The Harris campaign’s Gen-Z whisperer
On Maxwell Frost and his work to harness his generation’s power for Vice President Harris and their policy priorities.
👋🏾 Hi, hey, hello! Welcome to Once Upon a Hill. Election Day is tomorrow.
Four years ago, Gen Z powered President Joe Biden to victory with more support than any other age group, including in states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, which flipped from former President Donald Trump. And as Vice President Kamala Harris looks to follow in her boss’s footsteps and defeat Trump tomorrow for the second time in as many presidential cycles, she’ll rely on young people to help define her winning coalition.
Maxwell Frost, the first member of Gen Z to be elected to Congress, has spent the weeks leading up to the election zig-zagging the battleground states inspiring his peers to build on the power they claimed in recent elections so they can create more change to address the climate crisis, the gun violence epidemic and the high costs of housing and higher education.
I’ve covered Frost on Capitol Hill since we both arrived a couple of years ago and have found him to be righteous and relatable, two words Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), another first-term member and Harris surrogate, used to describe him to me.
“He keeps it real and reminds young people to be active in their lives and in their government,” Kamlager-Dove added.
I wrote about Frost’s experience on the campaign trail—including at a stop at a college in a ruby-red Pennsylvania county—plus his thoughts on why Gen Z has been so successful in organizing its generation, building power for future election cycles and how he can spot a Harris-leaning undecided voter.
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Happenings
The House and Senate are out.
President Biden will return to the White House from Delaware this morning. He will receive his daily intelligence briefing before calling service members to thank them for recent successful counterterrorism operations against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
Vice President Harris will start the day at a canvass in Scranton, PA before speaking at a rally in Allentown. She will travel to rallies and concerts in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia later. The Pittsburgh event will be headlined by D-Nice, Katy Perry and Andra Day. The Philadelphia rally will feature DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivanand Adam Blackstone, and Oprah Winfrey.
Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) and Mrs. Gwen Walz will host a meet and greet with Minnesotans as they travel from St. Paul to Wisconsin to rally supporters in get out the vote in La Crosse, Stevens Point and Milwaukee. The governor and Mrs. Walz will be joined by R&B singer-songwriter Eric Bénet in Milwaukee. Gov. Walz and Mrs. Walz will speak at a rally in Detroit this evening with musical performances by the Detroit Youth Choir, Jon Bon Jovi, and The War and Treaty.
First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will be in Carrboro, NC, for a Women for Harris-Walz phone bank launch in Winston-Salem and Durham for canvass launches.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak at a canvass launch in Greenville, NC before traveling to Pennsylvania to join the vice president at her rallies.
Several congressional Democrats will campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket today in key battleground states. Here’s a handy guide to who will be where:
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) will be joined by actor and producer Sophia Bush, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, former Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown in Tempe for a stop on the Harris campaign’s reproductive freedom bus tour at Arizona State University.
Sen Raphael Warnock (D-GA) will be in Macon, GA for a get-out-the-vote press conference and canvass launch.
Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rep. Hillary Scholten (D-MI) will be joined by former Rep. Fred Upton and Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinksin Grand Rapids for a press conference calling on Michigan voters to support the Harris-Walz ticket.
Rep. Dan Kildee will be joined by Flint Mayor Sheldon Neely and Flint City Council President Ladel Lewis in Flint for a separate press conference calling on Michigan voters to support the Harris-Walz ticket.
Meanwhile in the Golden State: House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA) will campaign with Will Rollins, George Whitesides and Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-CA) later today. Rollins is challenging Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) in California’s 41st congressional district while Whitesides is looking to unset Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) in the state’s 27th.
Aguilar, the number-three House Democrat and highest-ranking Californian, has made flipping GOP-held congressional seats his top priority in 2024. On Saturday, he participated in three GOTV canvass kick-offs with Adam Gray, Rudy Salas and Rep. Josh Harder (D-CA). (Gray is challenging Rep. John Duarte (R-CA) in in California’s 13th; Salas is challenging Rep. David Valadeo in the state’s 22nd congressional district.), And yesterday campaigned with Dave Min, who’s looking to fill the seat in the 47th vacated by Rep. Katie Porter’s retirement, and Derek Tran, a challenger to Rep. Michelle Steel in the 49th.
