Harris’ hotties, a wall of weirdos, and 2025 condoms: How the DNC is courting Gen Z

fiveOther enthusiasms in the Biden era always seem to skew Republican. Trump’s seemingly endless campaign and rallies often feel like a road show or a never-ending rock tour, with a group of die-hard fans following him from town to town, camping out at every event to sit in the front row.

Biden, meanwhile, has often struggled to draw large crowds anywhere other than the union halls and labor conventions where he frequently travels.

The 46th president is eschewing traditional campaign rallies because the young people who typically make up the screaming crowds at Democratic political events have little appetite for rallies hosted by the 81-year-old politician, according to a Biden campaign staffer who requested anonymity to avoid being fired for speaking to reporters without permission.

The staff member told The Independent Before Biden dropped out, expectations for the convention “could not have been lower.” But with Harris as a candidate, they say it will be completely different.

They said: “We thought it was going to be a funeral, but instead we saw a Taylor Swift concert.”

Indeed, late Tuesday, it felt particularly apt to compare Swift’s tour to the blockbuster Time tour. The Independent Attended a post-convention party hosted by a group called Tomorrow’s Voters.

Dubbed “Hotties for Harris,” the event was billed as a “creators’ party” designed to inspire the Gen Z influencers who flocked to the conference to create pro-Harris content.

Attendees were greeted by theme-matching décor designed to drum up enthusiasm for their votes, including a “Hotties Hall” wall adorned with photos of prominent Democrats and a corresponding “Weirdo Wall” depicting the various classes of Trump World.

The crowd there — which seemed to number several hundred — moved between a main room with a bar, stage and dance floor and other rooms decorated with different themes.

One space is set up like a typical living room from a bygone era, with wood-paneled walls, a sofa and a statue of Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who has been called “the most embarrassing man in America.”

Another room is set up as a store, with an assortment of custom signage meant to convey a frantic “ultimatum,” clearance-sale vibe, where the product in question is young people’s reproductive freedom.

One sign read: “Free Sex! All Sold Out,” while another warned: “Freedom is Ending.” Below the signs were shelves filled with free emergency contraception pills and condoms, with custom print on the packaging that read “Fuck Project 2025.”

Over music played by a succession of performers, an announcer exhorted the audience to get out and vote or risk rolling back the sexual revolution ushered in by Trump.

“We’re not going to lose our rights in this election… We can fuck whoever we want,” they said, to cheers from the dance floor.

A party organizer told The Independent The event, which took only about a week to prepare, was in response to the strong support for the Harris-Waltz combination among Generation Z voters.

It’s not unusual in Democratic circles to have so many young people at a nominating convention, but until Harris became a candidate, it was unclear whether that could be accomplished in 2024.

Young voters did support Biden in the 2020 pandemic campaign, but the excitement of driving Trump out of the White House turned to disappointment and dissatisfaction with the oldest president in American history. Combined with concerns about Biden’s age and tensions over U.S. support for Israel’s war on Hamas, it remains an open question whether enough young people will support Democrats to win the November election.

no longer.

According to a poll released Tuesday by Voter of Tomorrow, Generation Z voters in battleground states prefer Harris to Trump, 54% to 22%. More than half, 53%, say they have a favorable impression of Harris, while 44% have a favorable impression of Waltz. Just 29% say they have a favorable impression of Trump, while 60% have an unfavorable view of him.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the millennial who was chosen as Trump’s running mate last month, fared just as badly, with 17% of Zoomers viewing him favorably and 52% viewing him unfavorably.

But perhaps more importantly, the Voter Tomorrow poll showed that Zoom users were at least somewhat likely to vote overwhelmingly — 48% said they were “almost certainly” going to vote, another 19% said they were “very likely” to vote, and 14% said they were “somewhat likely” voters. That’s a sharp turnaround from last month’s poll, which showed that young voters were not enthusiastic about voting for Biden.

In the chamber, the shift was palpable.

Harris’s candidacy at the top of the list has not only sparked interest among young voters, but also an energy throughout the party that hasn’t been seen since a young, first-term senator, Barack Obama, filled Denver’s Mercer Stadium on the final day of the 2008 convention.

Cavalier Johnson, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who came to Chicago as part of the Badger State delegation, told The Independent In a phone interview, he said the atmosphere at the DNC was in stark contrast to what happened in his city last month.

“What we saw from Vice President Harris and Governor Walz was unity among Democrats, there was joy in the room, there was hope in the room, there was optimism in the room, there was unity in the room,” he said.

He added that the atmosphere at the delegation breakfasts and other events he attended was “very energetic and very exciting.”

Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, was more impressed with the feeling in Chicago and what happened in the weeks after Biden’s exit.

“President Biden has taken this extraordinary, selfless step to withdraw the presidential nomination and pass the torch, which has generated unprecedented excitement and enthusiasm across the political spectrum,” he said.

“We have voters coming out of the shadows who told us they would not participate in this election and are now volunteering to help win it,” he added. “On campus, students are returning to a political environment where positive social pressure is sweeping high schools and colleges across Wisconsin and the nation. In rural Wisconsin, we have volunteers coming out of the shadows, picking up yard signs that have yet to be printed, and signing up shift after shift to knock on doors.”

Ashley Etienne, a senior member of Biden’s 2020 campaign and former White House communications aide, also said that what she has witnessed since Biden dropped out of the race is unprecedented in her experience.

“When Barack Obama ran, there was overwhelming enthusiasm for him. But I’ve never seen anything like this. This far exceeds anything Barack Obama could have accomplished,” she said.

“Democrats are passionate. They’re excited about the possibilities,” she added.

When Harris made a surprise appearance on the opening night stage at the United Center midway through Monday’s show, “The House That Jordan Built” was full of energy, with Chicago Bulls veteran and Olympic gold medal-winning head coach Steve Kerr drawing comparisons to the days when he and the Bulls dominated the NBA.

“A lot of good things happened here, especially in the 90s … there was an amazing atmosphere in the stadium back then, and I felt the same winning spirit here tonight,” he said.