Charlamagne tha God said Democrats “dropped the ball” on tailoring their election message to young Americans, pointing specifically to the party’s response to the college campus protests of the war in Gaza last month.
In an interview on “The Young Turks,” a progressive online news commentary show, Charlamagne noted the youth vote’s large demographic and said he thinks the Biden campaign “would want to rally them to show up in November too.”
“But it’s going to be hard because of, you know, what’s happening in Gaza,” he continued. “What was going on on those college campuses was a real issue that I feel like, you know, Democrats dropped the ball on, in regards to, you know, how they were messaging to those young people.”
Charlamagne, who hosts his own SiriusXM show, has been critical of the Biden administration and of Democrats overall, despite his shared belief in the danger he says former President Trump poses.
While the Biden administration’s public positioning on Israel evolved as the college protests were ongoing, Biden’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself did not waver, even while increasing public pressure on Israel to reduce casualties in Gaza.
Biden faced several “uncommitted” or “noncommitted” votes in the Democratic primaries during this election cycle. In several states — including Michigan, Washington, Minnesota and Massachusetts — these protest votes against Biden were concentrated in areas with large youth populations.
The volume of uncommitted Democratic votes sparked concerns about the threat youth voters could pose to Biden’s reelection chances in November, especially as criticism of his position on Israel came increasingly under public scrutiny.
Charlamagne echoed those concerns.
“I don’t know how you flip that switch come November,” Charlamagne said about youth support for Biden. “Like when I see that, you know, throughout the country, you know, especially in Michigan, people voting, noncommitted for Biden, I don’t know how that mentality changes in November.”
Polls of youth voters, however, suggest Biden’s position on Israel and Gaza might not tank his youth support as much as some pundits might suggest.
A recent poll asked college students to rank their top three issues out of nine, and “the conflict in the Middle East” ranked last, with only 13 percent of college students ranking it in the top three.
The survey also showed only 7 percent of college students participated in the anti-Israel protests. Of the 93 percent who did not, only 34 percent said they supported the protests and 50 percent said they supported neither the pro-Israel nor anti-Israel protests.