Editor’s note: This is the first in a new series, “Voters’ Voices,” that highlights what U.S. voters are thinking ahead of the 2024 presidential election and why.
Ben Anderson, 23, is the youngest member of Utah’s delegation to next month’s Democratic National Convention. He’s focused on getting other Gen Z voters to turn out in November. And while many other Democrats, including over a dozen U.S. House members, are calling on President Joe Biden to drop out, Anderson wants him to stay in.
“President Biden is our party’s nominee,” Anderson said during a recent interview at the Utah Democratic Party’s headquarters in Salt Lake City. “He was voted for by millions of Democratic primary voters across the country, including here in Utah. Those are the voters whose will I was elected to represent at the national convention as a delegate. So I’m excited to do that and support President Biden.”
Anderson grew up in Logan and attended Weber State University, where he studied political science. During the 2020 election cycle, he volunteered on local campaigns from Congress to school boards. “I got a lot of cool experiences there,” he said. Later, he got a job with the state Democratic Party as communications director. He left in March to work on two local campaigns: Brian King for governor, and Caroline Gleich for U.S. Senate.
He isn’t the youngest Utah Democratic delegate ever — that distinction goes to Sarah Mulhern, an 18-year-old at the 2004 convention — but Anderson is the youngest in this year’s Utah cohort, which consists of 29 delegates and three standing committee members.
To Anderson, there is “so much on the line” in this year’s presidential election. “Something young people understand is that we cannot afford another four years of Donald Trump in the White House,” he said. “I think there’s a clear contrast in this election between President Biden’s agenda and accomplishments that have moved our country forward and protected our freedoms, and the things that Donald Trump will do if he is back in the White House.”
Anderson pointed to the Biden administration’s actions on climate change as key to his choice. “I think that’s an issue where we’ve seen a historic record of progress from the Biden Harris administration,” he said. “The Inflation Reduction Act was the largest climate investment in world history.” Student debt forgiveness, too, is an issue that Biden took “a lot of really important action.”
The Biden administration’s wins are key to Anderson’s vote — but so is the possibility of a second Trump, he said. “(Trump) said he wants to be a dictator on Day One. And I think we’ve seen a Supreme Court who is willing to let him get away with whatever he wants if he’s president. So I think that is the contrast that the campaign should be, and I think will be, making between now and November.”
The difficulty, Anderson acknowledged, is convincing his fellow Gen Z voters to turn out on Election Day. “It’s always hard to know exactly what the numbers are going to look like, as far as turnout, but I do think young people understand the contrast and the stakes in the election,” he said. “I think, you know, regardless of personality politics or, you know, any of that, young people understand that we need action on these issues like climate, like reproductive freedoms. And we are only going to get action on those issues, if we reelect President Biden, and have a Democratic majority in the House in the Senate.”
Still, even as Biden sinks in polls and a majority of voters want to see him replaced on the Democratic ticket, Anderson is sticking by him. When asked which Democrats he would consider supporting should Biden step aside, Anderson pledged his support to the president. “President Biden is the nominee,” he said. “He has the votes. ... I don’t see him stepping aside.”