Gen Z voter slams actors for pushing young Americans to vote for Biden: 'The last thing my generation wants'
Christian Hodges, a Gen Z Republican voter, sounds off on the impact of older celebrities endorsing President Biden.
It's no secret – President Biden needs support from younger Americans to sustain his hope of retaining the White House for four more years. But some say rubbing elbows with seasoned Hollywood A-listers is far from the best way to earn it.
"The last thing my generation wants is just another old person telling us who to vote for," Christian Hodges, a first-time Gen Z voter, said Monday on "Fox & Friends First," as he weighed in on Biden's presence at a swanky Los Angeles fundraiser over the weekend.
"The best way to get my generation's attention is by other young people, and they have to be real, relatable, and to be a role model for other peers," he added.
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US President Joe Biden (L) speaks next to former US President Barack Obama onstage during a campaign fundraiser at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on June 15, 2024. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Stars like Jack Black, Julia Roberts, George Clooney and Jimmy Kimmel made pushes for Biden's second term at the Peacock Theater on Saturday. Former President Barack Obama, who also made an appearance, made a point to touch on the topic of young voters.
"If young people reengage and — and aren’t cynical about the process, but say, ‘I have agency and I can change how things work to make sure that it’s working for my generation and for future generations’ – if those things happen, then Joe Biden is going to be reelected President of the United States," he said while met with applause.
Meanwhile, the former president's loss of support from younger voters has raised some eyebrows for Democrats in his corner. Many progressives have been driven away because they say Biden's views on Israel fail to mesh with their own support for Palestinians.
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Gen Z Republican Christian Hodges criticized the Biden administration for pulling in older celebrities to gin up support. (Fox & Friends First/Screengrab)
Hodges, on the other hand, identifies as a Republican. He said the Biden administration has employed "Gen Z surrogates" to tell younger Americans to vote for the president this November and slammed those "surrogates" as "pathetic."
"They're only arms of the propaganda machine just telling us to vote for an old senile man, because that's what they've been told to say. So I think, at best, they [the Biden administration] have no opportunity to win Gen Z," he said.
As for the aforementioned A-list celebrities, Hodges said their opinions will have no sway.
"My generation doesn't watch any of these actors. The best they have is probably Jack Black, but I had to Google what movies he was in, and the best he has is probably the latest Mario movie. But then again, I don't think my generation even knows his face because, well, he was just a voice actor in that movie," he said.
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At the same time, the Wall Street Journal published a piece on Sunday insisting that the high-profile support might not do much service to the president's re-election hopes.
"So far the star power has largely come from the over-50 set, including from the 81-year-old president’s close peers," the article read in part, adding later that the Biden campaign hopes younger stars will come forward and voice their support as the face-off with Trump nears.
"People who work in the worlds of entertainment and political fundraising say that some celebrities, in particular those in their 20s and 30s, are eschewing politics during a historically divided time and at a moment when the war in Gaza has galvanized some young Americans," the Journal added.
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