers that provide abortions.
Additionally, the project suggests that the Department of Health and Human Services should “maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.”
On climate change, Project 2025 suggests cutting federal money for research and investment in renewable energy, and instead calls for the next president to “stop the war on oil and natural gas.”
The project aims to repeal and eliminate preventive climate change initiatives. The project calls for replacing carbon-reduction goals to instead increase the use of fossil fuel energy production and “energy security.”
This aligns with Trump’s official Agenda47, in which Trump said he plans to make America the “No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world.”
On economics, the proposals recommend cutting and restricting the use of food stamps and social welfare programs, creating more eligibility requirements for Medicaid, creating a two-rate individual tax system of 15% and 30%, reducing the corporate income tax rate, cutting rates for high-income investors and canceling federal student loan forgiveness programs.
On housing, the project recommends that it reverse several Biden administration policies, including the Housing Supply Fund, which states that it provides funding and low-income housing tax credits to “address market gaps, increase housing supply and help to stabilize housing prices over the long term … [and] remove barriers to affordable housing development.”
It also would remove Biden-backed programs aimed at addressing housing discrimination, including the Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity program and affirmatively furthering fair housing.
Trump’s Agenda47 broadly calls for new home construction, tax incentives and cutting housing regulation.
On diversity, the project proposes eliminating several terms from “every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists” including: “sexual orientation,” “gender,” “gender equality,” “gender awareness,” “gender-sensitive” “abortion,” “reproductive health,” “reproductive rights,” “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and more.
On immigration, the project advocates for immediately deporting unaccompanied children, increased funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, for the implementation of fees for asylum seekers and speedier processing at a premium price, pause funding for nongovernmental immigration groups and more.
Project 2025 also advocates for a “merit-based immigration system,” and urges the next president to get rid of the existing employment visa process, the family-based chain migration process and lottery systems, replacing it with a system “to award visas only to the best and brightest.”
In Trump’s Agenda47, he states he plans on carrying out “the largest deportation operation in American history” as well as reinstated Trump-era policies including increased focus on the border wall.
On education, the document calls for increased school choice and parental control over schools — limiting federal school accountability and encouraging every parent to direct their child’s share of public education funding “to choose a set of education options that meet their child’s unique needs” — which has been embraced by several conservative leaders through ESA programs.
It also bars public education employees from using a name or pronoun other than what is listed on a student’s birth certificate without a parent’s permission, and it would not require a school employee to use a name or pronoun for someone “that does not match a person’s biological sex if contrary to the employee’s or contractor’s religious or moral convictions.”
Trump similarly backs school choice policies, eliminating tenure for teachers, defund schools that “promote gender transition,” and plans to “promote love of country” in education.
He also states on his website that he plans to sue large private universities and “use that money to endow a new institution called the American Academy.”
Separately, the project recommends that pornography be “outlawed” and criminalize its distribution.
Is Trump tied to Project 2025?
While Trump has said that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, several of the former president’s current and former advisers and appointees have authored or supported the project.
They include:
Christopher Miller — who served as Acting Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the President under Trump — is credited with the project’s Department of Defense recommendations.
Ben Carson — who served as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Trump — is credited with the project’s (HUD) recommendations.
Brendan Carr — who was appointed to serve as a member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — is credited with the project’s FCC recommendations.
Adam Candeub — who served under the Trump administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information — is credited with the project’s Federal Trade Commission recommendations
Bernard L. McNamee — who was nominated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Trump — is credited with recommendations on the Department of Energy and Related Commissions.
Additionally, the RNC platform committee’s policy director, Russ Vough, authored a portion of the Project 2025 plan.
The RNC platform committee’s Deputy Policy Director Ed Martin is also president of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, which is listed on the project’s advisory board.
Others connected to Trump, including Trump’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women appointee Lisa Correnti, are listed among the contributors.
Some conservatives are distancing themselves from Project 2025, including former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who is requesting the removal of his organization, America First Legal, from the website’s list of advisory board members, sources familiar with the situation told ABC News.
However, Trump’s official Agenda47 and the proposals uplifted by the Republican National Committee align in part with some of Project 2025’s goals.
President Joe Biden’s campaign has used Project 2025 in its efforts to motivate voters away from Trump.
“Project 2025 is the plan by Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies to give Trump more power over your daily life, gut democratic checks and balances, and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins,” Biden’s campaign states on its website.
ABC News’ Will Steakin and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.
