voter registration surged Nationwide after President Biden bowed out of his bid for reelection and kamla Harris took his place at the top of the ticket according to vote.org it prompted a surge in voter registration driven primarily by young voters Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 youth voter turnout has been low in previous elections for both parties but Harris's campaign announcement has sparked enthusiasm among Democrats and as senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports Harris is also trending on social [Music] media 59 year-old Kamala Harris took the torch Joe Biden pastor and sprinted straight to social media to connect with young voters she's all over Tik Tok which hailed her as brat a British pop description meaning edgy the opposite of stagi posts like this one have logged almost 700,000 likes you think you just fell out of a coconut tree the Harris campaigns targeting a demographic she needs to mobilize younger voters minority voters Pauls show they felt apathetic about this election Harris rushed to re-engage them putting endorsements on Instagram most famously we called to say Michelle and I couldn't be prouder the Obama's phone call has racked up more than 2 million likes and Counting Harris is trending on campuses across New Jersey students talked about her replacing Biden at top the Democratic ticket even though she was his vice president she has like a cleaner slate than you know him so I'm definitely uh more excited think she does it'll be better for the black community Joe Biden he's been alive and he's been in politics for a lot of years there's a lot of younger voices that need to be heard the shift is quantifiable in the 48 Hours following Biden's announcement more than 38,000 people registered to vote in the US some 1300 in Jersey vote.org says 83% of the new registrants are 18 to 34 years old New Jersey Democrats have not seen gains in voter registration like this since the Obama days and that wasn't necessarily something that was a concertive effort on the party party's part either it was something that sprung up and was a sense of enthusiasm about the candidate about the individual candidate I think young people are are starting to notice that whether they like it or not they're a part of this story Zack D is an organizer with the nonpartisan New Jersey legal Women Voters he says gen Z and Millennials had already started mobilizing and I think in New Jersey um which had the highest youth participation um in 2020 uh in the country I think that we're going to see that Trend continue it's not the first time New Jersey and the nation seen a sudden tsunami of voter registration Taylor Swift prompted more than 35,000 folks to sign up almost a year ago Swift posted on Instagram voters going to vote late it's virtual fundraisers for camela Harris black South Asian and white women last night white dudes for Harris including the dude raised $4 million I'm white I'm a dude and I'm for Harris and tonight cat ladies host another online fundraiser in response to a slur from Trump's running mate but will Harris have enough time to harness this youthful energy over an unprecedented short Runway to election day we'll look for metrics like voter registration and see is this just a one-time bump or is this something that's going to continue uh week by week between now and the election a lot of the issue is that college students aren't registered to vote and a lot of times it ends up being like an older generation voting when really what it is right now is that we need the youth to be voting so all college students if yall are watching this y'all better go out and vote it's an upill effort some folks on campus still don't feel connected I've done my due diligence on Kam Harris and the um type of character she is and I won't delve more into that but not a fan not a fan I don't really care why not I don't know I've never really been huge into it and like it's just started arguments nonpartisan voters Rights group say they'll work to register the college crowd I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music]