Young people between the ages of 18 and 29 make up roughly 20% of eligible voters in the US.

A majority of them voted for President Joe Biden back in 2020, and they're typically a reliable vote for Democrats.

Laura Brown Lopez is here with a look at where things stand this election year.

Laura.

Thanks, Geoff.

In the battleground state of Michigan, NewsHour sat down with four young voters at a Detroit coffee shop to talk about the 2024 election.

Most of them plan to vote in November, but they aren't enthusiastic about their options.

How does this election cycle make you feel in one word?

Nervous.

Kind of tired.

Overwhelmed.

Hopeless.

Do you think that a lot of your friends are feel the same way or feel disillusioned?

Actually, I think all of the words is exactly how all of my friends.

It's like, yeah, nervous and also hopeless and yeah, all of those things.

What are the top issues for you?

Max Nagel, 19, attends Oakland University just outside of Detroit.

He voted for Nikki Haley in Michigan's primary economy.

Border because I think it's a humanitarian crisis.

And then yeah, also guns.

I think the Second Amendment is extremely important, and I do not like the language behind any sort of banning UN weapons at all.

28 year old Melinda Billingsley, from the east side of Detroit, works at a voting rights nonprofit and is open to third party candidates.

LGBTQ issues those are impacted a lot by rhetoric, not even actual things changing.

Just if you talk about them and you demonized or you invoked fear and things like that, like people will get hurt, there are consequences to that, especially in the right or wrong hands.

It makes a big difference.

Alex, 20, is a junior at University of Michigan and a co-chair of his school's College Democrats.

The biggest thing for me is just simply democracy.

I mean, you know, we saw January 6th, we saw, you know, Trump just gradually eroding things away over the course of his term.

And now he's admitting it flat out, I'm going to be a dictator on day one.

I don't think that's just rhetoric.

I think that's an admission.

I think that's almost a boast, I feel.

And 22 year old Saba Saad was born in the West Bank and moved to the United States 12 years ago.

She's a senior at Michigan State University.

I worry a lot about like.

The economy.

Quality of life has for the average person in the US has kind of not been so well.

Everything is more priced.

I don't think the housing is going to be affordable for a lot of people.

Inflation is crazy.

People are being overworked and like not getting paid enough.

I work, I work at a Kroger on the picker department, so I bring people's groceries at home.

They order online on the parking lot.

I will be checking somebody out for $80 worth of groceries and it looks like 30.

Like just the prices have gone through the roof on a lot of things.

And I'm like, yeah, yeah, wages are up.

But like some people have been able to adjust with that.

So how many of you are planning to vote in the November election?

Okay, so at least three out of four.

So who who's planning on voting for Joe Biden in November?

Who is planning on voting for Donald Trump and who's undecided?

Uncommitted?

One might say.

Uncommitted.

Good answer.

Could President Biden still earn your vote between now and November?

No.

And I think that many people say, well, would you rather trump with them with somebody or whatever?

Whatever.

Trump was president.

I'm Muslim, as bad as he is in many ways.

I still had the privilege of being very safe in here.

So I think out of the respect to like 35,000 who were killed in Gaza and lost their homes and have been displaced.

I cannot justify voting for the guy that authorized those checks.

You're the Joe Biden voter.

Why are you voting for Joe Biden?

Yeah.

Looking back retrospectively, he made a lot of promises back in his run in 2020 that I think ultimately he's lived up to very well.

Is there space for improvement?

Absolutely.

But, you know, we've seen the Inflation Reduction Act pass.

We've seen the bipartisan infrastructure law pass.

Both of them make like trillion dollar investments in the infrastructure and green energy.

I think he's worked extraordinarily within within the bounds that are defined for him.

How about you.

Why are you undecided?

Even though I'm committed to voting, I would personally like say that Joe Biden is very moderate for me and I am not.

I am like so far to the left where Joe Biden's like, we're going to make a reasonable transition to like electric vehicles.

I'm like, no, let us like get rid of all gas powered cars.

We're going to go straight to electric and trains and mass public transit, and we're just going to go hard into that.

I want to vote for what I want, not, you know, like you said, the lesser of two evils.

Why are you voting for Donald Trump?

It really just boils down to policy.

I'm the conservative guy.

He's the conservative candidate.

Even if I don't love his rhetoric.

He wins me over with policy and I.

What specific policy?

Immigration.

We have a massive crisis at the border right now, and I would attribute a lot of that to Biden opening the border up.

I would say, diplomacy wise, he was one of the best presidents to do it.

I think personally, I don't think that we'd have the situation in Ukraine that we have right now if Trump was president.

Another issue that was top of mind.

The Israel-hamas war.

The first thing I think of when I think of the conflict is really the power that we have as students in shaping US policy towards it.

What our respective schools, U of M and MSU.

Over the last week, we've had encampments popping up.

You know, it's it really is incredible students, you know, exercising their voices in such, such a disruptive, civilly disobedient way.

Because I think that's a very effective tool of getting your voice across.

The issue that I have, though, with some demonstrations, is that when people are automatically voluntarily disqualifying themselves, saying, no matter what, I'm not going to vote for President Biden.

You know, Democrats need young voters.

They need young voters to win.

But if you're saying right from the outset, nothing you can do can make me vote for you, then why?

Why do they have any incentive to listen to you?

Just quick question.

So how much has he moved to earn those votes that said, they're not gonna vote?

Because I want to know, like in case I missed something because I feel like for a while we've been calling for a cease fire and that didn't happen.

I don't always have to vote Democratic because you can change as a person, and I don't think you should.

I should compromise my morals because I'm going with a certain direction and like a specific party.

Did you vote for Joe Biden in 2020?

Yeah, and then I, I changed your mind.

President Biden has been working over the months to push towards an immediate ceasefire, but unfortunately, it's not solely his decision to make because it is Israel that's ultimately ultimately, you know, pushing the war.

I was going to say, like, I'm kind of a pessimist on this because, like.

Even though, you know, the United States can call for a ceasefire.

And I understand there's other measures that the United States could do is like what's actually going to stop Israel at the end of the day?

I, I mean, it could, it could.

There was little agreement on President Biden's ability to quickly negotiate an end to the war.

But there was one issue most thought could tip the election in his favor.

Because I've I've met several young women who were like, I can't stand Joe Biden, but abortion.

How big of an issue do you think abortion is going to be for young voters?

Massive, massive.

Because I think it this is this is the issue that conservatives is on, right?

Conservatives are all about small government and you're rights.

Well, now it's about, creating restrictions.

I think that Joe Biden could could muscle out a lot of votes by just standing on Donald Trump's going to take away abortion.

A lot of people, abortion is something that is very like, I don't want to say like after, but something that like is front of mind.

Like when they're thinking of policies that affect them every day.

That's one that's going to like come into play a lot more.

In a battleground like Michigan, voters like Saba, Alec, Melinda and Max could ultimately swing the state.

We asked them to sum up one thing they want national politicians to know about young voters.

Regardless of what party you are part of or aren't a part of, or if you're an independent.

We don't like political division.

There's a lot of solutions.

Out there, but I don't think that we can reach them with, all the tension in the country.

Party ID is not their go to label.

Like they're more likely to have, you know, their Taylor Swift bumper sticker than a Democrat one.

We are not going to just fall in line with a political party forever and ever.

They can't count on that.

For the sake of their careers.

They need to listen to what we're saying now, because we're going to be the ones getting a majority of their votes at some point.

It may not happen now, but in 5 to 10 years.

So beware.

That's what I say to them.

A strong threat.

We all mean that.