American Evolution 2024: WHAT DRIVES AMERICA'S YOUNG VOTERS?

From conservative cores and cosmopolitan corridors to hollowed-out heartland and cloud economies, follow US bureau chief Bhagyashree Garekar on a journey across the US ahead of its presidential election in November.

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WASHINGTON - To understand what moves America's young voters, one must look at the country through their eyes. And what they're seeing is a hazy mirage where their parents once saw the American dream.

Higher education feels too expensive. That dream job looks increasingly out of reach in a tough economy. And home ownership, in the high-interest-rate regime, has to be put off for longer.

So, it will be with a sense of disillusionment that the youth cast their ballots in the 2024 US presidential election, hoping for a leader who will bring about meaningful change.

The lead-up to the Nov 5 election has been particularly eventful.

Many young Americans will be casting the first vote of their lives, with the aftertaste of the disputed 2020 election still lingering.

The disruption caused by waves of pro-Palestinian protests sweeping through US campuses and cities for the best part of a year will also still be fresh in their minds.

The choice before them is stark.

Republican Donald Trump, 78 the charismatic, brash, anti-establishment billionaire, a businessman and convicted felon.

Or Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris, 60 - the self-declared "change" candidate who is, however, generally seen as likely to continue US President Ioe Biden's policies.

To the young, there is an attraction to what appears to be Trump's bumbling authenticity and his tendency to stay away from scripted talking points to embrace political incorrectness. Even his willingness to stand on stage and look silly appeals to some young people.

But if opinion polls are accurate, it is Ms Harris who charms them more.

The daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, she is curiously silent about her chance to make history as the nation's first female president.