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One week before the 2024 presidential election, several political operatives and two Harvard students discussed the state of the race at an Institute of Politics forum Tuesday evening.
The event, titled “The Final Sprint to Election Day,” featured a five-person panel and was moderated by political commentator Molly Jong-Fast.
Pollster John Anzalone, the founding partner of Impact Research and an IOP fellow, said the race is tightening as the election approaches.
“I am not optimistic, I'm not pessimistic — I’m anxious,” he said.
Alejandra L. Caraballo — a HKS master’s student and a clinical instructor at the Law School, who also spoke at Tuesday’s event — highlighted the unpredictable nature of the election in an interview with The Crimson.
“I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going to happen in this election,” Caraballo said.
IOP Director of Polling John Della Volpe, Harvard Public Opinion Project co-chair Anil Cacodcar ’26, and HPOP member Kritika Nagappa ’26 highlighted some results from the most recent IOP Youth Poll.
“Young people vote when they can see the tangible difference that voting makes,” Della Volpe, who supervised the poll, said.
The Youth Poll, released earlier this month, showed that the gender gap among young voters has doubled since the spring. Anzalone said this finding is part of a wider trend.
“Unfortunately, we’re seeing these gender dynamics and these age dynamics and the gaps getting wider and wider, and therefore they’re going to decide the election,” Anzalone said.
Kirthi Chigurupati ’26, co-chair of the JFK Jr. Forum Committee and an organizer of the event, said the discussion of the gender gap was insightful.
“I really like the point that was made in the HPOP Poll about the polarization of young people, namely young men. I think that’s something I’m going to sit with for a while and think about for the next week,” Chigurupati said.
The panelists also discussed the idea of the “bro vote” — or how young men will vote in the election.
“There is a universe of young men of all race and ethnicity who feel invisible, and, strange as it may seem, some of the younger white men feel like now they’re the new victims,” Anzalone said.
Jessica Mackler, the president of pro-choice Political Action Committee EMILY’s List, discussed the importance of abortion in next week’s election.
“It’s the number one issue for women in this country at this point — in particular, with young women, it is a huge driver.”
Jordan D. Schwartz ’27, who attended the event to support his friends, said he was excited to see youth perspectives represented.
“It was excellent to hear the perspectives of young people on one of these panels,” Schwartz said. “I think it really captured how unsure all of us are with seven days to go,” he added.
Ethan L. Jasny ’25, who attended the event said in an interview wtih The Crimson that the panel was successful at “honing in on the youth vote and women.”
“I thought it did a really good job of talking through the challenges that Democrats face in this election,” Jasny said.
In an interview after the event, Anzalone delivered a message to voters.
“Regardless of whether you’re in a battleground state, you’ve got to make your vote count,” Anzalone said.