In the Know
Vice President Harris called into Win with Black Women’s virtual call on Sunday to thank the group for their support of her campaign. The group hosted a call with 90,000 Black women on the night the vice president launched her presidential campaign and inspired other groups to follow suit.
The Democratic National Committee announced a six-figure paid media campaign in Georgia and North Carolina to specifically target rural voters in the final days of the election. The campaign will stretch across 15 counties in the rural southern battlegrounds, including the “Black Belt” in NC and GA and meet voters on the roads and on the airwaves through a multi-media billboard and rural radio ad campaign.
The Harris campaign released a new Spanish-language ad targeting Puerto Rican and Latino voters across battleground states to call out former President Trump’s recent rally where a supporter disparaged the community and pledge Vice President Harris’s commitment to always stand with them. The ad will air on Spanish language TV, including Univision, Telemundo, WAPA America and during high viewership telenovelas, and on digital platforms including El Nuevo Día, YouTube, YouTube Shorts and Snapchat to reach Puerto Rican and Latino voters.
Related: The DNC announced last Thursday an expansion of its Latino voter outreach campaign to drive historic turnout in the battleground states and in key down-ballot races across the country. The bilingual ads will direct voters to lean when, where, and how to vote and air on radio stations now through Election Day, across Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, as well as in California, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Florida, New York and Maryland.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced an $825 million investment to establish Albany NanoTech as the nation’s first facility and headquarters of the National Semiconductor Technology Center. The NSTC will bring together industry leaders, researchers from the nation’s top universities, innovators, and entrepreneurs, to help give them access to the most advanced chip-making machinery in the world and drive the next frontier of innovation. Albany NanoTech will also serve as the headquarters for new extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, which is essential to the semiconductor chips that power smartphones, computers, vehicles, artificial intelligence and more. The CHIPS for America Administrative and Design Facility will be located in Sunnyvale, California and serve as the administrative headquarters of the NSTC and will focus in advanced research in chip design, chip and system architecture, and hardware security. The NSTC was authorized and is funded by the CHIPS & Science Act, a law Schumer led and Biden signed into law in 2022 to booster US semiconductor research and manufacturing.
Read All About It
“Michelle Obama had the best closing argument of the campaign” by Rebecca Traister: “The former first lady distilled what this election is really about.”
“Inside the ruthless, restless final days of Trump’s campaign” by Tim Alberta: “‘What’s discipline got to do with winning?’”
“Why Arizona is looking Trumpier in 2024” by Benjamin Hart: “Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, an expert in Grand Canyon State politics, on Kamala Harris’s uphill battle.”
“How last-minute political donations can make a real difference” by Errol Louis: “Savvy donors who are sick of all the political panic emails should perfect the art of strategic giving.”
“The ultimate fighting election” by Nitish Pahwa: “How Donald Trump’s third run for president got so ensnared with the brutal sport he loves—and how millions of fans got caricatured in the process.”
“I replied ‘STOP’ to a political text message. I got 100 more.” by Joanna Stern: “Our columnist tried to cut off unwanted texts, and a barrage followed. Here’s how she ultimately banished them.”
“Harris doesn’t campaign on her gender. Is that a sign of progress?” by Elizabeth Findell: “Hillary Clinton’s doomed presidential bid helped force gender into the background of this year’s race.”
“Donald Trump is relying on men. Will they show up for him?” by Tessa Stuart: “As Trump allies panic about disproportionately female early vote numbers, men in Philadelphia share what is motivating their vote.””
“America’s class politics have turned upside down” by Rogé Karma: “Why do so many liberals vote against their economic self-interest?”
“The wealthy are overpricing their homes. Auctions show just how much.” by Katherine Clarke and E.B. Solomont: “Desperate to sell, more rich homeowners are turning to the auction market—but the results aren’t always what they bargained for.”
“Why Reddit is blowing up” by John Hermann: “It’s great being Google’s favorite website—until it isn’t.”
“How 4 people are spending their Juul settlement money” by Charlotte Cowles: “Including one who’s never purchased any Juul products.”
“Road rage has soared in an increasingly angry nation: ‘People are just overwhelmed’” by Ruby Cramer: “As incidents of road rage escalate across the country, cases in Texas have involved guns, knives, bats and even spears. Aggressive drivers in the state try to understand what triggers anger.”