'Is this what hope feels like?' Young delegates at DNC energised by Harris-Walz ticket

Young Democrats say attitudes towards the election have transformed from doom and gloom to joyful enthusiasm

A delegate attends the first day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Centre in Chicago. Getty Images / AFP

Live updates: Follow the latest on the US election

For younger Democratic delegates, the 2024 National Convention would not have had nearly as much excitement if President Joe Biden were still at top of the ticket.

“Being a young Democrat means being joyful,” David Seaton, who says he is one of the youngest delegates to attend the convention in Chicago representing the state of Massachusetts, told The National.

“We have been a party that has been demoralised for a long time … but now we have a candidate for the first time in a few years, who really is energising and motivating us to get out there and support.”

The youth vote has been an important demographic for the Democratic Party.

Since the rainbow coalition that brought former president Barack Obama into office, voters under the age of 30 have been a reliably Democratic voting block.

But this summer, polling from Pew Research showed the demographic moving towards Republicans.

Mr Biden's historic decision to step aside, and Vice President Kamala Harris taking up the mantle as the Democratic candidate for president, appears to have reversed that growing trend.

An Axios poll shows that Ms Harris is “significantly more popular among America’s youngest voters”.

And her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appears to have helped.

“The day that Governor Walz was added for the ticket one of my best friends texted me, and she was like, Is this what hope feels like?” Kati Durken, the vice president of Young Democrats for America, told The National outside a gathering of young delegates.

Ms Durken organises young Democrats “anywhere west of New Mexico”.

And with Ms Harris now leading the ticket, she said: “Young people are going to deliver this election."

“I think there's a lot of folks who were not motivated to come to the polls previously, who are now feeling that motivation to go out to vote for somebody who looks like them; vote for somebody who just gives them the energy of the next generation of leadership,” Ms Durken said.

There was a palpable electricity at the gathering of young Democratic delegates.

Some entered wearing “Cowboys for Kamala” sashes and Western hats. Others could be heard chanting as speakers highlighted the party platform on issues such as abortion, housing costs and workers' unions.

Forty-eight per cent of US adults have a very or somewhat favourable view of Ms Harris, according to a new poll from the Associated Press-Norc Centre for Public Affairs Research.

That is up from 39 per cent at the start of the summer, even before the fateful debate between Donald Trump and Mr Biden that ultimately led to the Democratic President dropping out of the race.

Weeks ago, Matt Royer, the president of Virginia Young Democrats, was worried.

With Mr Biden leading the ticket, Virginia was “a toss-up” state, which was particularly concerning for its Democratic Senator Tim Kaine and other down-ballot candidates in the party.

“With Vice President Harris on top of the ticket, we're now saying that that has flipped completely. We're now leading the polls against the Republican on the Senate side,” Mr Royer told The National.

Gregor Sharp is the regional overseas director of College Democrats for America.

Representing US voters abroad has its unique challenges – they have a more complicated and time-consuming process of enrolling and registering to cast their ballots.

“I know a lot of people who are at my university campus at the University of Glasgow [in Scotland] who were completely planning to just not vote at all,” Mr Sharp said.

“A lot of my friends who once complained to me about Joe Biden running for office are more than happy and more than receptive to actually registering to vote and actually getting out to vote in this upcoming election abroad, internationally.”