It appears there may be a mutiny among President Joe Biden’s army of TikTok influencers. Earlier this year, it was revealed that the White House was partnering with various TikTokers and other social media figures to aid in the president’s reelection effort and to promote the administration’s policies to younger voters.
It seemed like a match made in heaven. Then, Hamas decided to foul everything up by launching a vicious and bloody attack on Israel on October 7. Now, the Jewish state is currently engaged in a strong counteroffensive against the terrorist group, and the situation on the ground is expected to become even more intense.
Once Israel began its retaliation against Hamas shortly after the initial massacre, the anti-Israel crowd came out of the woodwork and began demanding a ceasefire. Despite Biden’s initial support and defense for Israel, forces on the hard left are pressuring him to ease up on his backing of the Jewish state. Gen-Z for Change, a group previously known as TikTok for Biden, has teamed up with other leftist groups to pen a public letter to the president, urging him to reverse his stance on the Israel/Hamas war.
The letter starts out with the authors touting themselves as “a diverse group of leaders, spanning race, class, and geography” and noting that they “mobilized the record youth turnout in 2020 that pushed your ticket over the finish line in key swing states.”
The authors then argue that Biden should cool it on the Israel support or risk losing younger voters.
We share your conviction that the 2024 election will be one of the most important in American history. We write to you to issue a very stark and unmistakable warning: you and your Administration’s stance on Gaza risks millions of young voters staying home or voting third party next year. We are pleading with you to use every tool available to you to broker a ceasefire, now, and to revive the peace process.
The young activists again highlight the importance of younger voters, noting that “there is no way for a Democratic presidential nominee to win without significant youth voter enthusiasm and mobilization.”
We did not spend hours upon hours knocking doors and making calls to turn out the vote so that you could support indiscriminate slaughter of civilians and violations of international law. We fear that it will not be possible for those committed to turning out the youth vote this election to recruit the volunteers, organizers, staff, and donors needed to deliver the margins for Democratic victory down the ballot. Young people across the country are terrified, we are grieving, and we need to see the Biden administration stand up against all human rights violations.
I’ll give you one guess as to what was missing from the letter.
If you guessed “any condemnation or mention of Hamas,” you win a cigar. However, it did include data coming from polls analyzing young voters’ attitudes toward the war:
The polls reflect what we are seeing in our communities and organizations over the last month:
According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, young voters are deeply disturbed by your position on the war. Amongst voters under 35, 65% oppose “sending more military aid to Israel and only 22% approve of your handling of the Israel/Hamas war”.
The same poll found your favorability rating among voters under 35 has fallen to just 25%. While young people are particularly opposed to handing the Israeli military a blank check, 80% of Democrats and 66% of all likely voters support a ceasefire.
In Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin the number of Muslim and Arab voters exceeds the margins you won by; your pollster Lake Research Partners found that support for your administration has “cratered among Muslim, Arab, and young Democrats in Michigan”, a state you won by only 150,000 votes in 2020. Now, just 61% of Michigan Democrats under 30 support your re-election, with 21% opting to vote third party.
While the data the groups cite could be accurate, would Biden be wise to heed the advice coming from his loyal allies in the TikTok brigade? After all, exactly how much influence do these individuals have? According to a Pew Research study conducted last year, an increasing percentage of youths are getting their news from the video-sharing platform. Among other indications, the study showed that about 26 percent of adults under 30 years of age regularly get news from the app. That’s quite a significant chunk, but still not the majority.
Nevertheless, it is clear that a large number of younger voters are not on board with Biden’s approach to Israel. The question is: Will this be an important enough issue for them to vote against the president next year?