Biden moves test loyalty of young voters

TEMPE, Ariz. — Recent moves by President Joe Biden to pressure Tiktok over its Chinese ownership and approve oil drilling in an untapped area of Alaska are testing the loyalty of young voters, a group that largely has been in his corner.

Youth turnout surged in the three elections since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, helping Biden eke out victories in swing states in 2020, pick up a Democratic Senate seat in the 2022 election and stem potential losses in the House.

But the 80-year-old president has never been the favorite candidate of young liberals itching for a new generation of American leadership. As Biden gears up for an expected re-election campaign, a potential Tiktok ban and the approval of the huge Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope could weigh him down.

Meanwhile, his plan to wipe out billions of dollars in student loan debt is in jeopardy at the Supreme Court. The effort, announced shortly before last year’s midterms, was an attempt by Biden to keep a promise he made after defeating progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary campaign in 2020.

The risk for Biden is less that young left-of-center voters will vote Republican and more that they would sit out an uninspiring election altogether.

“I’m a Democrat, but I’m not voting for Biden,” said Mark Buehlmann, a 20-year-old Arizona State University student who said he probably would abstain if Biden is the Democratic nominee, as expected. “He’s maybe capable of doing a good job, but he’s not capable of gathering the troops, rallying the people. Especially the Democratic voter base. I don’t think he’s a strong candidate.”

Tiktok allows users, 150 million of whom are in the United States, to post short, creative videos for friends and strangers. It has become a popular place for young people to find entertainment and community.

Western governments are growing worried that Tiktok’s owner, Beijing-based Bytedance, might give browsing history or other data about users to China’s government or promote propaganda. The U.S. and other nations have banned Tiktok from government-owned devices, as have several states.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment has threatened to ban Tiktok if Bytedance doesn’t sell its stake in the app, according to a Wall Street Journal report this month.

Trump tried to ban Tiktok in 2020, but the move was blocked in court and rescinded when Biden took office.