Clear young people are not just single issue voters. There are so many issues that affect young peoples lives and they view them all intersectionally. When trump was elected, it was clear all the things we care about were at stake, not just the future of the climate, and it was irresponsible to vote on one issue. America encompasses every issue you could imagine. Host is your organization tied to former candidate tom steyer . Guest thats right, tom steyer is our founder and a key funder. Host as far as joe biden or the Vice President is concerned, how do you think he is doing currently reaching out to young people . Guest joe biden is actually doing well with young people in the polls, up somewhere between 25 and 30 points, much better than Hillary Clinton was doing with young folks at this stage in 2016. It is interesting the question is about reaching out. He is not necessarily the best messenger the Biden Campaign has for Younger Generations. We know he didnt win the primary with the support of many young people, but he has a whole slew of activists, allies, and experts who have a much more authentic relationship with the youth, everything from former candidates like Bernie Sanders and elizabeth warren, who did get a lot support from young people, who are talking to young people every day on behalf of the Biden Campaign, but also through celebrities and instagram influencers. Most importantly, other young people in their own communities are starting to reach out. We are seeing the Trump Campaign is not abandoning young voters. They are spending a lot of money on digital ads trying to reach young people. Hopefully the Biden Campaign will continue to deploy surrogates and ratchet up their spending, targeting young people, and persuading them to cast their ballots. Host aside from deploying surrogates, whats the message to a young voter . What does joe biden have to talk about or at least emphasize . Guest one of the things that has been incredible to see is that he is actually listening to young people. Joe biden is an empathetic leader. He built his whole career on meeting with regular americans and actually hearing what they have to say and changing the policies that will actually affect their lives, so what we have seen is joe biden meeting with those Bernie Sanders and other folks like that and saying, i am going to strengthen my policy platform to be more progressive to reach young people. We have already seen him speed up the timeline to transition to clean energy, we have seen him put pressure on states to end cash bail, we have seen him make his Health Care Policy a little bit more expansive to cover more people. And young people can really believe joe biden was listening to me. Based on our preferences, he made his platform stronger. And now once we get him in the white house, we continue to put the pressure on and ensure he is going to look out for young peoples interests. So lets do this thing. Host our guest is with us until 10 00. If you want to ask a question, it is 202 7488001 for republicans. Democrats, 202 7488000. And independents, 202 7488002. You can also text us at 202 7488003. I suppose it is fundamental, but what consists of a youth voter these days . Guest as you know, there are a million descriptions for 35yearolds, but that is not a monolith. That encompasses a 27yearold latina mom from the suburbs in phoenix as well as a 19yearold student at uw madison. The thing that all those young people have combined, the commonality, is that they have lived through some pretty terrible crises, everything from 9 11 to the financial crash to now this pandemic. We know that young people have a real belief that there is a huge role for government in fixing our problems, but they have never actually seen politics solve the challenges that we face. So there is a bit of skepticism really, no matter where you fall in that demographic. Host we saw the previous guest talk about this idea of where joe biden is on policy and you have Bernie Sanders will be speaking tonight, i guess maybe a clash of ideas on some of those things. When it comes to the youth vote rs, what are they . Moderate, progressive . Whats the breakdown as you see it . Guest it is fascinating. Most importantly, young people, they do not align with either political party. They do not think of themselves as a capital d democrat or capital r republican. But on the issues, every single issue, whether it is economic policy, climate change, immigration, the legalization of marijuana, they are very much more progressive than the population writ large. I think it is one of those things that democrats really notice, whether it is a joe biden type or a Bernie Sanders type, they recognize that there is this huge generation, 70 million eligible voters, that hold these very progressive policy stances. And so if we can mobilize them, if we can motivate them to get out to the polls, it has the potential for a seachange in american politics, where all of a sudden the majority makers are the voters that hold these progressive values. Host among the states youre focusing on, you talk about motivation. We are in an age where you cannot go facetoface, doortodoor, so to speak. How much of an impact is motivation, and what avenues do you turn to . Guest certainly. I think motivation is the ballgame. We see more people than ever saying they are more motivated to vote in this election than any other election in their lives. We are seeing 78 of young people who skipped the 2016 election saying they are more motivated to vote in this election than ever before. Lets hope thats true. So what we do at nextgen is we provide those nudges and that information to get people to go cast their ballot. Whereas typically we might be on college on a College Campus registering voters or knocking on doors, like you were mentioning. We are taking all of that and on that online and on your phones. A couple weeks ago we did National Vote by mail day, because we saw that young people needed more information on how to cast a ballot by mail. We texted 3. 