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On both sides of the aisle, young people told CNN that President Biden has been more progressive on certain issues than they expected during his first 100 days in office.
While a number of young Democrats say they view Biden’s first 100 days as a launching pad for more progressive action, some young Republicans say they are skeptical that Biden will follow through on his promises, especially when it comes to bipartisanship, which remains a key concern for young conservatives across the country.
“Biden is defying the ways he’s traditionally governed,” John Paul Mejia, an 18-year-old organizer with Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate activist group, told CNN, adding that Sunrise was included in conversations about climate by the Biden administration, such as who should fill key roles on Biden’s climate team. Sunrise also helped inform the President’s messaging on building new jobs in the process of taking climate action, Mejia said.
“The action he’s taken can be thought of as a start,” Mejia said, adding that along with Biden’s early climate-focused executive orders, there’s still room for the President to champion more progressive policies.
For her part, Chelsea Miller, a frontline organizer and racial justice activist who worked in the Obama White House, agrees that while Biden has made some initial steps forward, he has not been progressive enough when it comes to racial justice.
“The first 100 days served as a stepping stone, but we are far from the destination of where we need to be,” Miller, 24, explained.
While she appreciates that Biden responded swiftly via executive action to social issues such as climate change and anti-Asian hate, Miller said she would like to see the same urgency when it comes to policy focused on Black lives and police brutality.
“I’m surprised that we are 100 days in and we haven’t seen a wide-sweeping approach on anti-racism policies,” Miller told CNN.
“The next 100 days should be about understanding what racial justice looks like in this country,” she said, adding that she envisions an intersectional approach to combating racial injustice, climate change and rebounding from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The work is just getting started,” Daud Mumin, a 19-year-old board director of March For Our Lives, the youth-led gun violence prevention organization, told CNN.
Despite the Biden administration’s initial gun violence prevention executive orders and investment into community violence intervention, Mumin said March For Our Lives plans to hold the Biden administration accountable when it comes to further action on gun violence prevention, including pushing for legislative action.
When asked what by CNN what comes next, both Mejia and Mumin described feeling “cautiously optimistic” that Biden will work with the Democratic majority in congress to enact even more progressive change in the next 100 days and beyond.
Meanwhile, some young conservatives tell CNN they are frustrated with Biden’s agenda.
“What Biden has done well is showcase that the Democratic Party of today is not your parents’ or grandparents’ Democratic Party,” Joe Pitts, 20-year-old president of College Republicans at Arizona State University, told CNN, adding that while he believes Biden’s campaign was the most progressive in modern history, the President is moving even further to the left.
Pitts said he is disappointed by Biden, who promised bipartisanship during his campaign, but has yet to find middle ground with his GOP colleagues in Congress.
Like Pitts, Carter Morgan, a 26-year-old Republican from Florida, said his biggest frustration with Biden has been a lack of moderation and compromise.
“Biden campaigned on being a deal maker and a uniter and moderating, and all I’ve seen are party line votes,” Morgan told CNN.
“I’ve never agreed with his policies, but the way he spoke during his campaign made it sound like he was interested in uniting the country,” he said, adding “I don’t know what happened to unity.”
