Absentee voters?

Drew Spiegel has faced gun violence firsthand. Spiegel, now 19, was in the crowd at the 2022 Independence Day Parade in Highland Park, Ill., where a gunman opened fire, killing seven people and wounding 48 others. Even then, he noticed that older bystanders paused to look around, wondering if the popping noises came from fireworks. But Gen Z attendees like Spiegel immediately hid or fled—just like they’d been taught in their classrooms since kindergarten.

The Highland Park shooting galvanized Spiegel, propelling him into political activism, where he found common cause with a fellow Democrat named Sam Schwartz, whose cousin died in the Parkland school shooting in 2018.

“Gun violence is the No. 1 killer of young people in America,” Spiegel told me. “This is a very, very relevant issue and important to Gen Z. And it will be a huge reason why we turn out at the polls in such large numbers this year.”

Though the age range isn’t exact, demographers define Gen Z as those born between roughly 1997 and 2013. But if their past participation is predictive, they might not turn out in droves to vote in November, as Spiegel and Schwartz hope.

Schwartz, 20, admits his generation isn’t the most receptive and engaged audience. And getting young Democrats engaged in politics seems to be an uphill battle in which activists like Spiegel and Schwartz are exceptions and not the rule.

Take, for example, the recent event where I met them. The nationwide camper van tour they’d organized to stump on Gen Z issues stopped in a stadium parking lot in Frederick, Md., where the duo unfurled a banner in front of a Winnebago RV. With temperatures nearing 100 degrees, they handed out a few umbrellas for shade and erected a canopy over a table strewn with beads for making friendship bracelets. Around 2:30 p.m., people gathered at the makeshift stage in front of the banner, which read “Tour to Save Democracy: This summer, Gen-Z is fighting for the future we deserve.”

“We want leaders who choose our safety over self-­interest, morality over money, and decency over division,” Spiegel said in his introduction, wearing a black T-shirt with large block white letters that read “Run for something.” He roamed back and forth in front of the RV, speaking into a handheld microphone. “Our freedoms are rooted in our democracy, and our democracy is at stake in 2024.”

At a small podium bearing signs for local Maryland candidates, Schwartz summed up their goal. “Gen Z is the generation that has grown up hiding under our desks or dealing with this heat,” he said, referring to gun violence and climate change. “This is our future, and we’re not going to stand for it. That’s why we’re here today.”

But the people Spiegel and Schwartz are trying to reach were decidedly not there. Instead, their audience of roughly 50 consisted mostly of older retirees who’d learned about the event from local candidates and had that Wednesday afternoon free.

MOST ORGANIZING of young Democrats happens at high school and college party chapters—and on social media. The nonprofit groups that are focused on recruiting and training are mostly issues-based, a strategy that can fracture and dilute their overall influence on the party at large.

To fund their camper van tour, Spiegel and Schwartz set up an ActBlue fundraising page. Along the way, they contacted local and federal candidates, offering to let them speak at the rallies. But these young activists are not affiliated with any larger groups like College Democrats of America, the Democratic National Committee, or Young Democrats of America. Instead, they call themselves a purely grassroots organization, something they say is common on the left.

“There are so many Democratic groups that it doesn’t feel like this huge structured thing,” Schwartz said. “The Republicans might have a few huge groups, but on the Democratic side we have maybe millions of smaller ones, but they all get the work done.”

Online activism has become a primary outreach tool for young Democrats. Accounts on many of the most popular platforms, like TikTok, tend to trend left. Sohali Vaddula, a sophomore at Brown University, is the national communications director for College Democrats of America (CDA). She also manages the group’s social media presence. Since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris took up the mantle, Vaddula says online engagement has skyrocketed.

“We were always walking this tightrope of how far do we go to criticize him while still supporting him,” Vaddula said of Biden. “I remember the day of the presidential debate and everyone was so disappointed within our organization. People were discouraged to even mobilize for Biden. It was the point where we knew we were going to lose anyway, so what are we doing here? But now it’s different.”

Still, social media likes and comments don’t necessarily translate to votes. According to data from Tufts University, roughly 41 million Gen Z voters are eligible to cast ballots in November. But during the last presidential election in 2020, less than 40 percent of eligible Gen Z voters registered—the lowest share among all age groups. Since the 2022 midterms, 8 million new Gen Z voters have come of voting age.

Despite this growth, the national party offers little structural support for young Democrats, something Vaddula said her team is working to change. While CDA is a formal arm of the DNC, it does not receive monetary support or training materials. Until recently, it did not even get meetings with national Democratic leaders.

“We’ve been doing our own outreach, trying to get our own contacts,” Vaddula said. “We like to think of ourselves as an asset to the DNC, but I guess sometimes the DNC doesn’t understand.”

Vaddula admitted that College Democrats has struggled with unreliable voting engagement and interpersonal squabbles that frustrated DNC organizers in the past. Still, she insists the group has a role to play.

“The election is happening in less than 100 days, and they need our support more than ever,” Vaddula said. “We have over 200 chapters out there that are ready to mobilize, but they don’t really know what to do.”

Other Democratic-leaning organizations are focused on issues and not necessarily on electing candidates. The Sunrise Movement promotes climate change policies and environmental issues. March for Our Lives, led by Parkland survivor David Hogg, supports gun control reforms. Gen Z for Change, known as TikTok for Biden during the 2020 campaign, runs get out the vote initiatives and stumps for progressive causes like abortion access, a cease-fire in Gaza, and unions. Voters of Tomorrow, a progressive Gen Z–led nonprofit, has college chapters in just 20 states.

Back in Maryland, 20-year-old Tyson Thompson was one of the few Gen Zers at the rally not working for the tour or a candidate. The Maryland native found out about the event on Instagram. While we talked, he strung a bracelet with multicolored beads that spelled “VOTE.” Thompson will cast his first federal ballot in November, and now, he said, he’s excited about the prospect.

“There wasn’t a lot of energy with the Biden campaign, and it kind of seems stale,” Thompson said. “And so I think from states where there’s contending, you know, state-level elections, I think Kamala has brought a new energy.”