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Men tend to turn out to vote less than women, and young voters aren't as likely to head to the ballot box as older voters, so the push is on to get young men out the door in November. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reports on one initiative targeting men of color as part of our series on men in the 2024 election.
DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: In a parking lot outside a gym in northern Philadelphia, Sianay Clifford was watching a block party set up. This is Philly, so there was a truck selling water ice and another with cheese steaks. Players were warming up inside the gym for youth basketball games. One big goal of this event - to get more young men registered to vote. Clifford explained why they're targeting young men just as the music started pumping.
SIANAY CLIFFORD: You see lots of campaigns appealing to masculinity in ways that I think are quite toxic. So, yeah, we do need to be able to just say and talk about masculinity and...
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Rapping, inaudible).
CLIFFORD: I think that's perfect timing (laughter). I can't think of something better to underscore my point here.
KURTZLEBEN: Clifford is the national partnerships and political manager for Next Gen, a left-leaning organization that promotes youth voting. Their push to mobilize young Black and brown men is called MVP for Men's Voter Power.
CLIFFORD: Thank you.
KURTZLEBEN: Next Gen wasn't pushing any particular candidates at the event, but Philadelphia County is a good place to look for Democrats. It went for Biden in 2020 by more than 60 points. This will be college student Chris Harold's first presidential election, and he said he just can't support Donald Trump.
CHRIS HAROLD: I just dislike his - a lot of the controversies that he's been in. I don't really like how the social environment was when he was in office, and...
KURTZLEBEN: Specifically, Harold fears that Trump would further restrict abortion rights. So he'll vote for Harris but not very enthusiastically.
HAROLD: Well, the big thing is, of course, like, how they're handling the genocide of Palestine. And for some things, you know, you just have to draw a line in the sand in terms of your morals.
KURTZLEBEN: There's room to grow with engaging young men and especially some young men of color. In 2020, Black and Hispanic men aged 18-24 reported voting at markedly lower rates than white and Asian men. Anwar Bethel, a 20-year-old photographer, told me he doesn't pay much attention to politics and doesn't think he'll vote.
ANWAR BETHEL: I don't really like neither options, but that's just me personally.
KURTZLEBEN: I asked him to explain.
BETHEL: I think Trump is - business-wise, I think he's business savvy. But moral-wise, I don't think he's there moral-wise, whereas Harris - I think it's the reverse.
KURTZLEBEN: A wide gender gap has emerged among younger voters this year, and even among Black voters, who largely vote blue, strategists are wondering if men will lean more heavily Trump than usual. One who will is Lav Harrison, a New Jersey resident who's in the army.
LAV HARRISON: I'm probably going to rock with Donny.
KURTZLEBEN: He's 36, so not as young as most here - a millennial instead of Gen Z. Trump's America First strategy appeals to Harrison.
HARRISON: If you can send 7 million - all this billions of dollars across the seas, you can't send some money to Philadelphia to help clean up the homeless. And I'm saying clean up the city.
KURTZLEBEN: That's just one of several reasons he's leaning toward Trump this time. Harrison said he didn't vote in 2016 and voted for Biden in 2020. I asked him about what he thinks is or isn't effective in reaching younger men.
HARRISON: Them going on debates and talking about foreign policies and stuff like that or women's rights - no disrespect to the women or anything like that. But, like, the youth don't really give a [expletive] about that. Excuse my language.
KURTZLEBEN: Of course, plenty of young voters do care about reproductive rights, not to mention foreign policy. But to Harrison, talking about the cost of living is more important. Inside the gym, before the game started, the event organizers were soon making one last push for people to vote. Eli Carter is CEO of More Than A Run, a non-profit that uses basketball to encourage civic engagement.
ELI CARTER: We need to let our boys be heard in this community so that people can really make a change around here.
KURTZLEBEN: To some degree, groups like More Than A Run are playing the long game - no pun intended. Many of the players at this event won't be old enough to vote in this year's election. As for the people who will vote this year, they all had opinions for how candidates can reach more people like them. Here's Chris Harold, the college student, again.
HAROLD: I think if you could be more sincere and just, like, level with these demographics about how you need their vote, you don't have to pander because it's very demeaning sometimes where, you know, you're on a national stage and it's like, oh, if you want to draw on Black people, you got to, you know, have a rapper come in and, you know, be belligerent and things of that nature.
KURTZLEBEN: And especially here in Pennsylvania, getting those people out to vote could make all the difference.
Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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