LOS ANGELES — As former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris took different stages Wednesday night, some of their youngest supporters followed suit at USC’s annual student debate. The event was hosted by the school's Political Student Assembly with the goal of fostering civic conversation between students. For some, like Dakota Driemeyer, it was a chance to represent Republicans on campus. Driemeyer was one of the student debaters and is from rural Illinois. He said growing up on a corn and soybean farm shaped his political perspectives.

“The biggest thing that gets me involved in politics and makes me want to go into it is protecting this lifestyle we hold dear, working with the land and making sure it’s there for generations to come,” he said.

Driemeyer said he didn’t necessarily expect to sway voters but hoped to explain clearly his and his fellow Republicans' point of view.

“I want to use it as an opportunity to present the conservative agenda in a way that’s not as hostile as a way that it’s often presented to them. If we can show them a different perspective and shed some new light on what policies we actually advocate for,” he said.

As Driemeyer went over his notes and debate preparations, his Democratic counterpart, MD Zuhayeer, was studying his notes, too. Zuhayeer’s family immigrated to the U.S. from Bangladesh when he was 9 years old. He explained how that experience shaped his politics.

“We went through Trump’s first term with uncertainty about our future in American," he said. "I want to be a voice for other people in this country who don’t have the opportunities I have been given."

It’s the first election Zuhayeer will be able to vote in, and he said he hoped seeing fellow students debate would encourage his peers to get out to the ballot box.

"Seeing their fellow USC Trojans debate these issues might hit closer to home than it would watching Trump debate it or Kamala debate it,” he said.

According to the Tufts Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or the Circle Center, 41 million members of Gen Z will be eligible to vote on Nov. 5.

Of those numbers, 8 million people will have reached voting age for the first time this year. Compared to previous generations, Gen Z has been voting at higher numbers — around 28.4% of eligible voters cast a ballot in 2022. 

But Mindy Romero, founder of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at USC, says that’s still overall a lower turnout. Romero said that’s in part because the youth vote has historically had lower turnout, meaning politicians don’t prioritize them — leading to a negative cycle.

“They use likely voter modeling that by definition leaves out younger voters," Romero said. "So younger voters, even though they’re registered to vote, are much less likely to get contacted asked to vote by campaigns and candidates."

But she added that what can help in getting out the vote is peer to peer connection — like a debate. Despite differences that were clearly on display at USC, all the participants there said their main hope is to see as many of their friends, classmates and fellow students at the polls.