Youth organizations release policy agenda for 2024 candidates: "Invest in us"
Washington DC - Prominent youth-led organizations banded together on Wednesday to release a new progressive policy agenda for politicians seeking their votes.
Finish the Job: The Youth Agenda, unveiled one day before President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address, outlines some of the key policy priorities among Gen-Z and Millennial voters today.
The platform covers the areas of immigration, climate change, gun violence prevention, democracy, reproductive justice, economic justice, criminal justice reform, education, housing, and gender and LGBTQ+ equality.
The agenda was inspired by the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign, as the Democratic incumbents look to take on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
"We are a generation that grew up through crisis, but we have big dreams," Sunrise Movement, United We Dream Action, March for Our Lives, and Gen-Z for Change wrote in a statement to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
"We dream of a country where we all have access to health care no matter what, where we don't have to hide under our desks during school shooter drills, where families aren't broken apart at the border, where we're not crushed by student loan debt, where we have clean air, clean water, and a livable future, and where our leaders can expansively hold safety for all of us and vigorously fight for a lasting ceasefire and against Islamophobia and antisemitism, rather than write blank checks for genocide."
Biden struggles to motivate youth voters
The president is struggling to motivate his base to turn out with the same gusto they did in 2020, largely due to his continued support for Israel's assault on Gaza and his failure to deliver for Black voters.
But the proposal launched Wednesday argues it's not too late to change that.
"You say you want to 'finish the job.' In addition to calling for a lasting ceasefire, we've laid out the key policies on the top of young voters' minds. If you commit to prioritizing these actions, young people will turn out and make 'finishing the job' a reality," the youth-led groups wrote.
"To invest in America, invest in us. To meet your promise of co-governance with our generation, we need you to invest in us."
Cover photo: Screenshot/X/Sunrise Movement