This story was written by Teen Vogue's 2024 Student Correspondents, a team of college students and recent graduates covering the election cycle from key battleground states.
The first and potentially only 2024 presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is in the books. Many news outlets and commentators are calling the Tuesday night event a win for the Democratic nominee, who voiced strong support for reproductive rights and managed to bait her Republican opponent into tangents about crowd sizes and false claims about immigrants eating people’s pets.
But we wanted to hear directly from young people about how they felt watching the two candidates face off. Teen Vogue’s 2024 student correspondents went to watch parties on university campuses in Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, as well as an LGBTQ+ bar in Arizona, to get reactions. Overwhelmingly, the students and young workers we spoke to agreed that Harris did well. Many said her performance shored up their confidence in casting a vote for her. But some also felt dismayed that the candidates “danced around” the questions, failing to provide straightforward answers on how they plan to reduce the cost of basics like groceries or the US’s military support for Israel in the war in Gaza.
Hear more from young voters below.
These comments have been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.
Nevada
I feel pretty much the same as I felt before. I agree with a lot of [Harris's] opinions and policies, but… I do feel like both candidates kind of evaded a lot of questions and sort of took to taking shots at one another instead of focusing on the task at hand. So that was a little disappointing.
I would say that she definitely has my vote at this point in time. I think it's time that we have a woman president, first of all, and I think that, you know, she can really do a lot for our country if she just focuses on what's best for the country…. I think she did a really good job at keeping herself accountable, and also taking a stance and being able to combat [Trump] in a way that's respectful but also effective.
I love her. She sounds like a very intelligent woman, and I'm excited to see the election and her winning…. There was one where she didn't really address the climate change issue, but it's fine…. I liked [her response on Palestine] because she wants to find a solution for both Israel and Palestine. I think it's the only real solution to it, because [the US] can't just end their alliance with Israel without pissing them off, and she doesn't want to see Palestinians dying. No one wants to see them dying. So I think her response to it was good.
At this point I’m gonna vote for her…. I am just kind of happy I get to watch a candidate that I don't have to worry about going “We beat Medicare,” [which Joe Biden said in the first debate against Trump.] I was a little disappointed on the Palestine response, but, I mean, it was kind of expected. Her January 6 answer was really good — that was really good. That was one of the best debate moments I've seen.
I liked a lot of her viewpoints tonight. I was really scared of what she was going to say about Hamas and Gaza and stuff, but I think she stands pretty clear, and it's something that I agree with. I'm pretty confident in her, and she's getting my vote.
Pennsylvania
I'm confident, [but] I don't like her position on Israel, because I don't believe that there is a neutral situation in the matter. I believe that you can support the Palestinians and the innocent Palestinians that are being killed, or you can support the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces.
I'd still want to see them do a bit less question-dodging. I think [with] both candidates, I’d like to see them talk a bit more about inflation, talk a bit more about concrete solutions. You know, how am I going to go to the grocery store and pay less for eggs or milk or bread? I think Kamala is doing an okay job of calling out Trump for lying. But then, at the same time, I want to see a bit less of that and I want to see a bit more solutions.
I'm very excited about this incoming election, especially being in a state like Pennsylvania, where it's very important for every individual to vote. By having events such as the Black Student Union's debate watch party, people can come out, learn about what's happening, learn about the topics, and then make the educated vote. I'm all in support of Vice President Harris. I think she has a great track record and is set to do great things. And I'm really excited to watch my peers vote and myself vote, and hope that we are able to get things done.
With the growing polarization between the two parties, or our two main parties, I've started to feel a little more weary of politicians and what they have to say. And although I think she speaks with great character, and she has a lot of facts, and she backs up everything that she says, I do feel that a lot of it is disingenu[ous], and the same also goes for former President Trump.
They were dancing around a lot of the questions.… So all in all, although I do feel more secure with Kamala as a president, I think I'm a little bit more hesitant just to be more to be a follower of what they said.
Arizona
[Abortion] might be something that's not talked about a lot within families or within people that chat at a bar, but it's something that we need, and… women's rights shouldn't be a conversation anymore. It shouldn't have to be a conversation that we should have the right to our own bodies, or just anybody that identifies as someone with a uterus.
I appreciate Kamala's stance on making sure that we have [gun] laws and policies in place so we can make sure that we don't have kids being shot in schools, and making sure that people use them properly, and that we don't need AK-47 [rifles] anywhere, anyways.
The thing that Trump is saying in the debate that he keeps saying, “Well, Kamala has had four years to do this.” She is the vice president, first and foremost. Second, we have a Senate that gets to decide on this, policies and laws, and she can say, or the president actually can say, what laws and policies we want to put in place. But that doesn't mean that we can get it through, because we have more people that have to make a decision. He's talking about dictatorship.
I was happy [Harris] was running, but I was worried it wasn't enough, and it was too late in the election, and I was worried about her momentum and stuff like that. But after tonight, I feel a lot more relieved.
There needs to be more conversations about the Israel and Gaza conflict. I think they dance [around] that a lot, and I think that that's a really big topic that can get a lot of young voters in, and I think that they're not taking advantage of that.… I still feel like a lot of people my age are not voting as much, which sucks. It sucks, especially in Arizona. It's just like, it's such a 50/50 with people, especially young people. It's like you're either really involved or you're not involved at all.
It's disappointing that she's not trying to get more younger voters.… She plays it safe, and… I feel like there's a lot of policies that are old and a lot of ways of thinking that are just redundant.
I feel really good about [Harris as a candidate], and really, really excited.
When Kamala was talking about abortion, specifically, that touched a lot of feelings and emotions for me, and I thought her responses were excellent. And then just everything else that Donald Trump said just icked me out.
I'm gonna be so honest: This whole entire year is like the most I've involved myself in politics in my entire life. So I don't even really know what to compare it to.
I really wanted to make it a goal this year to understand more about why I vote Democrat and why I'm a liberal, instead of just being like, “This is how I vote.” I wanted to understand more about it, and I felt like doing this was important — and I want to be out with my friends too.
Being at Kobalt, it feels like a really safe space being a queer person, to be able to encompass both those things — learning more about politics and being around safe people — it felt like this was the right thing to do.
Georgia
I definitely feel more confident in Harris now, especially because all of her information seems to be a lot more backed by information, and I know her past as a prosecutor, and being in the Senate kind of makes her feel more respectable to me or trustworthy than Trump. She would make a genuine critique on him and he’s just going, “Oh, you suck” — just not really any basis behind it. So I felt a lot more confident with the debate with Harris than the one with Biden.
I feel like whoever wins, if Kamala Harris wins, our country’s going to fall apart… from the inside, and then if Trump wins, it’s going to fall apart from the outside because Trump’s for closing the borders and stuff…. So, my view did kind of change. I feel like both of them are still full of crap. But if it's the lesser of evils, I might go Trump, just because economic wise and closing the border wise.
When [the candidates] were asked the question “How are you going to handle [the Israel-Hamas war] going forward?” they didn’t lay out a specific plan. Trump said that if he was president, this wouldn't have ever started, which isn't a plan to help the situation going forward…. I think what Kamala said [about trying to ensure security for both the Israelis and Palestinians] doesn't really help her with her target audience. Her target audience is Democrats, the youth vote, people of color, all these important votes — most people don’t support the situation, the bombing of Gaza, the genocide happening.
It was a stark difference of uncomfortability when it came to Trump's kind of candid response and nonchalance towards the fear that a lot of assigned females at birth feel when it comes to having their rights basically stripped away. … [Harris was] saying that she was going to reinstate and re-empower us.
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