With Democrats "fired up" by Harris' candidacy, young people are now registering to vote in droves

"You just don’t see that sort of thing happen in elections normally,” one expert told CBS News

Published August 29, 2024 2:11PM (EDT)

"Vote" pins are displayed at a voter registration booth at the Jason Mraz concert at Pechanga Resort Casino on August 10, 2024 in Temecula, California. (Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
"Vote" pins are displayed at a voter registration booth at the Jason Mraz concert at Pechanga Resort Casino on August 10, 2024 in Temecula, California. (Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)

Vice President Kamala Harris' ascendance to the top of the ticket has shaken up the political landscape and resulted in a surge in voter registration among key Democratic voting blocs, Mediaite reported.

In a conversation earlier this week, CBS News’ Chief Washington Correspondent Major Garrett and Tom Bonier, a senior adviser at political data firm Target Smart, discussed the incredible increase in voter registration as compared with this time in 2020.

According to Target Smart, data show that registration is up 175.8% among young Black women; 149.7% among young Latinas; 98.4% among Black women overall; 85.8% among Black Americans generally; and 83.7% among young women as a whole.

“It’s incredibly unusual to see changes in voter registration that are anywhere close to this. I mean, there might be 175% is almost tripling of registration rates among this specific group,” Bonier noted. “You just don’t see that sort of thing happen in elections normally.”

Bonier noted that his firm began its analysis on July 21, "which is the day that President Biden announced that he’ll be withdrawing from the race and Kamala Harris announced her candidacy. And so that moment seems to be a potential tipping point in this race where we’re seeing suddenly Democrats saying, I’m fired up, I want to participate. And since then, you’ve seen Democrats out-registering Republicans.”


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