Can she win? That’s the question swirling around Vice President Kamala Harris as she moves toward clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, one day after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid. One reason to think she might, as Scott Waldman and I write today, is Harris’ potential for winning back the bloc of young voters who have soured on Biden. One of the big reasons recent polls showed former President Donald Trump ahead of Biden is the drop in young people supporting the Democratic ticket. Voters under 30 backed Biden by more than 20 points in the last election. But this year, poll after poll showed young voters equally split between Trump and Biden, or even breaking for the Republican. There’s reason to believe Harris could woo them back. Harris once endorsed the Green New Deal, supported a fracking ban and sued oil companies as California’s attorney general. Those positions, if she stuck with them as the nominee, would get a big welcome from climate activists — and by young voters, who rank climate change as among their top concerns. And then there’s Gaza Harris’ stance on a completely different issue could also help her with young, climate-minded voters: her record on Israel. Biden’s support for Israel's war in Gaza, along with his denunciation of college protests calling for a cease-fire, has alienated the youth-heavy green groups that in 2020 helped power his campaign to victory. Harris, on the other hand, has been seen as more critical of Israel. She called for a cease-fire before Biden did, and she has emphasized the “humanitarian catastrophe” facing civilians in Gaza. “The Venn diagram of young people who want climate action and young people who want a cease-fire is basically a circle,” said Elise Joshi, executive director of Gen Z for Change. Then again, Harris now faces a challenge she didn’t as Biden’s vice president: laying out her own positions on how she would address the war, including military aid to Israel and the effort to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. Climate advocates also complain about Biden’s pro-oil moves, such as last year’s approval for Chevron’s mammoth Willow project in Alaska. That has overshadowed Biden’s other climate accomplishments, such as signing the biggest package of renewable energy spending in U.S. history. Hitting the reset button? The rhetorical differences between Biden and Harris could offer enough space, climate advocates say, for youth-oriented groups to reset their relationship with the Democratic presidential campaign. Climate hawks have broadly welcomed Harris’ elevation, Timothy Cama reports, with Evergreen Action; Climate Power; and Gina McCarthy, Biden’s former climate adviser, endorsing her for president. Other green groups praised Biden’s record without explicitly weighing in on his successor. The Sunrise Movement, the group of young climate activists that has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the Biden team, has reacted to the rise of Harris by touting her past climate positions and vowing to organize against Trump. The group is scheduled to hold a mass call with its members tonight. The parts of Harris’ energy record that play well with climate voters could prove more tricky in swing states with big fossil fuel sectors, like the fracking hotbed of Pennsylvania, as Heather Richards and Brian Dabbs report. But the same states have also actively sought a slice of the billions of dollars in new clean energy and infrastructure spending championed by the Biden administration. The campaign may now see a "stepped-up emphasis on climate policy,” ClearView Energy Partners said in a research note Sunday, “as a way to reinvigorate support from the under-30 voters whose turnout could potentially decide closely contested swing states.”
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