6 million young people on one day, with over 6000 volunteers. That backandforth conversation that will start in july and go through november we think will help motivate people to cast a valid and, most importantly, to request a ballot and send it back in. Host so crossing your fingers, you know in history people say they are going to vote, particularly young people, but sometimes they dont wind up at the polls to do so. Do you suspect that might be the case this time around . Guest well, i think that is the trap we have fallen in a few times before. Here is what is most important. The data point i look to that makes me feel like we are seeing something different. In the last few months, we have seen this out crying of support for the Racial Justice movement in this country, and if you look at all the protests that were in the streets, whether it is portland, new york, d. C. , or more importantly in some of these unexpected places, right, some Tiny Community in northern wisconsin, all the people in the streets are young. And you do not go out into the streets and yell to the people in power if you do not think that your voice matters. And so what we are up against is a Voter Suppression machine being built in the white house and the attorney generals office, and were hoping we can do everything we can to stoke young Peoples Energy to make sure they can overcome all these burdens and hurdles and barriers that the Republican Party is seemingly erecting to make it harder for young people to vote. I think we will see it happen. Host our guest is in his current position of executive director of nexgen america. He served as regional field director for cory booker for senate and was part of obama for america in 2012 and New Hampshire youth vote director, as well as other things. He has his bachelors from middlebury college. We will go to california first, democrats line. Jeff, youre on with ben wessel. Go ahead. Great to hear from you. It is interesting to hear about cory booker. I really was in favor of him. I thought he had the aggression to really go up against trump. Anyhow, i am sad to see him not in it. I was calling because i am a labor union guy, and i just really wonder, speaking of the generational issues, bill clinton and obama, in particular, really betrayed the democratic ideals, and with glasssteagall and bringing in corporate donors, and i call them the walmart clintons. To what extent do the Younger Generation really understand that, as the last caller was saying, democrats are 50 owned by the corporate donor class, which was really brought in by the walmart clintons, and to what extent can you get that out there where sanders seems to be about the only person who has stated that . Host thanks, caller. Mr. Wessel, go ahead. Guest i think that is a really interesting question. We see young people are a bit disillusioned with politics as usual. That is why they keep supporting some of these outsider candidates who are saying, we are going to shake up the system. When it comes to sort of money in politics and the corporate control of politics, that is one more issue where we see young people on the more Progressive Side of the spectrum where they naturally feel, yes, those wealthy few and those with Corporate Power have tended to help sort of pull the strings in the washington. One of the things that we can do is show all these examples of when people show up and young people come out and vote in elections, we can elect elected officials who will actually stand up to those folks. I think one of my favorite examples to tell his we were working in a bunch of elections in virginia, state legislative elections in 2017 and 2019, and when young people turned out in record numbers, they elected a young, diverse legislature that passed the sorts of laws that we needed, like expanding medicare to more and more young people, overcoming the corporate hurdle. We have tied it to the more young people turn out, the less powerful those corporate peoples voices and moneys really are. Ist washington state, don next, republican line. Caller hey, pedro. I just want to say thanks for cspan, thanks for bringing on this gentleman and the one before to really remind people exactly what their agenda is. I dont appreciate you throwing out the legalizing marijuana, because we all know about harris record with patients or just recreational in california, and we also know bidens stance on criminal reform and justice and all that. So i guess what my question to you is, you are trying to act like calling out legalization of marijuana is going to get your younger americans to vote for you, and i just i think that is an insult because they are smarter than that. Just because one may use marijuana does not mean they are stupid. Also, i would like to say if i wasnt voting for trump and pence, pedro, you would have my vote this year. I love you, brother. Guest pedro, i think you have got to run now, personally. Host i refuse all calls to run. That said, then wessel, go ahead with your response. Guest i think the marijuana issue is really fascinating. You had donald trump come into office saying he was going to do things differently, and instead theort of toed republican line on things like prohibition against marijuana and keeping marijuana as a schedule one drug. Look, i do not think that joe biden is going to go out and be some marijuana champion who is really going to shake up the rules here, but he is, throughout the course of the primary, he has made his position stronger and put it in line with where young people are. He says he wants to d schedule it, look at some of the rules from places like california, and see if we can find a good way to do this. I think what is most interesting is that young people will elect the sorts of candidates that say, hey, i trust young people and i want to put policies in place that are aligning with their values. We are seeing everyone one of my favorite politicians across the country right now is the Lieutenant Governor of pennsylvania, a guy named john federman. Tattooed, in his early 40s, like a 66 burly guy, and he is out there barnstorming across the commonwealth of pennsylvania saying legalization of marijuana, sure, it is an issue for marijuana users, but more importantly, it is a tax issue and how we can bring money into a state like pennsylvania. And if joe biden wants to listen to folks like that who are in touch with those young people who are disaffected, i think that would help him. Host if i am a student with student loans, what is the message biden is sending to me . Guest totally. Joe biden has actually been for free college longer than many of the other people who ran in the primary. He first came out in 2015 and said, i think that college should be