Columbus (AFP) - Emily Horace, Kate Koennecke and Raiden Sipes still don't know who will get their votes in next year's White House race -- but the university students know their ballots could be pivotal, and say they are taking the choice seriously.
In the 2020 contest pitting then-incumbent Donald Trump against Joe Biden, young voters helped put the Democrat in the Oval Office. But for 2024, early indications are not looking good for a repeat, activists and Democratic Party strategists warn.
The 80-year-old Biden, whose poll numbers are dismal, could lose a significant proportion of the youth vote, over everything from the economy to his position on the conflict between Israel and Hamas.
AFP met with several Ohio State University students in Columbus to take the temperature of young Americans in a key battleground state, one year from an election that looks like a Biden-Trump rematch.
Ohio, currently led by a Republican governor, tipped into Trump's column in 2016 and 2020. But last week, it voted to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution -- a victory for Democrats, much to the chagrin of conservatives.
Age and gas prices
Sipes, an 18-year-old studying astrophysics, describes himself as a centrist. So far, he does not know who he will choose in his first ever chance to vote for a president.
When asked if Biden could get his support, Sipes sighs and says: "I just don't think he's done enough."
The sitting president has repeatedly vaunted his brand of "Bidenomics," but Sipes remains unconvinced: "Gas prices have risen exponentially since he's been in office. That was the one that really got me."
As for Trump, Sipes says while he's not a fan of Trump on a personal level, he likes his policies and what he did for the world's largest economy, and could see himself ultimately voting for the Republican, "just because I'm looking at policies."
Horace, who is 20 and studying zoology, says she has always identified herself as a political independent, even if she tends to lean more to the left.
She says she regrets that her options are likely going to be two elderly white men, and wishes "someone younger" were running -- or "a person of color, or a woman."
Age is also a factor for 18-year-old chemistry major Lily O'Korn-Hughes.
Biden is an "old white man who knows he's old... he's aware of his shortcomings, which is nice, but it's also not the same as having other representation," she says.
O'Korn-Hughes, who lists abortion rights, gun control and health care as the most important issues for her, says she is just starting to study the policy positions of each candidate.
If 2024 ends up in a Trump-Biden rematch, she says she'll vote for Biden -- but admits she is still hoping another contender "will pull a little bit of an upset."
Ethics and respectability
Of the young voters AFP met in Ohio, Rachel Wade, a 27-year-old graduate student in communications, was one of the most decided.
"I definitely align... pretty consistently with Democrats," Wade says. "I would vote for Biden. It's pretty much a no brainer that that's where I will go next year."
She says she appreciates Biden's defense of abortion rights, his support of labor unions and his position on climate change.
Koennecke, who is 20, is open to voting for either party.
"If somebody like Trump were to be nominated, then I feel like I would just vote for Biden again," said Koennecke, a political science student.
She said Trump is unfit to lead the country "from a moral standpoint," pointing to his actions on January 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the Capitol in a deadly burst of violence.
But if the Republican Party were to choose another candidate "that was maybe more moderate," Koennecke said she might consider voting for that person.
Matthew Hartman, a 20-year-old information systems student, is voting Republican next year -- even if Trump is the candidate.
"I do respect how Joe Biden carries himself," Hartman says.
"But for me, it comes down to business. As much as I would love to see a respected, respectable president, I need the country to be led like a business so we can continue to be the best nation in the world."