tuitionfree and debtfree for young people and their families who are making less than 125,000 a year. So when we have talked to voters and we are texting with students, we say, are you worried about your College Loans . We hear a lot of those folks say, honestly, i am in school right now and have not really thought about it. It is the 25, 26, 27yearold. Once you start paying back those loans, you say, oh, my gosh, this is untenable. So when we have a candidate calling for student Debt Forgiveness for those in the middle and working class, that is a real motivator. One of the things thats fascinating to me is that joe biden has really intentionally called out historically black colleges and universities as a place where we need to make sure we are having tuition free and debtfree college as well. Studentso young black and hbc you alums and say they feel seen by a campaign specifically calling them out, and i think that will be helpful in places like north carolina, florida, and target battleground states. Host do you know if those topics have made it in the platform . Guest they have. It will be interesting to see at the dnc, if it is elevated in front of young people. I have a feeling it is going to matter a lot more what people are putting on their Instagram Stories than it is what will be broadcast later on tonight and the rest of this week. ,ost mark is in norfolk virginia, independent line. You are on with ben wessel of nextgen america. Caller good morning, mr. Wessel. One, i just want to make a statement and then ask a question. I notice the super hyping of the democratic convention, and being an independent throughout hard i think is really less ingenuous to say that people are excited about this democratic ticket. Really, the truth of the matter is, they are more disappointed in status quo and are going to vote the status quo versus the ticket that the democrats have painfully put together. The second thing i want to say is i like tom steyer, but im just wondering, with the resources that nextgen has, have you guys ever really made a and see her and a sincere and concerted effort to maybe make history by being able to create an independent Party Atmosphere to where we can break the gridlock on this twoparty dominated political system . Guest super interesting. Two points there. The first i would like to make around that enthusiasm question, i think i saw on twitter over this weekend, someone said a vote against donald trump counts as much as a vote for joe biden, one vote. So we are trying to mobilize young people wherever they are at. If they are super fired up for the bidenharris ticket, amazing. We want to help them turn their friends into joe voters. If they, frankly, are disappointed or not motivated by that, but they think it is not a good thing for the country to have sort of this buffoon in the oval office, then fine. Great, we want them to talk to their friends about that. We are pretty agnostic as to how motivated you are to vote for this ticket, as long as you are getting out to vote. I will say that we are talking to young people everyday, and the more they learn about biden and harris, the more they realize their policies are squarely in line with what they are trying to accomplish in this world and with what young people think that they need, and that has been really exciting to see. I think that will lead to increased turnout. When it comes to the building a new party question, i think that we are going to see a ton of young people who have aged into the electorate, people in their 20s and 30s, who are growing to be the largest slice of the electorate, who do sort of not really subscribe to the twoparty system, as much as they tend to vote for democrats. It tends to be a bit reluctantly, and they do not really have i am a democrat tattooed on their chest or anything. And so i do think as younger people or as millennials and gen z age into being the largest ofk of the largest chunk the electorate, maybe we will see voting reforms like ranked choice voting, or more independent candidates who will be recognizing that, that young people do not really respond to party labels in the same way. The u. S. House of representatives is currently on a work period, but nancy pelosi has decided to call members back to washington to work on legislation concerning the u. S. Postal service. They will gather saturday morning at 10 00 eastern with the first votes expected an hour later. Watch the debate and votes live here on cspan. , availableidents in paperback, hardcover, and ebook, presents biographies of every president , inspired by conversations with noted historians about the leadership skills that make for a successful presidency. In this Election Year as americans decide who should lead our country, this collection offers perspective into the lives and events that forged each president s leadership style. To learn more about all president s and the books featured historians, visit cspan. Org thepresident s, available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook wherever books are has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on Television Come online come or television, on online, or listen through our free app. Americaseated by Public Television companies as a service. Brought to you today by your television provider. Former First Lady Michelle Obama and 2020 president ial candidate senator Bernie Sanders addressed the Democratic National convention tonight. Coverage begins at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Live streaming at cspan. Org dnc, or with the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Here is what is ahead this evening. Cspanseches from Video Library from last from past conventions. Then, remarks from Hillary Clinton. After that, House Democratic chair Hakeem Jeffries discusses Party Priorities and the u. S. Economy. Tonight, former Ohio RepublicanGovernor John Kasich speaks at the democratic convention. Former republican Governor John Kasich is doing with only a few politicians have done, just address the other partys convention. Joe lieberman, an independent, spoke in support of john mccain. Senator miller represented georgia in the u. S. Senate and was governor of the state for two terms, standing on the stage in new york city 16 years ago, he supported republican president gorge w. Bush and opposed democratic nominee john kerry. [applause and cheering]